Nomadic Theatre Co.

SARAH LIANE FOSTER

MICHAEL O'NEILL

HEATHER PEARL

Please click on a photo to see that company member's biography.

Heather Pearl graduated from San Francisco State University with a BA in Inter-disciplinary Arts. While living in SF, Pearl performed with Clown Conspiracy, Women Walking Tall, Make*A*Circus, The SF Women’s Circus, and the Prescott Clowns. As a California Arts Council Artist, through Make*A*Circus, Pearl taught clowning and circus skills to special populations. She was instrumental in starting the Funny Bone Doctor program through Make*A*Circus, performing clowns rounds to pediatric wards and clinics twice a week.

In 1997, Pearl graduated from Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in Blue Lake, CA. She performed with the company the next year in The Weave, a Dell’Arte Mad River Production, directed by Joan Schirle. From 1998-2001, Pearl performed with Do Jump! Extremely Physical Theatre in Portland, Oregon and on tour.

In 2002, Pearl began working with Michael O’Neill as the Nomadic Theatre Co. Together they created The View From Here and Two Clowns Flex, appearing in Oregon, Idaho and California. She has continued to teach and perform regularly with the Nomadic Theatre Co, DoJump! and in Clowns Without Borders benefits. In April of 2003, Pearl went to Chiapas, Mexico on a Clowns Without Borders Expedition.

In 2004, Pearl with Sarah Liane Foster created and began performing The See-Saw Project: 2 Clowns, 1 Mat, No Exit. Since then they have created, with the direction of Michael O’Neill, two other shows: How to Fly and Written in a Letter.

Pearl will forever be grateful for meeting the red nose 16 years ago and for all the adventures working in it has brought her on—and all the ones yet to come.

Michael received his BFA in Theatre from Castleton State College and was subsequently accepted into the world-renowned Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Clown College. Upon graduation Michael was chosen to tour with the Greatest Show on Earth – an honor bestowed on only three other graduates. For three years Michael toured extensively, performing in some of the largest and most prestigious venues throughout North America. Additionally, Michael helped promote the circus by making numerous television appearances including Good Morning America, The Today Show and MTV.

Following his stint with Ringling Bros., Michael furthered his education at the Dell ’Arte International School of Physical Theater in Blue Lake, California. He was then recruited by the Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre in Portland, Oregon, and for three years performed shows throughout the United States.

Most recently Michael has spent time creating, directing, and performing original works throughout Europe, North America and Asia. He is the co-founder of the Nomadic Theatre Co in Portland, Oregon, and the producer of the Portland, Oregon chapter of Clowns Without Borders, a non-profit organization that provides entertainment to underprivileged communities throughout the world.

As of 2007 Michael O'Neill has been accepted to The University of Portland Master in Fine Arts program in Directing. Michael is projected to graduate in the winter of 2008-09.

Sarah Liane Foster began studying physical theatre in college, spending time in the summers at the Celebration Barn Theatre studying mime with Tony Montanaro and clown with Avner Eisenberg and Julie Goell. She began creating her own work and performing it while studying at Brown University. In 2001 she graduated from Brown with a BA in English with honors in Creative Writing. That fall she went on to study at the Dell’Arte International School of Physical Theatre in Blue Lake, CA.

Since graduating from Dell’Arte in 2002, Foster has been creating, teaching and performing theatre. She helped develop a production of Hans Christian Anderson’s The Snow Queen with the Enchantment Theatre Company and toured with the show across the United States. For the past five summers she has planned and led traveling theatre programs for teens in the US and Europe through Windsor Mountain, an experiential learning camp based in New Hampshire. In 2005 Sarah began teaching and performing with Heather and the Nomadic Theatre Co. So far she has created four shows with Nomadic: The See-Saw Project: 2 Clowns, 1 Mat, No Exit, How to Fly, Written in a Letter, and Afield: The Slideshow of Our Boring Vacation, a comic two-woman mask show. In March of 2005 Sarah went on her first expedition with Clowns Without Borders, traveling to Haiti to perform clown shows for 25,000 children in an area devastated by flooding. Since then she has continued to work with Clowns Without Borders, traveling twice to southern Africa last year and back to Haiti last November.

Tony grew up in his hometown of West Phillidelphia, spending most days goofing around with the other kids on the playground, eventually winning a scholarship to Fancy Dancy Latin College of Ohio with his basketball talent

The passage from his dissertation "Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipisicing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum." angered his professors so much he was threatend with expulsion. This altercation terrified his poor mother who immediately had him transfered to the Clown College of Bel-Air, from which his aunt and uncle are alumni.