Naked Empire Bouffon Company

Naked Empire Bouffon Company

“Working with Nathaniel, and within bouffon, opens up an entirely new and totally limitless world of possibility for me as a performer.  Movements come out of my body and words come out of my mouth I never even imagined I would have the audacity to do and say.  I feel like a god. A short, crass, lumpy deliciously wicked god.” -Physical performer/teacher, Joan Howard

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Naked Empire Bouffon Company is an ensemble-based theatre company dedicated to the training, research, and performance of bouffon.  We combine social activism with grotesque satire in original, actor-created bouffon performances for the stage and street.

Few people in the mainstream public have heard the term ‘bouffon’, but you know it when you see it.  Based in satire and physical comedy you can see it in the work of Sacha Baron Cohen of Borat and Bruno fame.  You see it in the Tony Award winning work of Trey Parker and Matt Stone via South Park, Team America, or Book of Mormon.  You see it in the artistry of Maurizio Cattelan or in the headlines of The Onion. 

We here at Naked Empire Bouffon Company are working to make art out of outrage, unveil social blindspots, and bust a big ol fart under the blanket of apathy so that audiences have to come up for air and talk about what they smelled together.

Beyond the research Naked Empire has done over the last two years, this work owes much of its existence to a venerable lineage of performance research and practice.  Most notably, the work of Master Teacher Giovanni Fusetti, who introduced company members, Nathaniel Justiniano and Ross Travis to this realm of theatre during their training at Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre and at the Boulder Circus Center, respectively.  While we are the only company this side of the Mississippi exclusively dedicated to the research and performance of bouffon, we are certainly not alone.  This company’s work is our attempt to share knowledge, grow the field, build community, and continue the research into what bouffon is and can be.

Are you a creator of bouffon work?  We’d love to know you and start by listing a link to your website and work here.  Drop us a line at: info@nakedempirebouffon.org

Nathaniel Justiniano (Founder, Artistic Director) has been a professional actor and director for over 10 years.  In 2007, under the direction of Master Teacher Giovanni Fusetti, he co-created Pax Americana, a satire of war as seen through the lens of United States history and EUOI!, a bouffon experiment in ecstatic ritual, inspired by the research of anthropologist, Barbara Ehrenreich.  He has performed with The Thrillpeddlers in their mega-hit, Pearls Over Shanghai, as well as with the SF Buffoons in their productions of The Hasheesh Eater and Spunk, a satire of gold rush-era San Francisco.  In 2009 he led the creation of Naked Empire’s debut production, Shame! as a DIY Artist-in-Residence at the recently-closed Mama Calizo’s Voice Factory, formerly one of San Francisco’s most popular centers for queer and activist performance.  His most recent work, Cousin Cruelty’s Compulsion, addresses th use of institutional violence in society and was the subject of a feature column in the San Francisco Bay Guardian. He teaches workshops nation-wide in bouffon, commedia dell’arte, and mask performance and serves as the Director of Physical Comedy for the Sacramento Shakespeare Festival as well as a guest teacher of physical theatre at Sacramento City College.  He has also been a professional community organizer and educator for LGBT youth empowerment programs for Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and the LA Gay & Lesbian Center, as well as a program manager for community-based theatre initiatives out of the National Conference for Community & Justice and Cornerstone Theater Company.  He holds an MFA in Ensemble-Based Physical Theatre from Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre.

nathaniel@nakedempirebouffon.org

Ross Travis (Artistic Associate) has been a professional Actor, Bouffon, Clown and Circus Performer for the last 7 years. Before moving to California Ross worked professionally in Chicago for three years for Redmoon and Eclipse Theatre Company. In 2010 he took a Bouffon Intensive with Master Teacher Dodi DiSanto in Washington DC and went on to study the form in greater depth with Master Teacher Giovanni Fusetti in Boulder, Colorado that same year. This is where he developed what became his first solo bouffon show, Apocalyptika, a satirical romp that takes a sledgehammer to the convenient stories we tell ourselves about how our world will end.  The first full-length version of Apocalyptika was performed in the International Home Theatre Festival in March of 2011 and was featured in Nicole Gluckstern’s column, The Performant, in the San Francisco Bay Guardian. In San Francisco he has worked extensively with the site specific classical company We Players. Ross played Guildenstern and Marcellus in their critically-acclaimed production of Hamlet on Alcatraz. He also played multiple roles in their production of Odyssey on the Alma. The Alma is one of the historic boats in Maritime Park. Ross’ characterization of Cyklops was hailed by SF Weekly as “a comic marvel.” Ross did a 40 show school tour in Alameda County of Mulchini’s Kitchen, a play about recycling with the New Pickle Circus and recently played multiple roles, including The Incurable Disease, in Taylor Mac’s epic 5-hour spectacle, The Lily’s Revenge at the Magic Theatre. He holds a BFA in Performing Arts from Savannah College of Art & Design, and is a graduate of the Professional Training Program at Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre, as well as the Professional Acrobatic Program at the San Francisco Circus Center.

ross@nakedempirebouffon.org

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“Nathaniel creates a deviously fun and supportive environment to explore our deepest fears and insecurities while laughing at them. His class isn’t merely about gaining new physical theater skills, it’s about the nature of comedy and perception.” -Actor/Director, Adam Sussman

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