Solo Performance Festival (SPF #4: Can You Get My Back) presented by Theatre Off Jackson is the fourth installment of Seattle's annual solo performance festival, and is dedicated to presenting fearless, cutting-edge, diverse performances by solo theatre artists. SPF #4 invites you to celebrate solo artists through storytelling, music, dance, fiction, memoirs and whatever else their lone voice can dream up.
Drag queen extrordinaire Ben DeLaCreme (Can Can Cabaret, Atomic Bombshells, Academy of Burlesque) shows us what's behind the makeup in Ben DeLaCreme's Piece de Resistance (the piece she should have resisted) now in IMAX 3-D! Minnesota's Sage Award Outstanding Performer, Tamara Ober brings dance performance Pipa to Seattle, which has captivated audiences with it's dynamic mix of spoken word, dance, video and beautiful musical score. Billie Wildrick (ACT Theatre, 5th Avenue Theatre, Seattle Children's Theatre, Footlight Award Winner, Gregory Award Nominee) brings her commanding and luminescent vocal talent to Theatre Off Jackson to the story of Samson.
Performances range in date from March 3 - April 3 and are at 7:30pm. Tickets for Solo Performance Festival at Theatre Off Jackson are $15 ($10 for Late Night Monologue Slams at 10pm) or $99 for a all-access festival pass. Tickets at Brown Paper Tickets at http://bit.ly/spf4tix. Using code SUNSCREEN, early purchasers can recieve a discount on all performances and the festival pass, while supplies last. Stay with Solo Performance Festival through our blog at spfseattle.blogspot.com and our Facebook Fan Page at http://bit.ly/spf_4
Above Normal Range by Becca Davis - Best in Shorts
March 3
A woman with an unusual vocal attribute interviews for a specialized dating service.
Ben DeLaCreme's Piece de Resistance! (the piece she should have resisted) now in IMAX 3D!
April 1, 2, 3
At last Seattle's terminally delightful star of stage and street shares the secrets that have tricked dozens of audience members into enjoying her company. Join DeLaCreme as she peels back the outer layers of makeup and artifice to reveal the makeup and artifice within.
Ben DeLaCreme has appeared in theaters and nightclubs from coast to coast ever since the fateful day in 2002 when she realized that normally unsavory behavior is better received the more makeup one wears. Hailed by The Stranger as "the reason live performance was invented," DeLaCreme combines her background in the performing & visual arts with a love of spectacle, glamour, and Saturday morning cartoons to create a thick sludge of sparkly entertainment certain to stick to your ribs. Favorite local venues include The Triple Door, ACT Theater, Theater Off Jackson and West Hall where DeLaCreme produces and directs the annual seasonal spectacle HOMO for the Holidays. You may recognize DeLaCreme from her engagement as the in-house MC at the award winning Can Can Cabaret, as an instructor at the Academy of Burlesque, or as the drunk you've avoided any number of places. Ben DeLaCreme doesn't miss a moment of Seattle's rainy season, but escapes that nasty two months of sunshine by summering in Provincetown, MA with The Atomic Bombshells.
Blue's Not Black by David Schmader - Best in Shorts
March 16, 23
Blue's Not Black, David Schmader's solo play about his deep and complicated relationships with women. The second half of this work will be a solo play with another performer in it. This is from the first half.
David Schmader is a writer and performer who's been living and working in Seattle since 1991. His solo plays include Letter to Axl and Straight, which he's performed in Seattle and across the U.S. Since 1999, Schmader's been an editor and staff writer for the Seattle newsweekly The Stranger, for which he writes the weekly pop culture-and-politics column "Last Days."
Daddy is Plastic by Elspeth Walker - Best in Shorts
3/3
A short performance piece about a girl who goes to London to meet a dad she hasn't seen in eleven years and finds that her knight-on-white-horse vision is actually self-centered, fat, self-destructive and ugly. Daddy is Plastic is a valley-girl's wrestling match with the duplicities of images we create for a single person; a deconstruction of our nasty human tendency to fabricate idyllic, porcelain people out of their primal, repulsive counterparts.
