BRIAN ROTT

Email.  [email protected]        Phone.  (414)  702  0392

Brian Rott is an international director and theatre artist.  In 2012 he founded Quasimondo Physical Theatre and has lead the company as producing artistic director through five critically acclaimed seasons. He has writiten, directed and produced a diverse repertoire of  works that have toured the US, from Nevada to New York.
 
He has collaborated with and has been commissioned by various institutions  including: the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Villa Terrace Decorative Arts Museum, the Wisconsin Historical Society, Milwaukee Public Theatre, Milwaukee Paranormal Conference, Old World Wisconsin, Cooperative Performance, and the Urban Ecology Center. His co-production of Zie Magic Flute with Milwaukee Opera Theatre, was awarded the 2017 Footlight Award for "Best Performance". In 2015 he collaborated with Present Music and Grammy award-winning pianist Cory Smythe to create Carnival, a theatrical concert merging music, dance, and commedia dell'arte.
 
His dissection of gender roles and cosplay culture, Kamikaze Cutesauce: Cosplay Club, played at the New York International Fringe Festival, and was featured in Time Out: New York, The Village Voice, and The Daily Beast's "Best of Fringe NYC". He has been recognized for his work in clown and bouffon performance. His arresting exposé on homeland security, Americlown, was listed in "Top Ten Wisconsin Plays of 2013" by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

He is a meticulous craftsman, taking an active role in all aspects in the development of original theatre, and has designed sound, lighting, projections, scenery, makeup, and costumes for numerous productions. He has choreographed and created provocative works of dance theatre, with collaborator Jenni Reinke, exploring microbiology (Animolecules), the life and works of Salvador Dali (Giraffe on Fire),  sexuality and eroticism (Kama Sutra), and the physiological and psychological effects of deep space travel (Bottle 99).

He has staged innovative reconstructions of Three Sisters, The Seagull, Richard III, Hamlet, and The Merchant of Venice, and has adapted a number of literary works for the stage. His productions of Love and Cthulhu, adapted from the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft, and Animal Farm, a puppet adaptation of Orwell's classic, were lauded as "Most daring performances of 2014" by Milwaukee Theater Examiner.
 
He received an M.F.A. in Physical Theatre from Accademia Dell'Arte (Arezzo, Italy), and has trained with masters across the globe: at the Moscow Art Theatre (Russia), Odin Teatret (Denmark), Berlin School of Music (Germany),  FLIC School of Circus (Italy), the International Mask Museum of Donato Sartori (Italy), Teatro Piccolo (Italy), Tri Pusaka Cakti Arts Foundation (Bali), and  the Kottayam Kathakali Festival (India). In 2017 he studied Butoh with Sankai Juku and participated in the Suzuki Company of Toga (SCOT) Summer Camp in Japan. He earned a B.A. in Theatre Arts from the University of Wisconsin Parkside, and has assisted directors at The Guthrie, American Players Theatre, and  Great River Shakespeare Festival.
 
As a theatre educator he has taught a variety of courses and workshops at organizations and universities, and is a founding member of the Milwaukee Fringe Festival.
​He enjoys gardening, cooking, running, juggling, and occasionally performing.