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.....In
Seattle Join us for other Coming Attractions at Project Artaud Theatre Need more ? Go Backstage for more info on the Bucky show What else has Foghouse been doing? Go to our Production History page.
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You Darling People.
"Emotionally
full, inspiring and invigorating...Staged with painstaking intelligence.
The remarkable RonCampbell gives a heroic performance."
Having
a Ball in Fuller's Universe
Other Current Stories and Articles "Theater that thinks outside the dome," Oakland Tribune "Building a geodesic dome, Bucky's history and mystery," SF Chronicle
Pondering
the 'Universe' "This Fuller ``History'' goes well beyond the chummy, audience-pleasing impersonations of many one-man shows based on historical figures. As he travels through Fuller's achievements and failures, personal history and private demons, the actor creates a richly layered character who is neither Fuller nor Campbell but a fusion of the two." Steven Winn
"It's as startlingly funny as it is intellectually stimulating, and as genuinely moving on a personal level as in its hopes and fears for the future of our planet, famously envisioned by Fuller as Spaceship Earth." "The ideas alone are exhilarating...but so is the personal drama....What's inescapable is the exciting synergy of compelling performance and energizing intelligence." Robert
Hurwitt BRAINSTORM "Campbell's Fuller is someone you're excited to spend time with. This is a man so fired up by his ideas, so touched with the brilliance of expansive, all-embracing thought that you want to run right out and absorb everything you possibly can about Fuller and his work." "A surprisingly hot ticket - last Saturday's performance was full to bursting - ``The History (and Mystery) of the Universe" is theatrical, thoughtful and highly entertaining. The play will boggle your mind, but in the best possible way." Chad Jones Something new and fascinating in the world of theater "Something new, unusual, and fascinating in the world of entertainment opened at the Lorraine Hansberry Theatre - It's "R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE" - a one-man dynamic performance by Ron Campbell, one of the finest actors I've ever seen. Portraying the late Buckminster Fuller, he welcomes you to his classroom for a lecture on his expertise as an inventor, architect, engineer, mathematician, environmentalist, scientist - a genius. And it becomes one of the most enjoyable lectures you'll ever witness. It's educational, it's inspiring, it's startling, but most of all entertaining and filled with humor. It's a brand new concept in theater, and well worth seeing." Jerry Friedman Play's simple design conveys span of Fuller's wit, wisdom "Long before Disney and AOL co-opted such Fuller-isms as ``synergy,'' this innovator whose archives are at the Stanford University Library dared to delve into ideas of substance, to look at possibilities rather than barriers. And through the sweet theatrical rendering that is "History,'' the possibility of ideas is as vibrant as ever." Mark De La Vina One Man Play Captures Brilliant Mind "Provocative, informative and thoroughly engaging ...featuring a brilliant performance by Ron Campbell in the title role...Romantic, idealistic, deeply spiritual and profoundly humanistic, [Fuller] was simply one of the great minds of his era. Spending a few hours in his presence makes for an unforgettable evening of theater." Georgia Rowe
"...beyond
the brain-tickling appeal of integrities and synergies lies a fascinating
personality, a magician of mind-bending ideas who hides, Magritte-like,
in the bourgeois guise of a bank clerk. Actor Ron Campbell is a
superb incarnation, gaining electricity just as Fuller did from
his rapt audiences and nailing his model's playful staccato rhythms." Brad Rosenstein Bucky
Explains "This current Bucky-incarnation is a sort of West Coast tribute to Fuller by his disciples, with a road-show atmosphere lent by various attendant science forums and symposia; but it's also, God be praised, a solid piece of theater. " Michael Moore "Campbell
does a tour-de-force recreation of a Fuller talk, one that is -
like the man - physical, metaphysical, intellectual, eclectic,
challenging, and hugely entertaining." "Surgeon
General's Warning: THE
SCENE: Building a geodesic dome
