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Starving
Artists Theatre Company--A History
Note: This history goes up to
2000, but will be updated soon.
 American MARK
PINKOSH (performer) and British GODFREY
HAMILTON (writer) are Starving Artists
Theatre Company. Founded in 1983, the company was based for its first ten
years in Honolulu, Hawaii. During this first decade, Starving Artists was one
of the few companies in the State of Hawaii presenting alternative and fringe
theatre. Frequently honored for their work by the Hawaii State Theatre
Council's annual Po'okela Awards, Starving Artists said farewell with the
enormously popular Haole Boy, a self-penned performance by Mark taking a
hilariously skewed look at growing up `haole' (white) in the multi-ethnic
Islands, and with To Men in Love, an intimate evening of love poems, dream
monologues and laconic humor, written by Mark and Godfrey and performed by
them in various venues around Honolulu.
In 1992, Mark and Godfrey were honored, in a public ceremony, by the City
and County of Honolulu for their work counteracting homophobia and racism in
Hawaii. In 1993 they relocated to California.
" Gaining an ever-stronger reputation on both sides of the
Atlantic" (London Evening Standard),
Mark's performance in Godfrey's play Road Movie garnered the Stage Award for
Acting Excellence at the 1995 Edinburgh Festival.
Mark then won the 1996 Manchester Evening News Award (Actor Of The Year in
a Visiting Show) for Road Movie
. The play, directed by Starving Artists' regular Lorenzo Mele,
also won a Fringe First Award at the 1995 Edinburgh Festival and recently
headlined at the Toronto World Stage Festival. It went on to represent the US
at the Dublin International Festival (Peacock Theatre). In 1996, Mark and
Godfrey won another Fringe First Award for Viper's Opium ( directed by Lorenzo Mele and
premiering at the Traverse Theatre), which was also invited to the Dublin
International Festival in 1997 (Andrews Lane Theatre) before touring to the
United States.
 Godfrey's
plays have been mounted throughout Britain and played extensive seasons in
London: Kissing Marianne (1994)
was commissioned by the Drill Hall Arts Centre, premiered in London, toured
to California and Scotland, and is published in the anthology Staging
Gay Lives (Westview/HarperCollins).
Mark and Godfrey's previous work together includes: Island to Island (1988), Angels of
Freedom (1990), Return
of Peer Gynt
(1991), Holding Back the Ocean (1991), Broken Folk (1992), Haole Boy (1992) and To Men
In Love (1993).
Their breakthrough show Sleeping With You (directed by David Prescott)
premiered at the 1993 Edinburgh Festival, transferred to London for a season,
(earning nominations for the UK Independent Theatre Award and London Fringe
Awards),toured to New Zealand to inaugurate Auckland's Hero Festival, then
played seasons in Honolulu, Calgary and Los Angeles (twice).
Starving Artists' touring program has recently included London, Chicago,
Philadelphia and Vancouver. Road Movie continued touring in 1998 to Dublin (for a second
season), Maine, Miami and Hawaii. It is set to open soon, in a French
language production, in Paris.
Godfrey's Pacific Dreams was commissioned by the BBC in 1997 and aired on Radio4
as a Monday Night Play, directed by Cathryn Horn. Godfrey is currently under
commission to London's Bush Theatre.
In May of 1998 Godfrey's Never-Before-Seen Familiar opened in Manchester,
commissioned by the IQUN Festival and featuring Kathryn Howden who has made
such a hit with audiences playing opposite Mark in Viper's Opium.
Godfrey's 1997 text Earthquake Weather, another Traverse Theatre
premiere (directed by John Tiffany), has recently been optioned for a New
York production.
Mark and Godfrey tend to work with an informal team of honorary
"Starving Artists" --directors Lorenzo Mele and David Prescott,
lighting designers Douglas Kuhrt and Helen Morley, and New York-based
director/producer Matt Tauber.
Through the years, Mark and Godfrey have presented performances by
international theatre artists; the Celtic Storyteller Daniel Morden has
appeared under the Starving Artists umbrella many times, both in his own right
and as a collaborator with Godfrey, while British writer/performer Claire
Dowie was commissioned by Starving Artists to write one of her most brilliant
shows, Death
& Dancing, which she and Mark premiered in Honolulu in 1992 and have since
performed the length and breadth of the UK.
The text of Godfrey's Road Movie has been published by Nick Hern Books and is now
available in paperback through all book outlets including amazon.com. Staging
Gay Lives, edited
by John Clum and featuring Godfrey's play Kissing Marianne, is also available in both the
US and the UK (the latter as an import only). Other texts can be obtained
directly from Godfrey at Starving Artists.
In Italy, Road Movie, translated
by Gian Maria Cervo, opened at the Teatro Olympica, Rome--the opening
coinciding with the anniversary of the death of film director, poet, and
radical activist Pier Paolo Pasolini. Road Movie then toured theaters in Tuscany from late 1999 to
Summer, 2000.
In Paris, Road Movie played at the
Sudden Theatre as part of the 2000-2001 season, translated by French actor/singer
Jerome Pradon,who played all the roles.
Our e-mail address is MarkGods@AOL.com
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