New York Puppets Home

As a user of NYpuppets.org, you can log in for special offers: discount tickets, festival passes, invitations to special previews and openings, meetings with artists and much more. Participating productions will include:

La MaMa Puppet Series 4
Presented by La MaMa Experimental Theater, 74A East Fourth Street, Manhattan (East Village). Supported by the Jim Henson Foundation.

October 14 thru October 31, 2010
First Floor Theatre
"Journey into The Mysterious World of Madness"
Pathological Theatre
Directed by Dario D'Ambrosi
Set and Object/Puppet design by Aurora Buzzetti

"Journey into The Mysterious World of Madness" is a theatrical analysis of the difficulties all the people who lived a period of emotive crisis encounter in dealing with the everyday life.

With the experience of Dario D'Ambrosi, who for over 30 years has worked with mentally disabled persons, the story is recounted in a dreamy and fantastic way by means of live music and singing, puppets. Great importance is given to physical expression and movement, evolving into a "schizo-dance." (Running time: 60 minutes.)

October 21 thru November 7, 2010
Ellen Stewart Theatre at The Annex
"Chopin--Inspirations"
Bialystok Puppet Theatre
Conceived by Wojciech Szelachowski
Written by Leslaw Piecka, Wojciech Szelachowski
Directed by Leslaw Piecka
Set and puppets designed by Joanna Braun
Choreographed by Jolanta Kruszewska
Music by Fryderyk Chopin

"…it is absolutely inconceivable how two genius abilities became united in Chopin's person: that of the greatest melodist and of the most original master of harmony."-- Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

"Chopin – Inspirations" (working title) will be a kind of drama essay that unites music, visual art, and marionette performance. This extremely challenging technique in puppetry requires unusual technical design as well as extraordinary skill in animating the marionette. Fryderyk Chopin compositions will be rendered both by a pianist and a marionette representing the genius composer - a marionette controlled with strings, measuring a couple of dozen centimeters and displaying virtuoso agility and perfection in the hands of its puppeteer - combined with an attempt to find answers to questions on the sources of inspiration determining the work of every artist..

The production is in rehearsal now and will have its world premiere on March 7, 2010 in Bialystok. The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland commissioned the work as part of the worldwide celebration of The Year of Chopin 2010, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Poland's greatest composer. The official opening of this year-long celebration took place on January 1 in Zelazowa Wola, Poland, where the artist was born and where his father worked as a tutor for a local aristocratic family.
The Bialystok Puppet Theatre production will not simply be a story of the great composer's life. Audiences will be introduced to Chopin's world by a group of Muses, who serve as guides through the world of dreams and sounds produced by his music, and they will also present his artistic friendships, musical inspirations, and life experiences. The show will contain references to Chopin's fascination with Paganini, his friendships and relationships with George Sand, Maria Wodzinska (his fiancée), his longings for the lost "country of his childhood", creative dilemmas, inspirations, artistic visions, moods that range from the poetic to the paranoiac, the feeling of success, and the sense of despair. Apart from Chopin's music performed live by one of Poland's most talented pianists Krzysztof Traskowski, the show features actors, puppets (marionettes), objects, plastic art forms and visual presentations. (Running time: 60 minutes)

October 28 thru November 7, 2010
The Club
"Wake Up, You're Dead"
By Brooklyn Art Department
Directed and Designed by Aaron Haskell

"Wake Up, You're Dead" creates a mythology about the process that is how one comes into being.

The show begins up in a corner with two boisterous, funny, dancing skeleton puppets controlled by four puppeteers that are hidden underneath. Their job is as narrators and to begin by letting the audience know they may freely move about the space, introduce the myth, ending with how they have found their light, their energy and roll out their balls of light onto the stage, giving their energy to the show.

The Myth starts with The Ancestors, a full body costume puppet. These are Creatures, Gods, Fates, beings that maintain an individuals light, their life in their hands. Every person has one. This piece is very ritualistic in movement and their dance is done in order to create a new ball of light, a new life. Each performer has their own call that they give throughout the entirety of the show, and certain movements also have their own call. At the end of this piece they produce another life and there are now three balls of light on stage and one of these beings presents the new ball to the audience, at the same time a video starts above, a silent short film with original music. A stop-motion character puppet of one these beings, is in the video and it starts to zoom in on the ball.

