Hand2Mouth Newsletter November 2006

Hello, cherished supporters, I know what you are asking yourselves: what has that cheeky Hand2Mouth been up to?

Well, ask no more, friends, just come and listen to a story about a man named Jed, a poor mountaineer but he kept his family fed, and then one day he was shootin at some food . . .wait a minute, that's not it. Oh, right.

Hand2Mouth has had several months of constant activity- from our site-specific piece for the JAW/West Festival, called After Hours, to our collaboration with Portland Art Center and Fever Theater, Portland Catacombs (which the Portland Mercury said was "especially delightful since I have a theater-nerd crush on about half of both the Fever and Hand2Mouth ensembles"). Between those two projects, we restaged our glam rock slashing of American history and the gold rush, City of Gold, alongside the T:BA Festival.

Now we are taking some time to develop our new full-length production, Repeat After Me, due to have its first public showings in April (along with some work-in-progress showings in the months before). This piece will excavate popular American songs, from Bing Crosby to 2 Live Crew to Toby Keith, to get at the heart of American identity and values. A rapid-fire mix of live singing and DJ-mixed music, Repeat After Me will be one part karaoke sing-a-long gone wrong, one part dance theatre, and one part country-western disco party. Get ready.

Right now, Hand2Mouth's artistic director, Jonathan Walters, is spending three weeks in London making contact with cutting edge theatre and dance companies, with the help of the Civic Theatre Guild Fellowship. Meanwhile, company members Julie Hammond, Liz Hayden, Faith Helma and Erin Leddy will be singing at PICA's Holiday Cabaret at Wilf's on Monday, December 4 - come check out their rendition of "Christmas in Prison" (details at www.pica.org).

We are also preparing for travel to Mexico, building on connections Erin and Julie made during their June expedition to Mexico City. In May, the entire company will travel to San Miguel de Allende for a month long artists residency.

With all this activity, we are as always in need of volunteers. If you are interested in being added to our volunteer list, and getting notices and updates about volunteer needs, please email mail@hand2mouththeatre.org and tell us! We will happily involve you.

We have also, in the last few months, started to offer public workshops to performers of all levels, combining physical precision/control exercises, viewpoints, and mask and object techniques with natural voice and song work. Psychological acting and line-reading are replaced with impulse-based ensemble training, in which performers learn to impact each other's movements and reactions using only sound and touch. Our next workshop will be Saturday, December 9 from 10-5, and the cost is $40 in advance ($50 day of workshop). Email mail@hand2mouththeatre.org for more information.

And as always, check out our website for the latest details about what we are up to, for photos and reviews of our work and for more information about our company: www.hand2mouththeatre.org.

Thank you for your continued support and interest!