Everyday Theatre

Everyday Theatre was founded in 2002 by Tim Barsky & Jess Ivry to create new works integrating jewish folklore & hip-hop theatre. It soon grew to involve acclaimed beatboxers Kid Beyond, Infinite & Soulati, and bassists Shree Shyam & Safa Shokrai. With a mission to create high-quality, low-cost art that was both politically radical and broadly accessible, the company utilized tactics drawn from activist and hip-hop communities. Instead of conventional funding methods (corporate underwriters, subsciber base funding etc.), Everyday began to engage support from audiences which had been largely ignored by "legit" theatres. The company also began to work closely with Epic Arts, a grassroots non-profit that promotes community development through the arts. This led to Epic's Justin Katz, Tanya Hurd, & Melanie Undem joining the company as production staff.

In late 2003 Everyday presented "The Bright River" at Epic's 1923 Teahouse, a tiny 35 seat living room theatre. A hip-hop re-telling of Dante's Inferno with a live soundtrack, the show received a stellar response, with waves of audience members turned away for lack of seats. As a result Everyday restaged "River" in the spring of 2004 at The Ashby Stage. The success of this staging led to Traveling Jewish Theatre's 2004-2005 co-production of the show in San Francisco at Project Artaud and in Berkeley at the Julia Morgan Center. "River" is currently playing at in Oakland. It has run for 18 weeks, 8 of them sold-out. Over 7000 people have seen the show, & it has received rave reviews in publications including The SF Chronicle, Oakland Tribune, & SF Examiner. Started with $0, it has earned $119,147 and has allowed Everyday to employ over 2 dozen artists. In 61 performances it has received 59 standing ovations.

Artist & Production Bios:

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.

Heather Basarab (production designer) is a Bay Area based designer whose work has been seen with such companies as Thick Description, Campo Santo, Theatre Rhinocerous, The New Pickle Circus, and the Joe Goode Performance Group, with whom she received an Isadora Duncan award for design.

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.

Shree Shyam grew up in Miami, Florida and Vrindaban, India. A drummer, percussionist, and bass player, Shyam has performed and/or recorded with the San Francisco Mime Troupe, the Animal Liberation Orchestra, Company of Prophets, Brass Monkey Brass Band, Divalicious, the Ali Khan Band, the New Pickle Family Circus, and many others. Since earning a B.S. in magazine production from Florida A&M University, Shyam has also worked as an editor for the San Francisco Chronicle and Bass Player magazine.

Bryan Neuberg aka "Process" is known in the beatbox community for his passion for organizing and community building. He was instrumental in launching the "Vowel Movement," the Bay Area's unique collective of beatboxers and organizers. He has opened for and performed with artists including ming + fs, de la Soul, and Spearhead. Thailand's most famous, hip hop artist JoeyBoy asked him to bring the art form to his country through live performance, national television interviews, and workshops. When Bryan isn't beatboxing on BART or in the shower, he is with clients as a Life and Business Coach.

Click here for More info on The Bright River, including full reviews, audio, & video.

As if in Sleep- one man show

As if in Sleep is a one-man theatre piece conceived and performed by Tim Barsky and directed by Jeff Raz. A wonder tale told in the traditional style, the show combined traditional Jewish narratives with an oral history of three years spent on the line as a public health worker with at-risk youth. during the West Coast premiere, Tim worked closely with director Jeff Raz, and designer Heather Basarab to create a one man show which was called, "The most teeming, inventive, and good spirited production in this city," by SF Weekly.

As if Sleep was first performed as part of an artists-residency at AS220 in Providence, Rhode Island, on October 31rst, 1998. It premiered in the United Kingdom at London’s Finborough Theatre in January of 2002. The show then premiered on the West Coast at The Exit Theatre in San Francisco, in October and November of 2002, where it was presented by The Hub, a program established by the Jewish Community Center of San Francisco to present theatre, music and spoken word events that explore the evolution of Jewish culture,

Read the reviews

The Vowel Movement

"A monthly gathering of the Bay Area's best beatboxers... the VM is evolving into a get-together of all elements of San Francisco's underground hip hop community."
-- Flavorpill

"The Vowel Movement will introduce you to a form of vocal percussion different from all you've seen, no matter how well you profess your awareness of hip-hop. This event will open your mind, if not blow it."
-- Nitevibe

"Unexpected guests often arrive at this monthly gathering, so witness some of the dopest organic teamwork since Slick Rick and Doug E. Fresh."
-- SF Bay Guardian

Beatboxing is the art of making rhythms, grooves and sound effects using the human voice. This "fifth element of hip hop" originated in the early 80's- on street corners, in stairwells, schoolyards, and small clubs, and has been underground for years. Now, in the same way that DJ'ing and turntablism swept the world in the 90's, beatboxing is exploding.

The Vowel Movement was created to support the art of beatboxing in the Bay Area and beyond. Each month, The Vowel Movement features some of the best beatboxers in the Bay Area; sets up collaborations with instrumentalists, vocalists, poets, breakdancers, and other performers; and provides an open mike for new talent. And the audiences are as diverse as the performers. You never know who'll drop by - legendary rappers like Black Sheep and P.E.A.C.E. from Freestyle Fellowship, beatbox theatre from the Felonious crew, national talent like Chicago's Yuri Lane and NYC's Kid Lucky. The founder of the VM, Tim is proud to serve as one of it's lead organizers.

More info at thevowelmovement.com