Elspeth Walker is a senior Theater & English major (French minor) at Seattle University. She was last seen as Cleanthis in SU's winter 2010 production of Marivaux's The Island of Slaves. Elspeth is planning to perform the full version of her piece Daddy is Plastic for her departmental honors project in SU Theater this spring. She was recently awarded a scholarship for Artistic Achievement in Theater from the department. She is also the Literary Intern at ACT this year.
De: Colores: Flying with Color by Ben Gonio - Best in Shorts
March 16, 23
A boy, his father and a family's arrival to a new land. A timeless and familiar story that re-plays countless times in a young Filipino immigrant's journey. Mack Ati recounts the wondrous expectations of his childhood as he recounts his embarkment to the United States in the late 1970s. A story brimming with universal themes.
Ben Gonio is a local actor and producer in the Seattle area. A recipient of the 2007 Artist Trust Grant for his solo show As Boundless As The Green Earth, Ben also received a 2009 City of Seattle, Mayor's Office of Cultural Affairs Grant, for his solo-show project about Carlos Bulosan. Regional credits include Seattle Repertory Theatre, The 5th Avenue Theatre, ACT Theatre, Seattle Children's Theatre, Empty Space Theatre, Village Theatre, Seattle Shakespeare Company and Alice B. Theatre. He has performed nationally at Tony Award winning Minneapolis Children's Theatre, The Guthrie Theatre, Houston's Arena Theatre, and Sierra Repertory Theatre. bengonio.com
Demonstrate the Place of My Abode by Lisa Koch
March 9, 12, 17, 30
Stories of a funny father, the music he inspired, and a quirky look at life and death.
An irreverent Seattle singer/actor/comedian, Lisa Koch has released four solo recordings, is one-half of loony sketch-comedy duo, Dos Fallopia (Ham for the Holidays, My Breasts Are Out of Control), and is an alumnus of cult quartet Venus Envy (I'll Be A Homo for Xmas). She performs at folk and comedy festivals all over the world, and has shared the stage with Steve Martin, Dave Brubeck, Suzanne Westenhoefer, Kate Clinton, and Janis Ian. Lisa has co-written such warped cabaret shows as The Carpeters: Uncomfortably Close To You, Déjà Poo, and Ham for the Holidays: Lard Potion No 9. She has toured two one-woman shows (Two's Company, I'm a Crowd, Return to Planet Lisa) and regional theater credits include The Vagina Monologues (Phoenix Theatre) Dirty Blonde (AZ Theatre Co.) and as the Wicked Witch of the West in The Wizard of Oz (5th Ave Theatre). She is the composer of a recent Off-Broadway musical about Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas (27, Rue de Fleurus), published by Samuel French. She performs regularly on Olivia Cruises, has been seen on LOGO, and her latest CD, Tall Cool Drink contains the internet hit, "I'm a Middle-Aged Woman." http://www.heylisa.com/
The Dwellers by Jonah Von Spreecken
March 4, 8, 17, 19, 29
There is a building where the floors are thinner than the walls. The residents' shoes populate the lobby as there is a no-shoes ordinance past level one. A young man lives amongst the piles of shoes, and takes charge of making them not so empty all the time.
Frontier: Valley of the Shadow by Ki Gottberg
March 5, 13
In a whirl of immigrant family history past and future, Ki Gottberg swirls transformatively though all the characters in her own humorously intimate story about spiritual hunger, physical appetite and the quest for faith. One hour long.
Ki Gottberg is a Seattle native. New City Theater, where Frontier: Valley of the Shadow (Seattle Times Footlight award) ran September-November 2009, has been her recurrent artistic home since 1983; her plays Hunger, Stript and Big Boss or the Inner Life of Everything all began life there, and she has appeared in numerous New City productions. Work staged in Seattle other places include The Compendium of Nastiness at The Womb Theater, her commissioned adaptation and direction of Ubu Roi at the Empty Space Theater and an operetta, Mirabelle, a Breeze, commissioned by the Seattle International Children's Festival (Giant Magnet). She is a recipient of numerous awards and grants for playwriting including a $25,000. NEA/TCG Playwriting Fellowship with New City Theater. After a career in Seattle theater, Ki is now a professor at Seattle University in Fine Arts, where she teaches acting, playwriting, and directs student productions. She is a graduate of the U of W Professional Actor Training Program.
