The loss and longing of Little Bo Peep
Wallace Baine, The Santa Cruz Sentinel, April 3, 2009
Most of us are a little rusty on the story of Little Bo Peep and her lost sheep. But, performer Jessica Fudim assures her audiences, to enjoy her one-woman show "Sheepish" they don't need to rush to their nursery rhyme books to bone up on Bo.
The San Francisco dancer and choreographer is coming to Santa Cruz on Sunday. Don't worry, you can't miss her. She'll be the one in the gingham dress carrying the long curly-cue staff.
"You could call it a spin-off, or Part Two of the Bo Peep story," said Fudim, who performed a work-in-progress version at last year's SoWat Festival. "It's really her tale of loss and longing."
The theatrical work is a dance piece, technically. But it also embraces music, video, spoken word, and some crowd-pleasing stunts all on the theme of our heroine in desperate search for her missing sheep.
"It's a very playful piece. But it has a subtext of longing. She really misses her sheep, and she's looking high and low for them. She sees them everywhere … in clouds, shadows, cotton balls. It's kind of like losing somebody in your life, and then hearing them walking down the hall, or seeing them in a crowd."
As Bo Peep, Fudim will guide her audience through an adventure of sheep-searching. She'll interview audience members, asking them where she should look for her sheep, and use those recordings as an element in the production. She'll place a prank call on stage to a phone company operator in an effort to enlist him/her in the research. She'll show previously shot video footage of her desperate searching out in the world. She'll also play the concertina and sing.
"I open to this Cab Calloway song, doing this vaudevillian thing, not realizing anything is wrong until the sheep miss their entrance."
The deeper themes here, said Fudim, have to do with defining the notion of "the flock."
"It looks into that word. Who is in our flock? Is it just our family and friends? Or do we have a responsibility to a greater flock, a larger community?"
The Sunday performance will be preceded by a workshop in which Fudim will work with performers to translate folk tales, tall tales and nursery rhymes into stage performances. She encourages those interested to come with a printed copy of a story to work with. It's with this that she'll help participants tease out the universal themes that have relevance to modern life.
"I've performed there a lot," she said. "I'm really enjoying forging these connections with Santa Cruz."
The San Francisco dancer and choreographer is coming to Santa Cruz on Sunday. Don't worry, you can't miss her. She'll be the one in the gingham dress carrying the long curly-cue staff.
"You could call it a spin-off, or Part Two of the Bo Peep story," said Fudim, who performed a work-in-progress version at last year's SoWat Festival. "It's really her tale of loss and longing."
The theatrical work is a dance piece, technically. But it also embraces music, video, spoken word, and some crowd-pleasing stunts all on the theme of our heroine in desperate search for her missing sheep.
"It's a very playful piece. But it has a subtext of longing. She really misses her sheep, and she's looking high and low for them. She sees them everywhere … in clouds, shadows, cotton balls. It's kind of like losing somebody in your life, and then hearing them walking down the hall, or seeing them in a crowd."
As Bo Peep, Fudim will guide her audience through an adventure of sheep-searching. She'll interview audience members, asking them where she should look for her sheep, and use those recordings as an element in the production. She'll place a prank call on stage to a phone company operator in an effort to enlist him/her in the research. She'll show previously shot video footage of her desperate searching out in the world. She'll also play the concertina and sing.
"I open to this Cab Calloway song, doing this vaudevillian thing, not realizing anything is wrong until the sheep miss their entrance."
The deeper themes here, said Fudim, have to do with defining the notion of "the flock."
"It looks into that word. Who is in our flock? Is it just our family and friends? Or do we have a responsibility to a greater flock, a larger community?"
The Sunday performance will be preceded by a workshop in which Fudim will work with performers to translate folk tales, tall tales and nursery rhymes into stage performances. She encourages those interested to come with a printed copy of a story to work with. It's with this that she'll help participants tease out the universal themes that have relevance to modern life.
"I've performed there a lot," she said. "I'm really enjoying forging these connections with Santa Cruz."