"It's a piece of cake," said Converse, who was helping build a geodesic dome at the San Francisco theater, where the acclaimed one-man play "R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe" opens tonight. The Milpitas engineer joined 23 other Bucky-minded, dome-loving volunteers - - among them a stockbroker, a massage therapist, a cinematographer, a bookkeeper and an organic farmer -- to put up the 26-by-19-foot sphere composed of isosceles triangles of varying sizes. Fuller, of course, was the visionary inventor, scientist and social philosopher who advocated creating "more with less" to sustain life on "Spaceship Earth." His most famous creation is the ingeniously simple geodesic dome, a strong, light structure in which stress is spread across the entire form (he saw the triangle as the most stable shape). "It's an aerodynamically perfect creation. This will take 200-plus mile-an- hour winds," said Converse, 49, whose girlfriend, Fran Doddroe, a bookkeeper, also participated in what the play's associate director, Rich Baker, called "a kind of Amish barn-raising." The couple plans to build a retirement dome on an island yet to be determined. This one, with its color-coordinated, prefab parts, was designed and donated by Timberline Geodesics of Berkeley. It's made with 165 struts, variously marked in red, blue, yellow and green, and 61 similarly coded steel connectors. Working from a how-to manual, the congenial crew put it up in just four hours. "It's really foolproof, unless you're colorblind," said Timberline President Bob Singer, talking amid the buzz of drills, the whir of a genie lift and the occasional shout of "Watch below! He's got a screwdriver." Singer, whose firm made Dr. Evil's moon dome for the movie "Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me," describes the dome as a remarkably strong, energy- efficient structure, as well as "a very comforting shape. It's the combination of not looking at sharp angles, and being enveloped in a nice spherical enclosure." Jaime Snyder has made many such spheres, including a number with his grandfather, Buckminster Fuller. He watched with pleasure as this one went up. "Most of us have watched people building houses, but it takes weeks and they're experts," said Snyder, co-founder of the Buckminster Fuller Institute. "For a few people to get together and in the course of an afternoon put up this beautiful, strong structure is quite uplifting." Robert Boudreaux was doing his share of lifting. He stood on a ladder bolting triangles as the dome rose higher and higher. A Fuller fan who wants to build his own dome, he was struck by the simplicity of the design and the social implications of building these low-cost structures (this one would cost about $10,000). "You talk about the homeless problem, man, you got it solved right here," said Boudreaux, a San Francisco cinematographer who was happy to gain this invaluable experience. "And I get free tickets (to the play). How can you lose? The spirit of Buckminster Fuller will be hovering around the theater." Which is exactly what the producers had in mind. "This just brings Bucky and the energy and his ideas to life," said producer Jeff Rowlings. San Carlos massage therapist Sheridan Thomas saw the play when it opened in San Francisco two years ago and fell under Bucky's sway. She dug the egalitarian vibe of this endeavor. "It's nice
to be in an environment where there are no labels or tags on anyone,"
said Thomas, who was mesmerized as a kid by pictures of Disney's
geo- domed Epcot Center. "It doesn't matter who you are --
black, white, money, no money. We're just hanging out, having a
good time and putting up a dome." BRAINSTORM Dazzling new play gives Buckminster Fuller his theatrical due By Chad Jones [Full text of review from Oakland Tribune (review not archived on-line)] If necessity is the mother of invention, then R. Buckminster Fuller, Bucky to his friends, is the first cousin of invention and a whole lot more. But to call Fuller simply an inventor does not do justice to this incredibly v ersatile and thoughtful man, a man whom Marshall McLuhan described as "a modern day Leonardo da Vinci.'' Sure, Fuller
obtained 25 patents for things ranging from the Dymaxion map (a
f lat global map that depicts all of the continents without distortion)
to a sel f-sustaining house to a board game, but Fuller was also
a philosopher, mathema tician, architect, engineer, poet and cosmologist.
