Stephen Voltz, Fritz Grobe

EepyBird explores creativity, and in particular, the ways in which ordinary objects can do extraordinary things. In their laboratory deep in the woods of Buckfield, Maine, Fritz and Stephen and their creative team experiment with Coke & Mentos, sticky notes, paper airplanes, shampoo, and more. They spend countless hours searching for ways to transform these things from everyday life into something new, into something unforgettable.

Bio for Stephen Voltz: Stephen received his law degree in 1984 from New York University. After graduation he moved to the Boston area where he has been a trial lawyer ever since with an active practice in both the state and federal courts. He has tried and won leading cases in Massachusetts involving, among other things, sex discrimination in employment, securities fraud and civil racketeering, and the rights of the public in Massachusetts’s beaches. While keeping up with a fulltime law practice, Stephen returned to performing several years ago and has studied physical comedy extensively at Celebration Barn Theater in South Paris, Maine, with master teachers Avner (“Avner the Eccentric”) Eisenberg, Bowdoin College theater professor Davis Robinson, and the late Tony Montanaro. In 2000, Stephen produced and starred in his own one-man physical comedy show “The Benefit of Doubt” at the San Francisco Fringe Festival.

Bio for Fritz Grobe:  For the first twenty years of his life, Fritz wanted to be either a designer for Lego or a mathematician. Then came juggling. While attending Yale University, he founded the Yale Anti-Gravity Society, the university’s juggling club. After leaving Yale, he turned to Celebration Barn Theater’s renowned performing arts school where he studied physical theater with Avner Eisenberg, Julie Goell, Fred Garbo and Tony Montanaro.

In 1993, he won the International Jugglers Festival individual championships, the first of his five gold medals at the festival. He also briefly held a world record for juggling way too many objects, bouncing 15 balls between two people. Fritz was artistic director of the juggling and dance ensemble “blink” from 1995 to 2000, which won both the Dance Portland Professional Choreography Showcase and the International Jugglers Festival Team Championships in Las Vegas. blink toured theatrical venues for five years, including performances in London, Edinburgh, Montreal, Chicago, Minneapolis, and Los Angeles.