AUDIENCE ACCOLADES
Last evening was magical, a triumph of transcendental meaning and beauty.  I was drawn into the mystery from your first song and lines, through to Act II and the end.  The breathless silence of your audience meant that we were all caught up in the spell of your creative imagination.  We were all children again, in summer fields, before the fall and winter of our lives brought war and stress.
You have taken the grief and suffering of your own life and transmuted it by creativity into art. You have given us a great gift.
Susan Gibson
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That was glorious!!!! Well done!!!! Creativity and joy just pour out of you and your voice is so strong and so rich...
Marnie Keator
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You gave such a profound performance...
I just thought, how daring it was to imagine your own conception, and then stand there in full figure, the actual author, not even just a good actress, the actual product. And, yes, so wonderful to take it right to the conceivers’ (parents’) old age (& tie it into the fool theme).  How wonderful for us all to get to see poetry in a dramatic context like this...
Anne Thomas
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Well thank you very much for that powerful, beautiful show!!!!!!!
What a lot of life’s work, and what an exquisite form to display yourself, your talents, joys and woes.
Marybeth Hallinan
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Nancy Knowles draws her audience into an intensely personal, courageous, and sensual celebration of life and of expression. I left the performance feeling awakened to a deepened perspective of the world that unfortunately often lies dormant.
Mary Myers

REVIEW
The House of Fools, a poetic memoir in two acts by Nancy Knowles (of  Duo LiveOak ) is a  must see.  I have been following LiveOak productions for the past sixteen years and was fortunate to be in the audience in Antrim this past Saturday.  The show is hard to categorize.  It’s a one-woman show.  It’s more than a concert. It’s more than a poetry reading.  It’s more than a night of entertaining theatre.  Knowles shares her very personal story and makes it a universal story.  Through song, her poetry, her use of masks, and her acting we hear her story, we feel her joy, we feel her pain.   Her joy, her pain are transformed into our joy, our pain.  The themes are universal - special memories from when we were young, the pain of losing a loved one, the frustration of not being understood, how children perceive their parents...

The choice of music (Shaker, Sicilian, Peruvian, African,  medieval, blues …) is eclectic and the singing is superb. Knowles has a sensual, effortless sound.  Her high notes are truly spectacular.  But most of all there is an honesty in her presentation that makes her singing extremely compelling.

Recently I attended Tea at Five, a Hartford Stage presentation of the life of Katharine Hepburn.  This too is a one woman show.  It too was wonderful.  But what struck me was that Kate Mulgrew was telling the story of Katharine Hepburn, written by Matthew Lombardo and directed by John Tillinger.  Four principals plus a huge backup staff for stage design and special effects were involved.   House of Fools is Knowles telling the story of Knowles written by Knowles and directed by Knowles.  One extraordinary creative woman put this entire show together.  A great testimonial to the adage less is more.  Don’t miss it!     --Karen Graves

Press Release (long)
Singer/Poet/Actress Nancy Knowles
Performs Solo Show, The House of Fools
On _______ at ____pm __________ will present singer/poet Nancy Knowles in performance of a major new solo work entitled The House of Fools. A dramatic memoir in two acts, the show combines Knowles’ own poetry with masks, flutes, drums, and unaccompanied song, including medieval, Shaker, Peruvian and early blues. The performance, in honor of National Poetry Month, will take place at the________________. Admission to The House of Fools show is____ at the door. For more information call______.

The House of Fools is a celebration of life after tragedy as well as an exploration of the wisdom of folly. “Go, teach eternal wisdom how to rule, then drop into thyself and be a fool!”  (Alexander Pope, 1688-1744).  With humor and pathos Knowles traces her steps from the bittersweet circumstances of her birth just after World War II and her idyllic childhood, to the tumult of the late sixties: her years in Peru and visits to her brother in a mental institution. The show ends with a tribute to the grace and joy of her parents today as they live out the last chapters of their long lives.

Nancy Knowles, praised for her “exceptionally beautiful soprano” (The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette), is best known for her performances as Duo LiveOak with guitarist/composer Frank Wallace.  Their concerts celebrate solo song repertoire ranging from contemporary to Schubert, to Renaissance. Throughout the 80’s and 90’s she toured internationally and recorded early music with Trio LiveOak and LiveOak and Company, including performances at such festivals as the Holland Festival, the Regensburg Festival, the Barcelona Early Music Festival, Musica en Compostela, and the Boston Early Music Festival.  Knowles’ singing has been featured on seven recordings (Titanic Records, Musical Heritage Society, Centaur Records and Gyre). Her newest CDs are Duo LiveOak’s Schubert and Mertz album (Gyre 10022) released in 2001, and the hot-off-the-press album of renaissance song, Piva (Gyre 10032) are available online at duoliveoak.com, cdbaby.com and amazon.com. Knowles will record House of Fools this summer for her debut solo CD celebrating the unaccompanied voice both in readings of her own poetry and songs from many lands.

Knowles has always brought drama and the spoken word into her performances and into her teaching of voice. A poet for almost thirty years, she runs workshops in performing poetry. In the 1980’s and ‘90’s, as artistic director of LiveOak and Company, she conceived a number of highly-acclaimed dramatic works. A musical theater pieces inspired by commedia dell’arte, The Lost Spindle, toured extensively in the U.S. and Europe for a number of years “The Lost Spindle reflected humor in sorrow and vice-versa, reaching to the essence of the music performed and the message it contained… you laughed, you cried, then you laughed some more.”  (The Tech [MIT]).  In 1995 the Boston Early Music Festival commissioned Singing Simpkin and Simon the King, a tavern drama with music of the 17th century that ran for five nights at the 1995 Festival: “…the show’s low slapstick and high hilarity had us rolling in the aisles…who would not be charmed?” (The Boston Globe).

Audience enthusiasm for Knowles’ new solo show has been unanimous:
...magical, a triumph of transcendental meaning and beauty.
Susan Gibson
•
Glorious!!!!  Creativity and joy just pour out of her.
Marnie Keator
•
...an intensely personal, courageous, and sensual celebration of life.
Mary Meyers
•
The House of Fools is a must-see...Don’t miss it!
Karen Graves


Press Release (short)
Singer/Poet/Actress Nancy Knowles
Performs Solo Show, The House of Fools

In _______ on ________, ________will present singer/poet/actress Nancy Knowles performing The House of Fools, a dramatic memoir in two acts, a major new solo work that weaves her own poetry with masks, songs, flutes and percussion. This show is both comedy and tragedy, music and drama, one voice, many voices, a special voice that in speaking and singing its passion becomes all of our voices. Her story of heartbreak and joy is a mirror for all of our stories.

The House of Fools is an inspiring solo theater piece that is a living testament to the power of laughter, song, poetry and family to heal. The Alexander Pope quote “Go, teach eternal wisdom how to rule—then drop into thyself and be a fool!” aptly expresses her philosophy. Her stage career began as a teenager performing (and singing) the role of Feste the fool in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night  Forty years later, she now plays herself as the wise old fool.

Nancy Knowles performs with her husband, guitarist/composer Frank Wallace as Duo LiveOak.  Their international performing career spans over 25 years.  This is Knowles’ first full-length solo production. The audience sings its praises:

  ...magical, a triumph of transcendental meaning and beauty.
Susan Gibson
•
Glorious!!!!  Creativity and joy just pour out of her.
Marnie Keator
•
...an intensely personal, courageous, and sensual celebration of life
Mary Myers
•
The House of Fools is a must-see...Don’t miss it!
Karen Graves