Split Bill: My Life with Shmike // To Dance with A Purple Goblin

Overview

Catto’s life is a bit odd. He’s been deferring on his rent for 20 years, he has bulging muscles that only he can see, and his one friend is some guy named Shmike. Worse yet, Catto can’t remember anything about who he was before meeting Shmike. In a ridiculous and raucous journey of self discovery, two clowns attempt to retrace their steps from the pits of stupidity and figure out how they got to be so foolish. Will Catto and Shmike learn to appreciate living senselessly or will they reform to be law abiding citizens?

//

When unconsciously prompted to question your own beliefs, values, and lived ordinance, you feel an awakening of the grotesque protectant: the purple goblin. Living within the self in bad reputation, it controls and hypnotizes the conscious mind. How can we learn to accept and integrate this suppressed part of ourselves? Through dance, polyphonic singing, and other vocal soundings, To Dance with A Purple Goblin explores mindful meditation, physical embodiment, and the practice of loving acceptance.

Cannonball, produced by Almanac Dance Circus Theatre, is the first and largest independent festival hub of the Philadelphia Fringe that presents risk-taking independent artists in back-to-back performances next to delicious lounge spaces, fostering creative collisions and community conversation.

Learn More

About the Artist

Patrick Conner Burke has been an amateur idiot for his whole life and is ready to enter the big leagues. Clown has allowed him to discover a deeper layer of performance joy that he brings to every step in life. Previously, he studied at Commedia dell'Arte, Upright Citizens Brigade, and Le Moyne College. Their ongoing studies at Pig Iron School lets them fully embody states of play and their work with Evergreen Family Theatre leaves them no stranger to activating an audience.

Faysal Can Dakni is a performer/director from Turkey. He made a great deal of his observations about life, people, and Le Jeu in a small park in Ankara where swans and pigeons were present. In his theater, he creates familiar spaces with endless possibilities, transcending reality using elements of surprise and culture. Faysal is an actor and co-artistic director of Sahne 367, holds a BA in Acting from Bilkent University, and was awarded a Fulbright Master’s Grant in 2019. Now he studies Devised Performance at UArts/Pig Iron School.

Nick Ware is a yogi, voice teacher, throat singer, and theater artist from Plano, TX. In Philly he has worked with such companies as EgoPo Classic Theater and Enchantment Theater Company, and has worked on a number of other devised, physical, and dance theater projects. He is a RYT-250 yoga teacher and a voice teacher that focuses on helping people find the beauty and love in their voices and lives. He is extremely interested in using yoga and the voice to explore and mine the innate wisdom that lives inside us all.

Tori Vincent is a native of Lafayette, LA currently residing in Philadelphia. She is currently dancing with Anne-Marie Mulgrew and Dancers Co. and most recently Melissa Rector of Koresh Dance Company. Tori is also instructing Pilates, completing a RYT-200 yoga teacher training, and exploring new personal compositions. Influences on her personal work involve the roles we play in our individual and societal health, alongsi

Credits