About

Eben Hoffer is a director, writer, and musician who makes live events for people to experience together, in the same place, at the same time [coronavirus update: same time, not same place]. He pairs sumptuous visuals and scoring with joyful movement, with comedic excess, with subject matter that confronts and complicates the assumptions of the here and now. If all storytelling models future behavior (it does), then our stories should teach us to connect, find joy, yet think deeply and critically. This is the plan.

Eben creates independent work and designs widely for other makers. He is stage director and lighting designer for Royal Osiris Karaoke Ensemble, and founder and choreographer of Tugboat Collective. His compositions with tei blow have toured nationally and internationally with Big Dance Theater, David Neumann, and others. He designs and programs interactive installations and gadgets. He occasionally directs choirs.

Recent work includes: Memory Habit, a theatrical lecture about generational trauma, epigenetics, and American pop-reminiscence of the Holocaust; Atlas Of Depression, a social practice work about mental illness on campus, at Carnegie Mellon University; choral direction for Lyam B. Gabel’s The Dance Floor, The Hospital Room, and the Kitchen Table (oral history musical) at CMU; and Royal Osiris’ Awesome Grotto! (media ceremony) at Abrons Arts Center & American Realness Festival: nominated for 2019 Bessie Dance & Performance Awards for Outstanding Production and Outstanding Visual Design.