He's also
the man who invented the geodesic dome (a lightweight, strong and
co st-effective structure made from self-bracing triangles) and
coined the phrase ``Spaceship Earth.'' All this from
a man who, after being kicked out of Harvard twice, didn't even
have a college degree. If Fuller's name doesn't ring a bell, you're
not alone in your ignorance. Thou gh widely respected as a thinker,
writer and lecturer, Fuller, who died in 198 3 at age 88, never
achieved the widespread acclaim he deserved. Based on the life, work and writings of Fuller, this one-man play throws out s ome big ideas such as Fuller's passion called ``Comprehensive Anticipatory Design Science,'' which he describes as "doing more and more with less and less.'' Like he does with just about everything he explains over the course of the show, Fuller, played with great brio by Ron Campbell, never simplifies to the point of patronizing of the audience. But he does get us to understand, which is a major accomplishment for a group of people who don't usually go to the theat er to learn something. Whether he's filling us in on biographical details like the painful loss of hi s 3-year-old daughter or explaining the wondrous strength and simplicity of triangles, Campbell's Fuller is someone you're excited to spend time with. This is a man so fired up by his ideas, so touched with the brilliance of expansive , all-embracing thought that you want to run right out and absorb everything y ou possibly can about Fuller and his work (and isn't it helpful that the Buckm inster Fuller Institute is selling books videos and triangle-based puzzles in the lobby?) The idea of attending a play that requires active use of the brain is a daunti ng one, but Jacobs and Campbell make it easier on us by wrapping all of Fuller 's world-saving ideas in a nifty theatrical package. The play premiered at the San Diego Repertory Theatre last spring, and local p roducers at Foghouse.com had the smarts to bring it north with the entire production intact. Annie Smart's set is dominated by a hexagonal platform and a giant video scree n across the back of the stage. In addition to offering photographs of Fuller and his family, the video portion of the show - the dazzling work of videographer Dave Cannon - also shows footage of Fuller's inventions such as the way-ah ead-of-its-time Dymaxion car as well as more artistic visions of moving clouds , rippling water and exploding atomic bombs. The only element of the show that doesn't really work is Luis Perez's original music. Perez's sound design, with its beating hearts and ticking clocks, is just fine, but the music is distracting and unnecessary. Scored like a movie, the music usually comes in just as Fuller begins to get emotional or when he starts on a really big idea like how to end global hunger. Campbell's dynamic performance as Fuller expands and contracts so beautifully that the music becomes redundant and rather annoying. The stage, with its scribbled-on blackboard and cluttered worktable, can't contain Fuller's enthusiasm. When he gets really excited, he comes right out into the audience and sniffs people, or claps people on the back. At one point, he even has audience members stand up with their left arms stretched west and tri es to convince them that they can feel the sunset. Actually, Fuller
insists that there's no such thing as a sunset since the sun isn't
moving and we are. He also insists there's no such thing as up or
down, but that's a whole other story. A surprisingly hot ticket
- last Saturday's performance was full to bursting - "The History
(and Mystery) of the Universe'' is theatrical, thoughtful and highly
entertaining. The play will boggle your mind, but in the best possible
way. A
Fuller understanding of things 'R. Buckminster Fuller' an exhilarating ride "A roller
coaster for the brain" "Campbell's Fuller is a study in contrasts -- egotistical yet humble, a brilliant intellect with a childlike observatory delight, a scientist with a powerful belief in God. Campbell portrays Fuller as a man who holds humanity in sweet and tender regard, while still raging at our foibles." "Jacobs, Campbell and the rest of the production crew have attempted to tangibly recapture one man's unique genius. That's no easy feat, and well worth the ride." By Leah Kohlenberg Actor's zest reflects Bucky Fuller's energy "Campbell's high-voltage performance pumps up even the slivers of complex ideas alluded to here. And he evokes Fuller's gadfly egocentricity and jaunty nerdiness, as well as his tender heart." "Taller