This short film is about the new life they've created. A little guy who has no idea where he is, where he came from, or what he is supposed to do next. He goes through several surrealistic adventures until he meets another cheerless skeleton sitting alone under a tree on a hilltop. Our little guy has found his light and shared it with the world. A new ball of light is thrown onto the stage and there are now four.

The next process for The Ancestors is to create the skeleton, a metaphor for the base of who we are, what we are made of - the skeletons in our closet. This live piece is of these skeletons, a full body costume puppet of a skeleton that glows under a black light. At the end, a new ball of light is rolled out there are now five.

Next is the making of our physical selves. An aerial piece, this number has three of the performers in aerial hammocks and three others controlling a large amorphous puppet made from torn paper. It first rains over the stage then the paper rises from the floor creating a giant guy that moves and dances around the three to bring them to life, and another ball of light is rolled onto the stage. There are now six balls of light.

The Ancestors main purpose in creating new people is so that they, the people can find their own light, their purpose. Come together to create the ultimate being, one of pure light and energy and balance. Each performer takes one of the balls of light and uses it to light up a different body part of the 12' tall puppet Giant strewn about the room. Coming together to create this enormous being of light, this is the climax, as the performers need to work completely together to make this big guy dance jubilantly around the space and the audience. (Running time: 45 minutes.)

November 11 thru November 28, 2010
First Floor Theatre
"Nostalgia"
LOCO7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company
Directed and Designed by Federico Restrepo
Music Composed by Elizabeth Swados

Federico Restrepo is Founder and Director of LOCO7, a dance/puppet theatre company that is creating a new work called "Nostalgia." The premise of "Nostalgia" is based on love and its expression between lovers, within families, through devotional practices, and in the arts of different cultures around the world. "Nostalgia" is a multi-disciplinary theatrical work that will present vivid images and stories of love through the use of spoken word, large marionettes, masks, body-puppets, dance, live music, unique lighting design, and video. Creative inspiration for the multi-segmented work will come from selected historical texts and mythical events, as well as visual metaphors about love. Historical texts that may inspire the work include the writings of Buddha, images of Venus, Cupid, Chalchiuhtlicue, and Oshun, and poems of Neruda, Shakespeare, and Rumi. "Nostalgia" will be composed of multiple short stories within an overarching sixty minute work that will reflect the full spectrum of feelings of love, from ultimate joy to depth of sorrow. "Nostalgia" is being written and developed by Federico Restrepo and Denise Greber. It will be designed, choreographed, and directed by Restrepo, with music composed by Elizabeth Swados.

The inspiration for structuring the work with multiple segments, each reflecting a different emotion and vision about love, will be based on Roland Barthe's book A Lover's Discourse: Fragments. Barthe's book about the unrequited lover's search for signs by which to show and receive love includes chapters such as "In the Loving Calm of Your Arms," "Jealousy," and "In Praise of Tears." These Fragments and others will serve as inspirations for Swados' original music and Restrepo's writing and direction. "Nostalgia" will be performed by seven puppeteers/dancers from Colombia, Japan, Italy and the United States and will be accompanied by two live musicians.

"Nostalgia" will represent the universality of the emotion of love which is felt by all peoples in all countries. It will be a multi-disciplinary work that will be performed by a cast of multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-generational performers to strengthen its theatrical impact. (Running time: 60 minutes.)

November 12 thru 21, 2010
The Club
"Broken Nails. A Marlene Dietrich Dialogue"
Wiczy Theatre
Conceived and performed by Anna Skubik
Written and directed by Romuald Wicza-Pokojski
Set designed by Romuald Wicza-Pokojski
Music arranged by Igor Nowicki
Puppet designed by Anna Skubik and Barbara Poczwardowska

Beautiful, determined, intelligent, controversial – Marlene Dietrich was a transcendent symbol of femininity, a lady of strong character and clear mind, a woman with claws. A fascinating figure to both men and women, the phenomenon of Dietrich's personality has also seduced Anna Skubik, a young Polish actress and puppeteer who decided to bring to life this German star by animating her as a life-size doll. "Broken Nails. A Marlene Dietrich Dialogue" portrays Marlene and her maid Gloria (both played by Skubik) in a co-dependent relationship during the star's last days in her Paris apartment.

