Come see me at the Kryolan Professional Makeup booth at IMATS New York, April 14 to see the painted body illustration of this story
by Christopher Agostino
Watanabe no Tsuna was perhaps the greatest samurai of all, legendary even as a child for a strength no man had seen before. As a young man, fighting with the Heavenly Companions alongside the famous samurai Raiko, Tsuna had helped to kill Ichigumi, the Goblin Spider, throwing a giant tree down upon the back of that monstrous earth spider while Raiko fought him off in the cave beneath Kyoto castle.
One of several prints by Kuniyoshi depicting the battle
Watanabe no Tsuna had again been at Raiko’s side when he killed the Drunken Demon. Once, the Drunken Demon had once been a handsome courtier who preyed on the noble women only with his charms, but, deep in his lustful ways, as he began to drink he began to change into a true monster. He would steal the young women from the emperor’s palace, and hold them captive for his pleasure. When he grew tired of them he would eat their flesh and drink their blood to feed his demon strength. Then he kidnapped the Princess Ibaraki, and she was too beautiful to grow tired of, so he kept her alive for many years. One night in his room, perhaps to dull the pain in her heart, Princess Ibaraki joined him in his drinking and, once drunk, she tasted his feast of human sashimi. She too became a demon, though she kept her secret from the other captive maidens. When the samurai Raiko and his companions came to rescue the Princess it was fortunate that she had also drunk from the saki they had drugged to incapacitate the demon or she would have raised the alarm when Raiko came into the sleeping demon’s room and cut off his head with one swing of his sword. Tsuna saw the beautiful Ibaraki lying asleep in the demon’s bed and released her along with the other captive maidens, not knowing her terrible secret. Continue reading →
Dream BIG this Summer with Timeless Tales in Two GREAT Shows!
——— SHOW #1: THE LITTLE MOUSE THAT DREAMED BIG ——–
Christopher Agostino returns with a special selection of stories for this Summer Reading Club theme.
The Mouse that becomes an Eagle
Featuring “The Story of Jumping Mouse”, a traditional Native American folktale that captures the power of our dreams to transform our lives. This inspirational tale, made into a children’s book by John Steptoe, is about a brave little mouse that follows his dream and against all odds reaches the far off land where he is transformed into a mighty eagle. Plus the show includes other exciting tales that encourage young people to dream big and never give up, brought to life through Christopher’s playful storytelling and amazing facepainting.
Magic Frog gives him his Name
Christopher Agostino’s Transformations Storytelling is a very different kind of a show. Audience volunteers are brought on to the stage and facepainted very quickly to illustrate the stories he tells. The amazing facepainting holds kids attention while they listen to folktales from around the world and his original tales. With his extensive repertoire of stories he can perform successfully for any size audience and any age: kids, teens and adults, and each summer he crafts a new selection of stories to fit the Reading Club Theme. In most shows he paints 8 to 12 volunteers while mesmerizing the audience with a theatrical storytelling style and tales that range from the comic adventure of the first time a man met a crocodile to the heroic tale of the boy Punia and the King of the Sharks. It’s surprising and delightful theater for any age. Several themes are available and special shows can be crafted to feature specific cultures and special topics. Christopher has appeared on the NBC Today Show and the CBS Early Show and performed for hundreds of theaters, schools, libraries and festivals.
——— SHOW # 2: The BODACIOUS Book Show CLASSICS ———-
Including our special version of Jack and the Beanstalk starring kids from the audience and a 60’ beanstalk!
Beatrice the Bookworm
Beatrice the Bookworm is back in the show that’s so much fun it gets everyone inspired to pick up a book and read. Our Bodacious Book Show Classics edition is all about the books that have kept readers dreaming big for generations, from Dr. Seuss and Charlotte’s Web to timeless fairytales like Jack & the Beanstalk. Also featuring the Quiz Show Game that gets the entire audience thinking and talking about great books:“Have You READ It?”
"Have You READ It?" Quiz Show
This fast paced variety show really gets kids inspired to read, because great books make great readers. It features The “Have You READ It?” Game, a TV-style Quiz Show hosted for laughs by Bob Bookmark and Rita Digest in which the whole audience competes, parents included. It’s great to see kids jumping up and down in their seats with answers to such questions as “What kind of eggs does Sam like with his ham?” The questions and challenges are designed to remind young readers of all the fun they’ve had with books they’ve read and to introduce them to other great books so they’ll want to read more. And we bring to life some funny poetry from great authors such as Shel Silverstein and Ogden Nash.
Jack and the Beanstalk starring audience volunteers: The Magic Dancing Bean
Plus there are special guest stars: Professor Fineprint lectures on “1001 Uses for a Book” (but he doesn’t know you can read them); and the very popular Beatrice the Bookworm enlists younger audiences to join in her pledge to “always read my books before I eat them”. The grand finale is a hilarious rendition of “Jack and the Beanstalk” with kids playing the parts onstage and a 60’ beanstalk growing through the audience. The Bodacious Book Show was created to support reading programs in schools and libraries by reminding kids of the fun books they’ve read and interesting them in new ones, because the best way to develop good readers is to let kids discover books so fun they can’t wait to read more.
