• The Improvised Shakespeare Company, Jan. 16th
• Dennis Stroughmatt et L'Esprit Creole, Feb. 27th

The Improvised Shakespeare Company

January 16th, Salmon Valley Center (City Hall), 7:00pm

Tickets: SAC Members $15; General $20

The Improvised Shakespeare Company performs weekly at iO Chicago Theatre and brings us Shakespeare in rare Elizabethian form, off-the-cuff. "Shakespeare had it easy. He could take his time writing plays... getting up from his inkwell to stretch his legs, pull up his tights and head to the local microbrewery for a pot of ale." Given a few suggestions from the audience this troupe will masterfully create Shakespearian Acts you've never dreamt of but as he might have written today...or not.

"This is pop Shakespeare to be sure. Men play every role, working from a "script" generously sprinkled with rhyming couplets and catering in equal measure to our baser and loftier instincts. The modern tribute to the Bard mixes Shakespearean language and tone with heaping tablespoons of Monty Python-esque slapstick and wordplay. …this is indisputably great improv, fueled by smart plot development, stage chemistry and recognizable characters." - Centerstage Chicago

Humorous and insightful, a performance never duplicated! Watch this video performance on My Space. Visit the Improvised Shakespeare Company web site for more information about this on-their-toes theatrical group.

Thank you to our Sponsors: Beth Waterbury & Tom Keegan, Idaho Humanities Council, Idaho Commission on the Arts, The National Endowment for the Humanities and The National Endowment for the Arts.

Dennis Stroughmatt et L'Esprit Creole (Creole Stomp)

February 27th, 2009, 7:00pm

Salmon Elks Hall

FREE French Creole Fiddling Workshop, Salmon Valley Center, Feb 27, 4:00 pm

General Admission: $15
SAC Members: $12

Dennis Stroughmatt, a featured speaker on the Missouri Humanities Council "Program Bureau," and a touring master artist on the Mid-America Arts Alliance Artist Tour and Illinois Artist Tour is an Illinois native who was first introduced to American French culture as a teenager near Old Mines, Missouri. It was there that he spent two and a half intensive years recording, observing, and learning many of the Creole French traditions still alive in "Upper Louisiana."  The knowledge that he gained there included a centuries old French Creole fiddling style from fiddlers Roy Boyer and Charlie Pashia, fluency in Illinois-Missouri Creole French, and a wealth of stories and songs from story tellers and singers like Rose Pratte, Annie Pashia, Kent Beaulne, and Eli Robart; all of which have been handed down generation to generation in Missouri and Illinois for nearly 300 years.

Dennis went on to live and work in southwest Louisiana as an assistant curator at the Vermilionville Folklife Center in Lafayette, LA and also became fluent in “Lower Louisiana” Creole Music and Cajun/Creole French. Not only a musician, Dennis is a preservationist who focuses on creating an understanding of French Creole culture and music, and why cultural diversity is one of the greatest gifts we have in the United States. 

For more information visit Dennis' website www.creolefiddle.com, listen to mp3 clips of Boyer Stomp and Bloodshot Eyes. This promises to be an energizing Winter Stomp!

Thank you to our Sponsors: Anonymous, Lemhi County Economic Development, Beth Waterbury & Tom Keegan, Bob & Nancy Russell, Idaho Commission on the Arts, and The National Endowment for the Arts.

Fall 2009 < > Spring 2010