Ms. Skubik slips back and forth between her roles as meek servant and haughty star with such virtuosity that it is easy to forget there is only one woman on stage. The play is a compelling study of womanhood – from all that is eternal and archetypal about women to the more ephemeral, fragile, and unsustainable qualities. The actress, under the direction of the play's author, Romuald Wicza-Pokojski, is less interested in resurrecting Marlene Dietrich than in showing the legendary star as she deals with her fading beauty and imminent death. Dietrich's reflection on her life leads to her sing songs she never had the chance to perform on stage. The way that gender is treated in the play's construction is significant; the authors of "Broken Nails" wanted to find a unique perspective for exploring what it means to be a woman without making it a feminist manifesto.

Anna Skubik is a one-woman tour de force in this show, both animating the puppet of Dietrich and creating her own character. After a few scenes the audiences sees that the dynamic between Dietrich the star and Gloria the maid is disturbed by the suggestion of a romantic relationship. They are contrasted in terms of images as well: that of the "ideal women" as opposed to that of a lost and confused, but hugely imaginative teenager looking for a role model.

The puppeteer is always in close, intimate contact with the puppet, and in one scene she integrates with it, so that the singing Marlene has the doll's upper body and Anna Skubik's legs. Ms. Skubik gives Dietrich a deep, slightly hoarse voice, while Gloria's voice is more shy and girlish. The dynamic of the dialogues, the rapid shifting of views and opinions, the transition from highly emotional acts to peace and tranquility, as well as Dietrich's diverse costumes and singing draws the audiences and gives it no choice but to fully immerse itself in the theatrical fiction. (Running time: 45 minutes.)

October 23 & 24 – 30 & 31 and November 6 & 7
Saturday and Sunday at Noon
Ellen Stewart Theatre at The Annex
"Folktales of Asia and Africa"
Created by Jane Catherine Shaw
Children's Puppet Theatre

While she is making bread, the hostess discovers that she has guests. As they all wait for the dough to rise she tells them three stories using kitchen utensils to play the characters, in the style of found object puppetry.

Audiences love to see egg beaters hop into cloth napkins to become Japanese sisters dressed in kimonos, or watch as a flour sifter becomes an old man, with a cookie cutter for a pet rabbit. Among the many notable characters are wooden salt and pepper shakers as sisters in The Dragon with Five Heads from Zimbabwe, 4 steak knives that become the wise man in the Japanese tale The Lantern and The Fan, and an unusual doughnut maker becomes the moon goddess disguised as an old women in The Old Man and the Moon from Burma.

This one woman show was created, designed, and performed by Jane Catherine Shaw nearly twenty years ago and has been an audience favorite wherever she has performed it. Children and adults delight in the imaginative use of everyday objects to portray the characters in the three stories. Folktales of Asia and Africa brings puppetry to its essence, in which common objects of daily use assume fantastic character through the artistry of puppetry and the puppeteer. (Running time: 45 minutes)

In addition, the Festival will have a GALLERY EXHIBIT AT LA GALLERIA, 6 East First Street.
Puppets displayed from artists from Festival - October 21 to November 7, 2010

The occasion of The Dark Lady Players' performance of "Shakespeare's Anti-Christian satires: The Virgin Mary Parodies" gave us the opportunity to investigate how Elizabethan Meta-Theater could be enacted with contemporary puppet theater.

So we asked John Hudson, the theorist and dramaturg of The Dark Lady Players, to illuminate the possibilities. We learned, in short, that all puppetry is metatheatrical but not all metatheater is puppetry.

About this website: NYpuppets.com is a successor to the Passport to Puppet Theater (2005-2008), which was a program sponsored by The Linux Loft and supported by the Jim Henson Foundation.

Presenters: If you would like to propose an offering for an upcoming puppet theater production for this page, contact us at: NYpuppets "at" acedsl.com. Describe your project and give us your contact info. Be creative! Offerings can include discount ticket offers, invitations to special previews and openings, meetings with artists (actors, directors, etc.) and much more.