Grackle Jack
Our mission is to create original theatrical performances where there is an exchange of difficult questions and through the process of seeking answers to those questions to use humor and vulnerability to access a new understanding.
Grackle Jack Productions is known for its inspired use of puppetry, clown, drag, music, and text. The company often works from incongruent historical events and literature as source material, blending and mapping divergent strands into multifaceted performance. Led by Artistic Director CB Goodman, Grackle Jack has examined and adapted events from Topsy the elephant’s public execution in 1903, the invention of the DARPA hummingbird drone, and the Apollo 11 Mission. From literature, the company has delved into works from Roxanne Gay, George Saunders, Gaston Bachelard, Tony Robbins, and the Brothers Grimm. Puppetry, clown, and drag are used as both frame and metaphor to theatricalize these explorations.
Generating each piece for Grackle Jack takes months and sometimes years of collaboration with an ever-evolving group of directors, actors, puppeteers, composers, and designers. Each project honors its own incubation period and requires new combinations of artists in order to keep the work alive and meet the specific needs of the show.
In 2018, Grackle Jack and En Route Productions co-produced *some humans were harmed in the making of this show, and was named to two of Austin’s top ten “Best of” lists.
The show was described by Broadway World’s Frank Benge as “Theatre that takes you unexpectedly to another place…”, and by the Austin Chronicle’s Robert Faires as a performance “…staged with gleeful verve as a circus, and a sobering meditation on actions and consequences. Amazingly, it managed both and bonded its audience as much in silence as laughter.”
It was nominated for 10 B. Iden Payne Awards and won 4 for Featured Actor in a Drama - Delanté Keys, Featured Actress in a Drama - Kate Taylor, Best Media Design - Lowell Bartholomee, Best Sound Design - Lowell Bartholomee.
Contact Information
Email: CB[at]GrackleJack.com
Contact webform available HERE
