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Reviews of "The Bright River" Dec '04/Jan '05 Production

"River of Rage and Hope: Tim Barsky's hip-hop-klezmerized The Bright River returns, with reinforcements." by Susan Kuchinskas, East Bay Express (1/5/05)
"The Bright River flow of street lore and Jewish mysticism is not an anomaly, but part of an emerging genre-bending style. 'There's a marvelous, incredible explosion of beatbox and Jewish theater in the Bay Area that's a very strange consonance of Jewish theater culture and beatbox culture,' Barsky says." (full review)

"Barsky's 'Bright River' flows to beat of beatbox" by Chad Jones, Oakland Tribune (12/23/04)
IN HIS SHOW "The Bright River," Tim Barsky spins yarns, plays amazing music with equally amazing musicians and cracks open the afterlife. Denizens of the East Bay may have seen Barsky's show last spring when it began to take shape at Berkeley's Ashby Stage. By the end of that run, the show was selling out, and all the buzz attracted the attention of San Francisco's Traveling Jewish Theatre. "Bright River" was added to the company's 2004-2005 season, and with the help of director Jeff Raz, the show has been shined up a little but still retains the odd charm that made it so beguiling in Berkeley. (full review)

"A Hip-Hop Tour of the Afterlife" by Loolwa Khazzoom, Forward, 12/24/04
Barsky drew on his life experiences as a street performer, beat boxer (one who engages in vocal percussion), flutist and student of Islamic and Jewish mysticism, creating "The Bright River" — a 21st-century hip hop theater spin-off of Dante's "The Inferno," co-produced by the Everyday Ensemble, Epic Arts and A Traveling Jewish Theatre, all in the San Francisco Bay Area. The production tells the story of a young American Jewish soldier — a mixture of Yemenite and Ashkenazic heritage — killed during battle in Iraq...(full review)

"Get on the bus: Next stop hell" - by Tiffany Maleshefski, SF Examiner (12/10/04)
Get out your Fast Pass out and get ready to go places you've been, never been, should've been, and could've been. "The Bright River," written by Tim Barsky, a genius retelling of Dante's Inferno, is a fantastic bus ride through eternity, where octopi are the drivers and Purgatory is a treacherous transit terminal. (full review)

‘The Bright River’ fuses mouth magic and hip-hop shtick - by Jay Schwartz, J Weekly (12/10/04)
It’s not clear which is more impressive, the words that come out of Tim Barsky’s mouth or the sounds that emerge from the throat of his cohort Kid Beyond. This is how you experience “The Bright River,” the theater piece by Barsky and the Everyday Ensemble currently playing in San Francisco. Half the time you’re engrossed in the remarkable story laid out before you; the rest of the time you are utterly transfixed by the virtuosic beatboxing of Barsky and Kid Beyond. (full review)

"Hop a subway to a restless hip-hop underworld" - Robert Hurwitt, SF Chronicle (12/9/04)
"Genre-mixing hip-hop musical...a curious and often transfixing amalgam of Jewish, Greek and other folklore, film noir narrative, adventures in mass transit and riveting, beatbox-driven rhythms."
"The music of the Everyday Ensemble is unceasingly compelling." (full review)

'River' is playwright's idea of purgatory" by Suzanne LaFetra, Contra Costa Times (1/6/05)
A couple of years ago, with the country embroiled in a war and his own life coming unglued, Barsky mused on the possibilities of a topsy-turvy, looking-glass world. "What if nothing works any better in death that it does in life?" he posits. "I dreamed about the afterlife. I started asking people about their own deaths. I became very unpopular at parties," quips the South Berkeley resident. And voila, it's Barsky's version of purgatory -- a bus station filled with homeless people and refugees -- a mirror version of what the performer sees as contemporary life in America." (full review)

"WORD BEAT" - Sam Hurwitt, SF Chronicle (12/5/04)
"The latest and most epic expression of Barsky's desire to craft new folklore out of the old tradition is 'The Bright River,' his transcendental beatbox journey opens today at A Traveling Jewish Theater." (full review)

Nextbook.org: Gateway to Jewish Literature, Culture & Ideas (12/9/04)
What if the afterlife were as corrupt as our present reality? This is the brilliant conceit behind Tim Barsky's The Bright River. The play, now at San Francisco's A Traveling Jewish Theater, mixes jazz, hip-hop, storytelling, and klezmer to take us on "a mass transit tour of the afterlife." (full review)

Reviews of Epic Arts' Feb/March 2004 Production

SF Bay Guardian, March 23rd, 2004

SF Weekly, March 17th, 2004

East Bay Express, March 10th, 2004

Jewish News Weekly, Friday February 20, 2004

SF Flavorpill, April 5th, 2004

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OAKLAND: The Bright River is a hip-hop retelling of Dante’s Inferno by a traditional storyteller, Tim Barsky, with a live soundtrack performed by some of the best hip-hop and klezmer musicians in the Bay Area. A dizzying theatrical journey through a world spinning helplessly out of control, the show sends audiences n a mass-transit tour of the Afterlife. Guided by a fixer named Quick, and moving through an urban landscape that is at once both intensely real and fantastic, the show is a deep-rooted love story, a profound meditation on mass transit, and a passionate indictment of the current war in Iraq.

