ANDY COLPITTS

Andy Colpitts is a theatre artist and scholar from the hills of northern New Hampshire. First cutting his teeth in local community theatre, he got a BA from Brown University in Theatre & Performance Studies and trained at the École Internationale de Théâtre Jacques Lecoq in Paris. He is currently part of the touring company of the Bread & Puppet Theater’s Upside Down World Circus. His musical The Family Copōli: a post-apocalyptic burlesque and repopulation play, written with British composer Michael Wookey, recently played at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival to critical acclaim. He recently received his doctorate at Cornell University in the Department of Performing and Media Arts. His dissertation, Backcountry Onstage: Rural Theatricality and the Performance of Nostalgia, interrogated the creation and dissemination of idyllic imaginaries of rural New England through everyday and theatrical performance from the late nineteenth century to the present day. Whether as a playwright, puppeteer, director, or professional ponderer, he is fascinated by collective memory, popular entertainment, and the political potential of performance. In his spare time, you’ll find him cooking, crafting, or cuddling up with his kitties, Chebi and Boubou.