In 2011, the Bodacious Book Show was selected to host the kick-off celebration for the Target Read Across America literacy initiative at the New York Public Library, and introduce the celebrity readers such as Mark Ruffalo and Uma Thurman.
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SPECIAL DISCOUNTS available forLibrary Performances.
CONTACT US by email: info@agostinoarts.com, or call 516-771-8086
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Agostino Arts Theatre has been presenting programs in schools, libraries, theaters and other venues throughout the Tri-State area for nearly 30 years.
Libraries we appeared at in 2011 include:
Mechanicville Library, Hewlett-Woodmere Library, Garden City Library, Sayville Library, Atlantic City Free Public Library, Harborfields Library, Wyandanch Public Library, Farmingdale Library, Lynbrook Library, New London Library Festival, East Williston Public Library, Riverhead Public Library, Newburgh Free Library, West Milford Township Library, South Huntington Library, Goshen Public Library, Mastic-Moriches-Shirley Libarary, Burlington Library, Bryant Library, Jamesburg Public Library, Half Hollow Hills Library, West Babylon Library, Rye Free Reading Room, Connetquot Library, Big Flats Library, Horseheads Free Library
When Target planned their launch for the Target Read Across America literacy initiative at the New York Public Library, they asked us to host the kick-off celebration. Beatrice the Bookworm opened the show, then Bob Bookmark and Rita Digest played the exciting “Have You READ It?” Game with the entire audience in between a stellar lineup of celebrity readers, including Uma Thurman and Mark Ruffalo. http://reading.target.com/read-across-america/
Our Bodacious Book Shows involve the entire audience in the fun
Jack and the Beanstalk - The Singing Golden Harp Duet
At the core of my approach to bodypainting is my continuing exploration into its traditional sources and cultural functions. Just as a painter on canvas studies the masterpieces of the past to find his own way forward, I study the images and significance of traditional bodyart as a foundation for my work. Searching for an understanding of how and why we paint ourselves leads back to the origins of our humanity and our most ancient art. Whenever I paint someone I am aware of my small place in this vast tradition, one more human seeking to understand how our art can transform us. Although bodypainting is ephemeral, its legacy is timeless.
The Transformation Lecture – click here
This is a primal part of the story I’ve told myself to keep myself painting, that “before we ever painted a cave wall, we painted ourselves…” — my slogan. Going back 30 years when I was first trying to convince people that facepainting could be an art and not just something that clowns did at kid’s parties this was an important part of my argument.
You search for validation when you are working in a fringe art form and I continue to get jazzed seeing moments like the one in the PBS Nova episode “Becoming Human” where, just as they are describing the final evolutionary shift that made us the humans we are today they are showing a re-enacted image of an ancient human painting themselves. Or the book How Art Made the World: A Journey to the Origins of Human Creativity by Nigel Spivey, which makes the case that it is our ability to conceive, record and understand symbols (through language and art) that lifted us above the animal state—”we are the symbolic species”—and he also points to our own skin as the original canvas for these social symbols.
Our skin is the physical edge of who we are, the place where we touch the world, and so, as we first gained self-awareness, that spark of consciousness that makes us human, we marked our new awareness onto our skin to tell the world who we are. And that is a fine answer to the question “Why Body Painting?”
In The Mind in the Cave, David Lewis-Williams presents a timeline of the development of ancient art and culture. Cave paintings go back about 32,000 years, but art is older than that. The image here of the etched ochre rock from Blombos Cave from 77,000 years ago is considered the “earliest art object” yet discovered, and there is evidence of ochre colored earths being processed to produce pigment from much earlier. Pigments derived from ochre are still used as traditional body paints. It’s discovery radically reorganized anthropologists’ understanding of the origins of humanity, and the place in our collective history of our ancient ancestors at Blombos Cave is a truly remarkable story, as depicted in the PBS “Becoming Human” series. See also the links below for more information, including the incredible recent discovery of what might be the earliest facepainting kit ever.
The bodypainting at the top uses imagery from European cave paintings that are 10,000 to 32,000 years old, and I painted it several years ago. Ancient sources, modern inspiration for this bodypainter.
30,000 year old cave painting from the Chauvet Cave
One of the most inspirational art exhibits I have seen in many years was in a movie theater watching Werner Hertzog’s 3D film of the Chauvet Cave in France, The Cave of Forgotten Dreams. Seeing Hertzog’s film, I experienced art that is as great as anything I have ever seen in a museum, both in the technical quality of the painting (as Picasso said upon seeing similar cave paintings: “we have learned nothing!”) and in the depth of response it requires from the viewer. Through Hertzog’s fantastic use of 3D to bring the physical shapes of the painted cave walls to life, and dramatic flickering “torch-light” effects to recreate the experience of the original audience for these paintings, I could imagine myself there and understand how, at our origins, art was a driving transformational force.
See Talking Artto learn about my stage presentations on the origins and history of the art of transformation. See also my Bodypainting gallery .