THE BRIGHT RIVER is a unique blend of hip-hop theatre, Jewish folklore, and beatboxing performed by playwright/performer Tim Barsky, bassist Safa Shokrai, cellist Jess Ivry, and beatboxer/vocal percussionists Carlos Aguirre (aka: Infinite) and Tommy Shepard (aka: Soulati).

Debuting at the Ashby Stage in 2004, The Bright River ran for 6 weeks, and sold out for the last 3. Voted "Best theatrical production of 2004" in the East Bay Express Reader’s Poll, the show’s success came almost entirely from word-of-mouth. This success captured the attention and collaboration with the Traveling Jewish Theater leading to the show’s sold-out San Francisco premiere in 2004/2005. A 7-week run received critical acclaim from such diverse sources as the San Francisco Chronicle, at-risk youth, Jewish grandmothers, and SF Supervisor Matt Gonzalez.

Audio Clips from the Dec 2004/Jan 2005 TJT/Epic Arts Production
at Traveling Jewish Theatre, San Francisco

Wings

The Office

Soldier's Story

Der Yiddische Bhangra

Video Clips from the February 2004 Workshop Performance
at the Transparent Theater, Berkeley

City of The Dead

Drum 'n' Beatbox

Soldier's Story

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If you do not have it you can download it for free here.

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About the performers:

Tim Barsky is a traditional Jewish storyteller and musician who has also worked extensively in the hip-hop community. A graduate of Brown University, he has also studied at the Berklee School of Music, and with the renowned Chassidic folklorist and archivist Fishel Bresler. He has worked as a program coordinator for The Providence Black Repertory Company, and has performed on the street and in theatres in North Africa, Europe, and the United States. His work has been performed recently at The Exit Theatre in San Francisco, The Blackbox Theatre in Oakland, and The Finborough Theatre in London, UK. A former artist-in-residence at AS220 in Providence RI, he has also been a guest lecturer at the Royal College of Art, London.

Jessica Ivry (cello and voice) works as a freelance cellist and music teacher in the San Francisco Bay Area. She has played as a studio cellist recording for local and national bands, and as a member of balkan jazz outfit Peoples Bizarre. Recently Jessica participated at the Mancini Institute at UCLA, where she focused on Hollywood film scores and jazz improvisation. She received her Masters of Music in cello with Bonnie Hampton at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.

Safa Shokrai (bass) has been in the San Francisco jazz scene for several years now. Having had the great pleasure to study with the late Ray Brown briefly, Safa has since gone on to form and participate in several projects, including Downtown Uproar, Tin Cup Serenade, and Iron and the Albatross. He has also worked with the theater group Killing My Lobster on several of their riotously funny projects. Safa is currently dreaming and scheming of moving to Paris to further pursue his musical career.

Soulati (aka Tommy Shepherd) is an Actor, Playwright, B-Boy, Rapper, Drummer, and Beatboxer. He graduated from both the Technical theater and Actors Training Programs at the Pacific Conservatory for the Performing Arts (P.C.P.A. Theaterfest). Past credits include Benvolio in Romeo and Juliet with Shotgun Players, Freddy in Stand-Up Tragedy and Musical Director for Cinderella at P.C.P.A. Theaterfest, Mickey Finch/Co-Author/Musical Director of Beatbox: A Raparetta at San Jose Repertory's New America Playwright‚s Festival. He was awarded a commission for the play, Is Life A Dream? in 2001. For the past seven years he's put his focus into training and mentoring youth in the Bay Area from Oakland to San Jose to East Palo Alto to San Francisco where he helped start PARTY! (Perfoming Arts Reaching to Youth) with Jhoannne Lubet and Felonious: onelovehiphop. Felonious: onelovehiphop is a bay area live hip hop band and theater company. Tommy is also an Executive Officer of Wishbone Entertainment, a production company promoting underground and under heard music, theater, and visual arts. Tommy is currently a Resident Artist at Intersection for the Arts working as both a performer and educator for the Hybrid Project which seeks to find a new performance language for artists and audiences. In the fall of 2004 he was the Musical Director and live vocal musician for Fist Of Roses By Philip Kan Gotanda produced by Campo Santo. He is currently developing a play written and performed in beatbox with Carlos Aguirre and Dan Wolf. He loves this game!

