Geoff Sobelle

Geoff Sobelle is an actor, director and creator of original performance works.  A dedicated absurdist, he uses illusion, installation and home-spun mechanics to create surreal, poetic pieces that look for humanity where you least expect it. His work is deeply collaborative and reflects long-time partnerships with other multi-disciplinary artists. His most recent works include: FOOD (upcoming BAM Next Wave ‘23), HOME (BAM Next Wave ’17, Bessie Award) and The Object Lesson (BAM Next Wave ’14, Bessie Award).  These three works are all rooted in a deep study of centering audience in the fabric of the show.  Other recent work includes a composition for Times Square, TimesxTimesxTimes created with Pamela Z and Hear Their There Here (a site-specific sound installation for St. Ann’s Warehouse); Holoscenes (an aquatic performance/installation created with Lars Jan) and Pandaemonium (a multi-media dance work created with Nichole Canuso and Lars Jan).  His partnership with Trey Lyford as Rainpan 43 includes: all wear bowlers, Amnesia Curiosa, machines machines machines machines machines machines, and The Elephant Room (created with Steve Cuiffo).  Before coming to New York, Geoff was a member of Philadelphia’s Pig Iron Theater Company for twelve years.  Other Philadelphia collaborations include: Headlong Dance Theatre, Subcircle, Nichole Canuso and Thaddeus Phillips. Geoff is a Pew Fellow and a Creative Capital grantee.  He is a graduate of Stanford University and trained in physical theater at the Lecoq school in Paris.

All of his work to date has premiered at the Philadelphia Live Arts Festival before touring nationally and internationally. In New York, his work has been seen at BAM Next Wave, St. Ann’s Warehouse, New York Live Arts , HERE Arts Center, BRIC, Clubbed Thumb and Bard College; nationally in Philadelphia (Fringe Arts), Boston (Arts Emerson), Washington DC (Studio Theater), Minneapolis (Walker Arts Center), Columbus (Wexner Center), San Francisco (Curran, Theater Artaud), Berkeley (Berkeley Rep), Los Angeles (Kirk Douglas Theatre), La Jolla (La Jolla Playhouse); internationally in the UK (Edinburgh Fringe Festival, London Mime Festival/Barbican); France (Paris Festival d’Ete); Germany (Ruhrfestspiele); Poland (Konfrontacja Teatralne Festival); Australia (Sydney Festival, Perth Festival, Commonwealth Games); South Korea (BIPAF), New Zealand (NZ Festival), Taiwan (Taipei Arts Festival).

As a teacher, Geoff has led workshops both nationally and internationally in devised theatre creation, physical approach to character, clown and “jeu.” He has been a teacher at the Pig Iron school in Philadelphia (APT) and was on faculty at Bard College from 2013-2021. His projects have been supported by the MAP Fund, the  Independence Foundation, the Philadelphia Theatre Initiative, the Wyncote Foundation, US Arts International, the Princeton Atelier and the New England Foundation for the Arts.

Artist Statement

A dedicated absurdist, I am chiefly interested in moments of “the sublime ridiculous.” I believe that comedy is the highest order of art, and that laughter allows an audience to open, become vulnerable and experience the full realm of human emotion to discover a new plane of experience. My job as a theatre artist is to challenge traditional modes of perspective through complex, multi-layered, virtuosic, visual theatre that uses performance itself as a metaphor for the human experience.

I began as a magician, continued as an actor and arrived as a clown. While training at the Lecoq School in Paris, I met the Pig Iron Theatre Company, who I continue to work with, now fourteen years later. Both with Pig Iron, as well as my own company, rainpan 43, I create original work through improvisation, based on intellectually rigorous dramaturgy, grounded in absurdity. Using illusion, film and out-dated mechanics, I create surreal, poetic pieces that look for humanity where you least expect it and find grace where no one is looking. My practice resembles a colossal practical joke, lovingly made and diabolically let loose upon a captive audience.

I am fascinated by live performance because it is a great “lie.” Theatre is the illusion of a present moment, rehearsed again and again to seem more and more present. I find this paradox extremely funny and potent. My main objective as an absurdist performance artist is to find complex and challenging means of exploiting this fundamental paradox.

AWARDS/HONORS

Bessie Award - HOME - “Outstanding Production”
Bessie Award - The Object Lesson - "best design"
NYTimes Critics Pick - The Object Lesson
Carol Tambor “Best of the Fringe” Award (Edinburgh) - The Object Lesson
Scotsman Fringe First Award - The Object Lesson, Flesh and Blood & Fish and Fowl
Total Theatre Award - The Object Lesson
Obie Award - machines machines machines machines machines machines machines - "best design"
Drama Desk Award Nomination – all wear bowlers – “unique theatrical experience”
Innovative Theatre Award – all wear bowlers – “best performance art piece”
Philadelphia Magazine Award– “Best of Theatre”
CityPaper People’s Choice Award – all wear bowlers
PEW Fellowship in the Arts
Creative Capital Fellowship- Elephant Room
New England Foundation for the Arts - Elephant Room
Philadelphia Theater Initiative – Fellowships: Object Lesson; Elephant Room; Flesh and Blood and Fish and Fowl; machines machines machines machines machines machines machines; all wear bowlers 
Independence Foundation – Fellowships: all wear bowlers and The Object Lesson
Pig Iron Theatre Company – company member 2001-2012, teacher at the Pig Iron school

Resumé (PDF)