The Carpetbag Brigade (TCB) establishes its identity through presenting performing arts productions, tours, documentaries, collaborations and pedagogical workshops to diverse populations.
Distinctive for its breadth and synthesis of disparate performance modalities TCB’s work transcends language, class and culture. TCB creates its unique hybridization of styles by drawing from acrobatic stilts, physical theater, modern dance, circus, butoh and contact improvisation. TCB invokes the medium of acrobatic stilts to create shows with an experimental aesthetic, but intended for the large scale, outdoor public presentations. TCB has performed for over 250,000 people over the past ten years.
During TCB’s formative years (1997-2003) based in the small town of Prescott, Arizona, TCB created eight original shows. Productions exhibited a bold, experimental aesthetic, and were of all kinds: from street theater, to dance, to intimate indoor work, to site-specific outdoor shows, to mini-performances designed for festivals. The company was in residence at Kestrel High School and organized a free all-ages performance festival, Tsunami on the Square. After moving to San Francisco in 2003, TCB embarked on three national tours with stops at the Ford Theater in Los Angeles and The Lincoln Center in New York. In 2007 they were invited to be in residence for four months at the Universal Forum of the Cultures in Monterrey, Mexico. In 2008 they performed three of their shows to critical acclaim at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. In 2009 and 2010 they returned to Mexico to present “The Vanishing Point” at the Barroquisimo Festival and Cumbre Tajin. They also evolved a new stiltless indoor performance with Canadian Director Varrick Grimes entitled, “You don’t know Jack -, a jungian version of Jack and the Beanstalk addressing issues of PTSD and the impact of war on the domestic sphere.
Carpetbag Brigade performances are versatile and accessible and can occur in a variety of venues from black box theaters to fairgrounds and parking lots; from proscenium theaters to outdoor music festivals. The company composes original performances using theories and techniques of self-devised theater. Founder and Director Jay Ruby studied physical theater in Berlin, Germany and Holstebro, Denmark. There, he encountered the work of Eugenio Barba, who developed influential methods of composition and training for physical theater performers. The Carpetbag Brigade’s approach to creating movement, action, and montage can be traced to these roots.
Building on its foundations from the European traditions of physical theater the Carpetbag Brigade studied with the internationally renowned acrobatic stilt pioneer, David Clarkson of Stalker Theater from Sydney, Australia; and then adapted and evolved his forms by integrating principles and techniques of contact improvisation and butoh dance.
Performing both indoors and outdoors, The Carpetbag Brigade is known for fostering a sense of psychic intimacy, poetic dialogue, and mythic imagery in its work. The company has evolved acrobatic stilt work to include pioneering new partnering techniques, and applied modern dance and physical theater forms to create socially reflective performances. The training for participation in the company is rigorous and involves a complex set of unique skills. Training and performing with The Carpetbag Brigade requires actor/dancer/musicians with an embodied understanding and integrated physical vocabulary drawing from Yoga, Pilates, acrobatic stilts, Modern and post-modern dance (especially release technique and contact improvisation), Butoh, and keen vocal and physical memory for composing self-devised scores for physical theater montage.
By having a mission to present work in a diverse array of venues and environments The Carpetbag Brigade is an integrative cultural force that creates experiences for people of different cultural background to share common experiences in. In addition to performing, the company organizes workshops for international guest artists, conducts advanced skills workshops for performers, and through residencies, creates student performances with schools in diverse communities. By mixing the social mission of theater with high quality performance, The Carpetbag Brigade brings cutting edge, original work to audiences of all ages, backgrounds, and locales. By continuing to evolve the role of performance culture as an important aspect of global consciousness The Carpetbag Brigade is establishing itself as a unique cultural force in the United States and the world.
