For a Bob Ernst bio, visit
https://www.altertheater.org/about2
towards/away… The focus intensifies as the periphery disperses. Our hero is a stranger in a strange land. He finds himself running for his life in an alien landscape being pursued by something or someone he can’t quite make out. “Am I running towards, or am I running away or am I running towards away?” Fear, and a bit of the blues propels him further on into the desert, towards—? In the final moments, the periphery expands. a poetic narrative, accompanied by a percussion score and other exotic instrumentation, all rolled up tight into the personification of “one tiny, spec of hu-man”. Warning: he does get physical. Like the man says; “Do not go gentle into that good night.”
Bob Ernst inhabits a stage as a world of his own devising. Nothing is predictable and everything is possible. He shunts, grunts and howls onomatopoeias before switching to swift prose, the energy of physical theatre and multi-instrumen
Co-founder of The Iowa Theater Lab (1968-1972). First solo performance at 2019 Blake St. in Berkeley in 1973. In 1975, co-founded The Blake St. Hawkeyes, a theater collective devoted to ensemble and the development of original works. During this time, also created a half dozen more solo works. In 1984, won a Dramalogue for best director and best over-all production for the musical, Tokens. In 1987, performed a solo that lasted for for 24 hours and 12 minutes. which was voted one of the “Best 10” performances of the year by Dennis Harvey/Boulevards. His pocket opera, Catherine’s Care at Alter-Theater was voted Best of the Year by The Guardian in 2007.