Infinite (aka Carlos Aguirre) has been performing in the Bay Area for the past seven years. He is part of the Hip Hop band Felonious which has played with acts such as The Roots, Black Eyed Peas, George Clinton, Mary J. Blige, and Eryka Badu. He is also part of The Vowel Movement, a revolutionary beatbox salon that helps create community for vocal percussionists from all over the map. Carlos has worked extensively with youth from all kinds of backgrounds, teaching rap, beatbox, and theatre as forms of self-expression. He is dedicated to preserving the voice of the youth and the culture of Hip Hop.

Jeff Raz (director) is a graduate of the Delle'Arte School of Physical Theatre and a veteran director and performer for Make*A*Circus, Vaudeville Nouveau, and the Pickle Family Circus. He has also directed 3 plays for award-winning puppeteer Liebe Wetzel's Lunitique Fantastique. Jeff has acted in theatres and festivals in the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Japan, including The Kennedy Center (DC), The Guthrie Theatre (Minneapolis), The Goodman Theatre (Chicago), The Magic Theatre (SF), and Berkeley Repertory Theatre.His credits include Comedy of Errors at Lincoln Center Theatre, broadcast on PBS's Live from Lincoln Center; the title role in The Detective directed by Joseph Chaikin; Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream at the Marin Shakespeare Festival; and many roles in Servant of Two Masters at the Berkeley Repertory Theatre. He has received a Canada Council Distinguished Foreign Artist grant. He directs the Clown Conservatory at the S.F. School of Circus Arts, is an artistic associate with the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts, and is a guest artist with the University of Nebraska's Artist Diversity Residency Program.

Epic Arts is a grassroots non-profit organization that promotes collaboration and community development through the arts. Since 1997, they have been working to build community partnerships, mobilize local artists, produce cultural events, and develop resources and facilities that ensure accessibility for artists, performers and audiences.

Alumni Members of Everyday Theatre:

Kid Beyond , (beatbox) is a vocalist / voicestrumentalist / throat singer / beatboxer, known as one of the world's foremost vocal percussionists. He made his name as a performer with the a cappella funk band The House Jacks, signed to Warner Bros' Tommy Boy Records in the mid-90's, and has shared the stage with James Brown, Spearhead, LL Cool J, Run-DMC, and even President Bill Clinton. He has beatboxed at Carnegie Hall, at Bangkok's hottest club Song Slueng, and on FOX-TV's 30 Seconds to Fame.

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Artist Statement

I started working on this project at one of the lowest points in my life, when it seemed like the world was literally collapsing. The country was swinging so far to the right I almost felt as if I didn't recognize it anymore. We had a puppet for a president. And all around me, I felt like I was watching my friends, peers, and collaborators get pushed to the brink, and in some cases past it. A lot of things happened: I saw my first drive-by shooting. I got arrested for filming the Oakland police flee the scene after beating my neighbor until she went into a seizure. One of the best musicians I knew started shooting amphetamines and lost his mind. America sent an army of poor people to Iraq to kill other poor people. I started to feel like I was living in a looking-glass world- as if everything was upside down, as if night had become day, and day had become night.

The show really came out of that experience, out of wandering around in a fever dream, and starting to wonder if maybe the whole thing wasn't breaking down. What if heaven and hell had been downsized? What if nothing made any more sense in death than it did in life? What if even after death the rich kept getting richer and the poor kept getting prison? I started to worry what if I had to pay rent even after I died? I started drawing diagrams of purgatory as a bus station, started mapping out the toll system on the bridge between life and death. I sat on the bus and dreamed about the afterlife. I started asking people about their own deaths. I became very unpopular at parties.

We put the show up at the Transparent Theatre in Berkeley in the spring of 2004, with a $0 budget, and about $5,000 in fiscal guarantees that we did not actually have. Andrew, Shyam, Jess and I wrote the score, and the words fell into place around and inside it. The folks at Epic Arts ran a production team out of a commandeered bedroom, on a shoestring and less than a prayer.

The Bright River ran for 6 weeks and sold out for the last three. Over 1600 people saw it. I'm still surprised - I never wrote anything that had such a strong response. But I guess that's the power of fairytales. Because the Bright River is after all a fairytale for people who can hardly bear to believe in fairytales anymore. It's about a boy from South Berkeley who dies in Iraq, and the girl from North Berkeley who follows after him. It's about her struggles to breathe, and his struggles to love. It's about the corrupt government that sent him to war, and the evil that sent the government. It's about a fixer, named Quick, who tries to find them, a man who can't remember his own death, and who knows every story but his own. It's about a raven born in a prison who can't get free, who falls in love with flying. And it's about the reality of their surroundings, about the cabs, buses, and subways that form the stage on which our lives and deaths are lived. It's a story about mass transit, and the people on it. I guess really, it's about what I know: Love. Death. War. Life. Transit.

- Tim Barsky, Oakland California, 2004

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