Growing up and Liking It by Jennifer Jasper
April 1, 2, 3
Have you ever wondered what it would be like to grow up in a house with five girls with a mother with a propensity for falling down, a father who doesn't really like children, and a grandfather whose hobby is making dildos? Well, this is Jennifer Jasper's life. She has a unique and hilarious way of telling these stories. And the most disturbing part...they're all true. Performed improvisationally, she takes you on a journey from growing up the middle child in a middle class family to the middle of her own mid-life.
Jennifer Jasper has been performing and directing in Seattle for almost 20 years and has performed nationally. She was a co-founder of Kings' Elephant Theatre (10 years) and co-founder of Pulp Vixens (10 years). Most recently she can be seen hosting burlesque and performing it as well as the scotch-swilling "Maggie". In 2009 she direcTed Keefee's House of Cards and Teensploitation for Printer's Devil Theatre of which she is a member. Through improvisation she is continuing to develop her stories into a longer form and looks forward to performing them wherever she can.
Gunpowder by Jayson McDonald
March 25, 26, 27
Jake's Gift by Julia Mackey
March 25, 26, 27
Jake's Gift is a surprisingly funny drama about a WWII veteran's reluctant return to Normandy, France, for the 60th Anniversary of D-Day. While there he meets Isabelle, a precocious 10-year-old from the local village, whose inquisitive nature and charm challenge the old soldier to confront some long ignored ghosts, most notably, the wartime death of his eldest brother, Chester, a once promising young musician.
Julia Mackey was born into a very active theatre family in Birmingham, England and moved to Canada when she was three years old. She grew up in Montreal, and received an education degree from McGill University before heading out west in 1993 to pursue acting and writing. In 1995 she started doing just that with Victoria's Theatre SKAM, and has since worked with many other theatre companies across Canada. Since 2007, Julia has toured Jake's Gift to rave reviews at theatres and festivals across Canada. http://www.juliamackey.com/
Kitty in The City by Jeff Frieders
March 12, 20, 22, 31
A story about Ronney Bridestar, owner and operator of "Kitty in the City Beauty Bar and Day Spa for Feline Friends by Ronney Bridestar." This full length piece chronicles Ronney's journey toward success as he struggles to distinguish between fantasy and reality.
Jeff Frieders is thrilled to be making his SPF debut. Kitty in the City was originally produced as a senior thesis at Cornish College of the Arts. It was most recently work-shopped in Wisconsin during an internship with Milwaukee Repertory Theater and is preparing to tour the Canadian fringe circuit. Recent credits include Gus in The River Why (Book-It Repertory) and Ferdinand in The Tempest (Seattle Shakespeare). Jeff is excited to be working with the hilarious and talented Chelsea Anderson and sends his love to his family and his beautiful partner, Erika.
Late Night Monologue Slam: Hosted by Kevin Kent
at Canoe Social Club - above Theatre Off Jackson
3/13 & 27 - 10pm
Selected performers compete in a winner-takes-all showdown where the audience and local celebrity judges pick the fiercest most daring solo performer. Hosted by Teatro Zinzanni's Kevin Kent.
Little Boy In Flames by Guiseppe Ribaudo - Best In Shorts
March 16
Growing up gay in a straight world. Guiseppe tackles Nature vs. Nurture with songs and stories.
My Little Loves by Becca Davis - Best in Shorts
March 16
Internationally known opera star Bitsy Malouf shares stories and songs of her multi-decade career, life and loves.
No Game by Noah Benezra - Best in Shorts
March 16, 23
"Dudely" comedy about hip hop, getting arrested and losing virginity in the Bush Era.
Not. Stable. At all. By Paul Budraitis
March 6, 10
Uncertainty and instability at a personal and societal level. The spontaneous following of questionable impulses, the impossibility of connection, the mistrust of authority and the presence of chaos and random violence in our lives. Paul Budraitis dives into these themes and takes his audience on a ride that is part punk-rebellion and part narrative rollercoaster.
Paul Budraitis is a director, actor, writer and teacher of acting and stage movement. In Seattle, he has worked with Annex Theatre, New City Theatre, On the Boards, and the Degenerate Art Ensemble. Paul recieved his master's degree in theatre from the Lithuanian Music and Theatre Academy. Paul worked with innovative Finnish director Kristian Smeds on a contemporary re-imagining of Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard. Paul's recent director credits include David Mamet's Edmond at Balagan Theatre. As a teacher, Paul has worked as a lecturer in the acting and directing faculty of the LMTA, teaching acting and stage movement.He has also taught the "biomechanics" technique of Russian theatre director Vsevelod Meyerhold at the LMTA, as well as to students at the Iceland Academy of the Arts in Reykjavik, Iceland.
