"Cupola Bobber carry their home, their universe, on their backs - a cosmology part kaijin [Japanese film effects monster], part Buster Keaton. They make a place for performance in the twenty-first century." Matthew Goulish
Cupola Bobber is a collaboration between Stephen Fiehn and Tyler B. Myers. Founded in 2000 they have created four evening length performances, working slowly out of their studio on the west side of Chicago. They have performed in multiple venues in Chicago, in Portland and New York, and toured internationally. Alongside the evening-length performance work they have made video, durational performance, and published writing.
They were the recipients of an International Fellowship at Nuffield Theatre, Lancaster University, UK for the 07/08 season, they have served as visiting artists for SAIC's First Year Program and Goat Island's Summer School, and have conducted unique and successful collaborative performance devising workshops.
Way Out West, the Sea Whispered Me, their 4th evening-length performance, was commissioned by PS122 in NYC, Links Hall in Chicago, and the National Performance Network. Petitmal received a Best of PAC/edge award, and they won a pair of Nelson Raymond Fellowships from The School of the Art Institute with their BFA's in 2001. Tyler is an MFA candidate in Northwestern University’s department of Art Theory and Practice. Stephen makes music in the bands WORK and Fessenden, and is currently working with the new international group, Every House Has A Door.
On Way Out West, the Sea Whispered Me, 2009
"Way Out West is a dry, quietly humorous visit to new territory in a trusty, familiar vessel." Culturebot, NYC
"Plodding through their risible, makeshift world, hoisting big, ugly tarps to approximate sweeping landscapes, these lugs wax oafishly poetic on the sea's paradoxical power to sustain life and erode civilizations. Like Laurel and Hardy, the mismatched pair (Myers is all diligence, Fiehn all inertia) express a stumbling kind of grace, striving to squeeze profundity from artfully inadequate materials." Justin Hayford, Chicago Reader Critic's Choice
"A few of the show’s jokes are like darts flying right past your ear to thunk into a bull’s eye on the wall behind your head, but most of the punchlines are revealed like the pale, soft bodies of victims slowly stripping off their clothes at gunpoint. I imagined what Samuel Beckett doing standup would be. It’s transfixing, feels very new and, like the rest of the work, I really enjoyed it." Blog: trailerpilot
On The Man Who Pictured Space From His Apartment, 2007
“… this pair of Chicago-based 30-year-olds can lay claim to a special talent for alternative performance-making of disarmingly odd, cosmic charm.”, “Four Stars” – Donald Hutera, The Times of London
“If Chicago’s once-thriving performance art scene hadn’t fizzled out a decade or so ago, Cupola Bobber would be a rising sensation rather than an isolated curiosity.” Justin Hayford, Chicago Reader Critic’s Choice
On Petitmal, 2004
“…the performers' palpable intelligence and understated wit make Petitmal work beautifully much of the time.” – Kerry Reid, Chicago Reader Critic’s Choice
“Throughout, the artful use of shadow, space, and dime-store props (they make great use, in particular, of the sound of an electric fan miked at a distance) create a haunting and thoroughly original imaginative atmosphere.” - John Beer, New City
On Subterfuge, 2001
“With it’s poker-faced tedium, Subterfuge is as playful as it is demanding, and Fiehn and Myers, both only 23, show enormous maturity in trusting the simplicity of their vision.” Justin Hayford, Chicago Reader Critic’s Choice
“We grip our chair, our breathing changes, we itch, and we feel nauseous and/or euphoric. There is something very satisfying about becoming physically exhausted while sitting quietly and watching something. Near the end of the piece, when the performers have tossed themselves through an endless cycle of dances, tackles and falls, the collapse on the floor in sweaty, weary heaps only to fly up into the most dynamic and physically demanding of all the dances at the first notes of James Brown's "Get Up." Now we straight up love these guys as they rise from the dead to do an ass kicking hysterical, funk dance hybrid.” – Holly Abney, Disconnect Arts Journal
Cupola Bobber is creating a new aesthetic using a process of collaboration, research, and rehearsal. We work slowly out of our studio on Chicago's northwest side, mixing basic materials with homespun engineering, bumbling wit, and a fascination for the tension in a beautiful moment to make delicate work focussed on detail, humor, and integrity.
We aim to use this simple aesthetic to explore the world for an hour or two, look at it from arms length, creating a new system for an audience to discover meaning. Intimacy, delicacy, and confusion are important; exhaustion is deployed to dramatize minutia. It's important to us for our performances to effectively slow down - make a moment a monument.
really good groups
Every House Has A Door
Lucky Pierre Performance Group
Goat Island Performance Group
Red 76 Arts Group
Temporary Services
chicago spaces
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