and decades younger than Fuller when he attained national prominence
with his geodesic-dome design and other innovations, Campbell
nonetheless embodies the intellectual zest and quirky personality
of the man." Men
of passion: "...Actor Ron Campbell...personifies the notion that "the universe is all energy" with an acute physicality that plays like an urgent dance. Jacobs takes Fuller's insistence that we must "fight and work and feel until we die" and literally sends it out into the audience with Campbell, who runs up and down the aisles in a passionate intellectual fervor." Steve Wiecking Buckminster
Fuller's World "The great strength of "R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe," the adroit and intellectually fascinating new show just arrived at the Mercury Theatre, is that it boils down this brilliant, esoteric visionary into morsels that can be digested in a single setting." "Fuller's exuberant ideas are dispensed via an engaging performance from Ron Campbell. This California-based actor brings an ersatz Fuller lecture to life with flawless delivery and startling vigor and panache." "...this remains an engaging and invigorating evening of theatrical mind candy." Chris Jones R. Buckminster
Fuller: "Highly Recommended" by Sun-Times "As much a spiritual and philosophical journey as a crash course in everything from physics and 20th century technology to economics, sociology, education, design and poetry, the show's emotional arc is so powerful that its scientific elements, which are handled with tremendous sleight of hand, become surprisingly accessible." Hedy Weiss
Hedy Weiss Stage Tip It's only the rare individual who is crazy or genius enough (or both) to buck the trends that guide our daily lives and envision a fuller human existence. The appropriately named R. Buckminster Fuller (1895-1983) was such a person. Luckily for us, the spirit of this philosopher (and one time Chicago resident-he lived right on Belmont near the lake) is alive and well. Thanks to playwright/director D.W. Jacobs and actor Ron Campbell, "Bucky's" energy, wit and brilliance is simply and eloquently laid out like an acid-laced picnic on a hot summer day. It's all about mind expansion, people. The inventor of the geodesic dome (think Epcot Center), Fuller spent much of his time on a logical plan to eliminate world hunger. His theories are ingenious but unworkable, since pesky traits like cynicism and outright greed always seem to win out. But it's damn fun contemplating his ideas-and you'll leave a smarter, more humane person at the end of the night. Nina Metz Inventing the Future "R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe" is easily the most intelligent, most insightful and interesting show currently running in Chicago." "Performing in Fuller's trademark dark suit and tie, wearing the same square glasses Fuller preferred, Campbell seems every inch the inspired, quirky Fuller. When he gets excited, Campbell shakes the way Fuller shook, the ideas tumbling out of his mouth at a speed that cannot help but excite the audience." Jack Helbig Complex 'Bucky' Equals Simply Extraordinary Theater "A stunning
one-man show with an incredible tour de force performance by Ron
Campnell, 'The History (and Mystery) of the Universe' is a thought-awakening,
possible life-changing encounter with the concepts of this complex
thinker." Kathleen Tobin
"As
exciting as an action thriller, as vital as documentary and as moving
as a love story."
What they're saying about Foghouse Foghouse noted for "Most Auspicious Debut" in 2000 The San Francisco Chronicle's Year 2000 summary of performing arts and theater named Foghouse as "Most Auspicious Debut" for our productions of "R. Buckminster Fuller: THE HISTORY (and Mystery) OF THE UNIVERSE'' and "Culture Clash Anthology." |
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SAN
FRANCISCO CHRONICLE'S HIGHEST RATING!!
"D.W.
Jacobs' two-hour play (which he also directed) is a lecture-drama
that interweaves the story of Fuller's life with a startlingly
funny, intellectually stimulating and moving exposition
of his theories, themes and epiphanies. In Campbell's unforgettable
portrayal, he's a thinker of dazzling dexterity who can juggle concepts
like a magician and balance an insight on the wisp of a metaphor."
-- Robert Hurwitt, San Francisco Chronicle. 
A
FULLER UNDERSTANDING
Dome
luck