A One Man Miss Saigon by Manuel R. Cawaling - Best in Shorts
March 3, 16
In these difficult economic times, why produce a major Broadway musical with a cast of 30 or more when it can be performed with just one person? And with our shrinking attention spans, why produce a three hour musical when a story can be told in under 10 minutes? Manuel Cawaling returns to the Theatre Off Jackson stage with his hilarious parody of Miss Saigon. Through "movement", karaoke, lip-synch, a helicopter and the use of a very large fan, Cawaling tells the tragic story of war torn lovers like it's never been told before.
100 Years Of Solitude by Conner Marx - Best in Shorts
March 23
Many years later, as he faced the firing squad, Colonel Aureliano Buendia was to remember that distant afternoon when his father took him to discover ice.
Manuel R. Cawaling has worked professionally in the Puget Sound as an artist and administrator since 1989. Over the last 20 years, Cawaling has explored a variety of professional interests-arts administration, stage directing, performing, arts education, exhibit development and community organizing. Cawaling is the Executive Director for Youth Theatre Northwest and the President for the Washington State Arts Alliance Foundation. Cawaling is a well-known local director and his work has been seen in various venues across the city. Cawaling recently directed The Fantasticks for Civic Light Opera, Theory of Everything for SIS Productions and Orbis, a unique performing arts installation celebrating the Winter Solstice at Seattle Center.
Pipa by Tamara Ober
March 4, 5, 6
Pipa, a richly layered dance work integrating dynamic movement, a beautiful musical sound score, video and spoken text, tells the story of an accident-prone girl who is unable to take the direct route to anywhere. She wanders the broken lines of a map between worlds of the appearing and disappearing, never ceasing to risk it all.
Tamara Ober has been a member of Zenon Dance Company since 2002 where she has worked with over 30 national and international, emerging and world-renowned choreographers, touring to New York, St. Petersburg and Budapest. She graduated from the University of MN in 2001 with a BFA in Dance, BA in Sociology and travelled the US and Canada to study the techniques of Ailey, Graham, Limon, Varone, and Contact Improvisation. Tamara has performed and taught with Sean Curran's Dance Company at NYU Tisch School of the Arts in 2007, consulted for the Northrop Auditorium in the renovation and development of new visions and programs in 2008, and successfully created and toured her first original solo dance-theater work, Pipa, to Montreal, Winnipeg, Minneapolis and Edmonton Fringe Festivals, as well as Budapest, Hungary this past summer. She was awarded 'first-runner-up Best English Language Production' in Montreal, 5 Stars from CBC Winnipeg, and a Minneapolis Sage Award for Outstanding Performer for the work Pipa and Zenon's Spring Performance.
The Price is Not Right by Carrie McIntyre
March 3, 22
An enquiring niece interviews her aunt for a history project and learns family secrets.
Rapid Slippage Along a Fault by Keira McDonald - Best in Shorts
March 3, 23
In the first minute of the first year of the 21st century a girl falls...in love. First comes the earthquake and then the declaration of war.
Keira McDonald (Creator/Performer) is a self-producing theatre artist who lives in Seattle. Her first one woman show Showerhead was seen at Mae West Fest, Odd Duck Studio, Re-Bar, Frontera Fest (Best of fest, Austin, TX) UNO SOLO festival (Victoria, BC) and Manhattan Theatre Source's EstroGenius Festival (New York) Her second one woman show The Bridesmaid premiered at The Comedy Tree (London) and was featured at Theatre Off Jackson, CHAC and Bryant Lake Bowl (Minneapolis) It toured The Canadian Fringe Festival Circuit to sold out audiences in 2007. Her third one woman show BLAsTronaughy! premiered at The Regina InterNational Theatre Festival and toured to Winnipeg and Saskatoon, San Francisco and Austin, TX. Her fourth solo show xxplicit was performed at SPF #3 and is heading to Orlando in May 2010. She is the Founder and Producer/Curator of Seattle's Solo Performance Festival (SPF) at Theatre Off Jackson.
