David Kuraoka

David Kuraoka (born 1946) is an American ceramic artist. He was born in Lihue, Hawaii and grew up in Kauai. He received a BA from San José State University (San Jose, California) in 1970 and an MA from the same institution in 1971. Kuraoka is retired as professor of art and head of the ceramics department of San Francisco State University and maintains studios in both San Francisco and Kauai, Hawaii. At the age of 35 he was named a Living Treasures of Hawai'i.

David Kuraoka is best known for large ceramic pieces that are first thrown on a wheel, then further shaped by hand, burnished, covered with rock salt and copper carbonate, and fired in an open pit. He also makes more traditionally shaped ceramics with grayish-green celadon glaze and has begun having some of his organically shaped ceramic pieces cast in bronze.

Hanakapi'ai 3, in the collection of the Hawaii State Art Museum, is an example of his bronze sculptures. It closely resembles some of his ceramic pieces. The College of San Mateo (San Mateo County, California), Honolulu Museum of Art, the Hawaii State Art Museum, the Rotterdam Modern Museum of Art, the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum, Utah State University, and the White House Art Collection (Washington, D. C.) are among the public collections holding work by David Kuraoka. His pit fired ceramic, Kumulipo from 1997, is installed on a wall of the Hawaii Convention Center.

David

David (/ˈdeɪvɪd/; Hebrew: דָּוִד, Modern David, Tiberian Dāwîḏ;ISO 259-3 Dawid; Arabic: داوُد‎ Dāwūd; Syriac: ܕܘܝܕ‎ Dawid; Ancient Greek: Δαυίδ; Latin: Davidus, David; Strong's: Daveed) was, according to the Books of Samuel, the second king of the United Kingdom of Israel, and according to the New Testament, an ancestor of Jesus. His life is conventionally dated to c. 1040 – 970 BCE, his reign over Judah c. 1010–970 BCE.

The Books of Samuel, 1 Kings, and 1 Chronicles are the only Old Testament sources of information on David, although the Tel Dan Stele (dated c. 850–835 BCE) contains the phrase בית דוד (bytdwd), read as "House of David", which many scholars confirm to be a likely plausible match to the existence in the mid-9th century BCE of a Judean royal dynasty called the House of David.

Depicted as a valorous warrior of great renown, and a poet and musician credited for composing much of the psalms contained in the Book of Psalms, King David is widely viewed as a righteous and effective king in battle and civil justice. He is described as a man after God's own heart in 1 Samuel 13:14 and Acts 13:22.

Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre

The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre (shorter UCB Theatre) is an American improvisational theatre and training center, founded by the Upright Citizens Brigade troupe members, including Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts and Matt Walsh. It has locations in the New York neighborhoods of Chelsea and the East Village as well as the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Hollywood and Sunset Boulevard.

The troupe was originally trained by Del Close at Chicago's ImprovOlympic, invented the ASSSSCAT show the success of which led to the troupe getting their own sketch show on Comedy Central from 1998 to 2000, and eventually founded their own theatre. In 2013, they co-authored a manual The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual.

Philosophy

The Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre Training Center teaches longform improv, sketch writing, and various other comedy skills. The training center's philosophy of improv is based largely on the teachings of Del Close, with a strong emphasis on the "game" of the scene. The primary improvisational form is "The Harold", and the theater in all its incarnations has had a group of "Harold Teams", house teams that perform regularly.

Upright Citizens Brigade

The Upright Citizens Brigade is an improvisational and sketch comedy group that emerged from Chicago's ImprovOlympic in 1990. The original incarnation of the group consisted of Matt Besser, Amy Poehler, Ian Roberts, and Matt Walsh, Adam McKay, Rick Roman, Horatio Sanz and Drew Franklin, whose picture is the UCB logo. Other early members included Neil Flynn, Armando Diaz, and Rich Fulcher.

In 2013, Besser, Roberts and Walsh wrote The Upright Citizens Brigade Comedy Improvisation Manual.

History

The Upright Citizens Brigade began performing improv and sketch comedy at Kill the Poet in Chicago. Their first show was called Virtual Reality. The group followed with shows entitled UCBTV, Conference on the Future of Happiness, Thunderball, Bucket of Truth, Big Dirty Hands, The Real Real World, and Punch Your Friend in the Face.

In 1993, the Upright Citizens Brigade (Matt Besser, Ian Roberts, Adam McKay, Rick Roman, and Horatio Sanz) were regular guests on stage at the New Variety produced and hosted by Richard O'Donnell at the Chicago Improv comedy club, 504 N. Wells.

San Francisco

San Francisco (/sæn frənˈsɪskoʊ/), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the cultural, commercial, and financial center of Northern California and the only consolidated city-county in California. San Francisco encompasses a land area of about 46.9 square miles (121 km²) on the northern end of the San Francisco Peninsula, which makes it the smallest county in the state. It has a density of about 18,187 people per square mile (7,022 people per km²), making it the most densely settled large city (population greater than 200,000) in the state of California and the second-most densely populated major city in the United States after New York City. San Francisco is the fourth-most populous city in California, after Los Angeles, San Diego and San Jose, and the 13th-most populous city in the United States—with a Census-estimated 2014 population of 852,469. The city and its surrounding areas are known as the San Francisco Bay Area, and are a part of the larger OMB designated San Jose-San Francisco-Oakland combined statistical area, the fifth most populous in the nation with an estimated population of 8.6 million.