Created and performed by clown artist Christina Gelsone, one of Big Apple Circus’s most beloved headliners, GREEF is a powerful, inventive, and, yes, funny theatrical work reflecting on the artist’s loss of her husband and performing partner to a debilitating illness. The piece combines wordless physical theater and rich imagery into an intimate, tragicomic portrait of humanity and empathy. Deeply personal and vulnerable, GREEF explores what comes after profound trauma, the choices we make when someone is in need, and just how closely grief and laughter can coexist. Fresh from its sold-out run at Ruhrfestspiele in Germany, this will be its U.S. premiere.
GREEF was developed, in part, during a Baryshnikov Arts Center Residency.
All details subject to change.
Christina Gelsone (Performer and Creator) is an internationally beloved wordless clown and mask performer. Together with her late husband and clown partner Seth Bloom, she toured the world with their acclaimed shows Air Play, Waterbombs!, and Madame & Monsieur. They headlined the Big Apple Circus and international events such as the Adelaide Festival, the Cervantino Festival, and the Acrobatic Art Festival in Wuhan, where they received the Yellow Crane Prize. She has worked extensively in post-conflict zones including Kosovo, Albania, Serbia, Egypt, and returned many times to Afghanistan. Originally a ballet dancer, Gelsone is a graduate of Princeton University and the Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre. She continues to make new silent comedy for international audiences. Special thanks to Ivy Kirsch, Scott Goldstein, and Matthew Duncan. www.acrobuffos.com
Matthew Ferraro (Director and Co-Creator) is an acclaimed American director and stage designer of theater and opera. He has created new productions of Faust at Oper Wuppertal, La Bohème, Eugene Onegin, Sweeney Todd, and Madama Butterfly at Theater Erfurt, and Evita, Lucia de Lammermoor, and Les vêpres siciliennes at Mainfranken Theater Würzburg. Before turning to directing and stage design, he performed as a dancer with ballet, theater, and opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera and New York City Opera, and worked as a choreographer and assistant director at many of the major opera companies in the United States. He was the director of Paradise, the last show Bloom and Gelsone built together as the Acrobuffos. Mr. Ferraro is a graduate of Princeton University and was the recipient of the Francis LeMoyne Page Theater Award. www.mattferraro.com
Photo by Austin Ruffer.