Returning The Bones by Gin Hammond
March 11, 19, 20
How do you choose between your country, your people, and yourself? This is the question Returning The Bones asks. It is based on the true story of the African American doctor, Caroline Beatrice Montier, (aka "Bebe") now 84. After being invited to finish her medical degree in Europe shortly after WWII, Bebe has to choose between staying in the South (and continuing to risk her life in the fight for Civil Rights), or escaping to Paris to live a life she's always dreamed of. Returning The Bones is a solo show with 26 characters and multiple dialects performed by Helen Hayes Award-winner, Gin Hammond. Classic storytelling combined with a fluid physical style will bring you on a journey of many miles, perspectives, and epiphanies.
Gin Hammond received her MFA from the A.R.T. at Harvard University/Moscow Art Theatre. She has performed nationally at theatres such The Guthrie, Arena Stage, The Longwharf Theatre, Seattle's ACT, The Pasadena Playhouse, the ART, The Berkshire Theatre Festival and The Studio Theatre in Washington D.C., where she won a Helen Hayes Award for Outstanding Lead Actress for her performance of The Syringa Tree. Internationally, she has performed in Russia, Germany, Ireland, Scotland and England. Ms. Hammond also received a Kathleen Cornell award, and WA state grants from Allied Arts, The Mayor's Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, Artist Trust, 4 Culture, as well as from the NEA. Her voice(s) can be heard of Jim French's Imagination Theatre, Super Granny, Cake Mania, Westward, and Nancy Drew video games, a wide range of industrials, audiobooks produced by Redwood and Cedar House Audio, and Halo 3 ODST. She currently resides in Seattle with her husband, where she writes, directs, teaches and performs.
The Riverboat Runs Aground: Based on a True Story by Wesley K. Andrews. - Best in Shorts March 3, 16 Wesley K. Andrews performs an excerpt from his original work, The Riverboat Runs Aground: Based on a True Story. Tonight's performance will be Chapter III: The Fairbanks High School Constitutional Crisis, a story of careless endangerment and rebellion in the context of a post-Columbine school system.
Wesley K. Andrews is a performer and playwright in Seattle, Washington. A 2004 graduate from the University of Puget Sound, Wesley has performed at On the Boards, Annex Theatre, Macha Monkey Theatre, Balagan Theatre, the Lee Center for the Arts, and other venues. Non-theatrical publications include ArtsReach Magazine and Redefine Magazine. He is employed at Kirkland Performance Center as Development and Communications Manager and Admins the Facebook group Seattle Comp Tickets in his spare time.
Samson by Billie Wildrick
March 8, 13, 18, 29
It ends with rubble. A great pile of destruction obscured by the unbreathable dust of collapse, moving like dry fog. It is over before the dust settles. We all know the end of Samson's story. But whose choices got him there? Why did the strongest man in the world lay his head in a woman's lap and allow her to begin the end of his life? Underscored by guitar and acoustic drum, and illuminated by a melodic vocal through-line, Samson's is a story of longing to tear through the pages of a life already written with humanity both given and denied by a then-silent god.
Billie Wildrick is a local singer/actor who has been described by the press as an "engaging" "super," "awesome," "adorable," "sassy," "charming," "luminous," "terrific," "wildly talented" "bright-eyed and beautiful," "sultry siren," with a "Crayola box of skills," "warmth," "charm," "effervesence and natural, unforced talents" who "sparkles," "shines," burns scenery "to a crisp" and "couldn't be more appealing if she were a banana." Her voice has been described as "lovely," "bell-like," "nightingale-caliber," "crystal clear" "strong, "stunning," "sweet," "melodious," "commanding" and "magnificent" full of "vivacity." Billie was nominated for a Gregory Award for Best Actress in 2009 for her work in Sunday in the Park with George at The 5th Avenue Theatre and Dås Barbecu at ACT. She was named in The Seattle Times Footlight Awards for her performances in Wonderful Town at The 5th Avenue Theatre and Seussical! at Seattle Children's Theatre. Billie has written and performed solo work that divorces and remarries music and theatre in places that no longer exist such as the Seattle Fringe Festival, the Liberty Deli and Thumper's. She hopes SPF survives her efforts.
