Welcome! 

 

House of ShAkE is a production house working in various media, a publishing house dedicated to print and books, and a playhouse for performances, events, discussions, and more.

​

I’m Michael R. Caplan, the “Renaissance Man” of the House, with decades of experience in those and related areas – and your host!

​

Welcoming a broad and mixed public, House of ShAkE is an inn at the crossroads where we can entertain ideas and each other. It’s an ark for real in a sea of unreal, enriching our common sense – our shared experience of “meaning” in a meaning-challenged era. 

​

A home base for my own activities (such as the live/online Back to Bacchae, inspired by Euripides, the annual Schoenberg’s Return commemorating the composer’s 1933 “return to the community of Israel,” and the downhome music of my Porch Songs), House of ShAkE is also a home-away-from-home for others with projects in the House style, combining vital content with crossover appeal. 

A Handbook for Ecstatic Survival, a collection of words and images by internationally celebrated Canadian choreographer and teacher David Earle, was our first publication. Current projects include the 2nd printing of David's book; dancer Bill Coleman’s book on boxing, Prepare for the Truth; Gilles Goyette’s Random Generated Text Project (or: İ ), which I believe will be one of the major art/poetry works of our time; Gitte and Lionel, a graphic novel of my parents’ story (gentile girl grows up under Nazism, flees communist East Germany, marries a jazz-playing Montreal Jew); Stage-a-Page, a literacy and theatre education resource; and more. 

Funded until now through personal savings, sales of David’s book, and a small campaign last year, we are now raising money to complete one more round of renovations to the website branding (such as a 3D House on the landing page that visitors can enter through different doors), and solidify our administration and promotion.

​

In addition to seeking donations, arts funding, and in-kind assistance, we’ll be generating income through production services for clients, as well as through the sale of House merch, and Gilles’ dark, vibrant, whimsical paintings.