Shall I Compare Waxie To a Summer's Day by Waxie Moon -Best In Shorts
March 23
Sick by Elizabeth Kenny - Best in Shorts
March 3
SUBPRIME!: Inside the Heart of the Mortgage Meltdown by Norman Bell. March 10, 11 A fun, fast-paced roller coaster tour through the turbo-charged world of the subprime mortgage industry - a world of fast-talking loan officers, opportunistic condo flippers and hopeful first-time homeowners, all looking for their piece of the American Dream. Norman Bell is a solo performer and playwright. His original performances include SUBPRIME!, Mango, Little Hand and Think. Norman has also performed in theatre, TV and film. In theatre, he played a lead role in David Mamet's Sexual Perversity in Chicago, and acted in Ghetto by Joshua Sorbol and The Hothouse by Harold Pinter. On TV, he was featured in the popular Spanish soap opera Cor de la Ciutat. In film, he played opposite Christian Bale in The Machinist.
The Total Package: A Journey Into Manhood by Ernie Von Schmaltz (Anna Allen)
April 1, 2, 3
Take a ride on the mustache express with this hilarious gender-bending guide to masculinity! Ernie Von Schmaltz leads this 30 minute excerpted show demonstrating the finer points of being a man. Using dance, song, film, humor and flow charts, you will experience a transformative seminar like no other.
Ernie Von Schmaltz is a ladies man. Ahead of the curve (in fact so far, he's coming around from behind again) Ernie is a true renaissance dude. Known as The Man, The Myth, The Mustache, Ernie is a dancing, emceeing sex machine that's been pushing The Edge of Seattle's burlesque scene since 2005. Ernie is the regular host of Seattle's Dr. Sketchy's anti- art school, was recently featured in burlesque films A Wink and a Smile and Waxie Moon. He has appeared many times all over the northwest and at national burlesque conventions.
The character behind the character is Anna Allen. Anna grew up in a small northern California town enjoying theatre, dance and costumed expression. In college, she minored in theatre arts and took every physical movement and acting class she could get her hands on.After relocating to Seattle in 1996, Anna sought out fringe theatre (EXITheatre) and was a founding member of a Seattle comedy improv group (Comedy Court). Post improv, she found burlesque at the Academy of Burlesque and began developing her personae. She also helped found Seattle's award winning comedy burlesque power trio The Von Foxies in mid 2004. In 2009, The Von Foxies said goodbye and Anna is now pursuing a solo burlesque career.
Traveling Panties by Mike Harris
March 6, 10, 18, 22
An angry cross dresser tales tells of I-90, thongs and beyond!
What You are Unaware of is This by Tina Kunz Rowley - Best in Shorts
March 16, 23
Worse Places by Erin Jorgensen
March 30, 31
Music, singing and text combine in a hypnotic voyage incorporating amplified and acoustic marimba, original music, Bach, a Disney tear-jerker, and stories of childhood visions and accidental evil.
Erin Jorgensen is a musician with a day job. She dropped out of college, where she studied classical percussion and composition, to focus on playing marimba. She plays music ranging from Johnny Thunders to J.S. Bach. You can find her playing in bars, at weddings, in museums and theaters, among other places. She lives in Seattle and works at On the Boards. For more info and upcoming events, visit erinjorgensen.com
Your Own Personal Alcatraz by SuzAnne Morrison
March 12, 18
Stories from growing up on an island in the Northwest and of adolescent fascination with Ted Bundy (who just so happened to be a good family friend.)
SuzAnne Morrison is the author of Yoga Bitch, a memoir that will be published by Broadway Books in Spring of 2011 and internationally in Summer of 2011. Based on her long-running one-woman show of the same title, Yoga Bitch has been called "Ambitious, ballsy, and hilarious" by Seattle Weekly and "New Age Nirvana" by Time Out London. A 2009 recipient of 4Culture and Artist Trust grants for solo performance, Suzanne is developing a new show, Your Own Personal Alcatraz, about growing up on an island in the Northwest and her adolescent fascination with Ted Bundy. A blogger for the Huffington Post Books Section, you can also find Suzanne at her own blog,suzannemorrison.blogspot.com, where she writes about absolutely everything she's reading, writing, and rehearsing. Your Own Personal Alcatraz is made possible in part due to the generous support of 4Culture and Artist Trust.
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