Join us for an evening of original puppetry and object theater created by the 2018-2019 Object Movement resident artists. Each program features four new short pieces of diverse subjects and puppetry styles.
Curated by Maiko Kikuchi, Rowan Magee, and Justin Perkins
Please note: The Balcony Theater is on the second floor and is only accessible by stairs. We regret that the theater is not wheelchair accessible.
Program A: May 17-19
Hulk and Fleet
Created and performed by KK Tobin
A monument in Brooklyn commemorates “The Prison Ship Martyrs”: thousands of rebel prisoners who died in New York Harbor under horrifying conditions during the Revolution. Today, the U.S. deploys prison ships in many forms, from municipal jail barges to military ships secretly holding and transporting people at sea. Isolation on water is strategic and effective. In 1781, Americans up and down the coast had heard tell of the prison ship Jersey. In 2019, with unprecedented access to information, how many of us know these stories? How many ships today, like the Jersey, will be remembered as “that Hell afloat”?
An Easy Guide to Time Management
Created by Sarah Scholl
Performed by Nina Roy, Hye Young Chyun, and Ema Zivkovic
An Easy Guide to Time Management is a surrealist look at time; its movement, tracking, and end. Through the filters of geology, apocalypse theory, and religious symbolism, Fountain Pen has noticed some troubling patterns. For a clearer understanding of these results, he looks back at his time working in the research center of It’s a Gift Corp ©, a company specializing in the extraction and re-purposing of time. Along the way, he visits other time users. Some, like his dear friend Mildread the goat, Fountain Pen knows very well and some, like the Watchers, he doesn’t.
Otherworlds
Directed and designed by Monica Lerch
Performed by Sara Jane Munford, Toby Billowitz, Emily Batsford, Sophia Zukoski, Monica Lerch, and Joshua Dorfman
Live sound healing by Joshua Dorfman
Fabrication by Gregory Diaz and Monica Lerch
Animations by Monica Lerch and Cornelia Carpenter
Lighting design by Joshua Langman
Otherworlds is a live meditation guided by theatrical elements. This work combines shamanic drumming, stop motion animation, live sound healing, and stylized puppets to take the audience on a journey into the collective subconscious.
New Mony! An Aricamian Play
Created and directed by Maria Camia
Performed by Leonie Bell, Connie Fu, Marcella Murray, and Leah Ogawa
Music composition by Maria Camia
Music recordings by Patrick West and Jennifer Camia
Join Allimah, estranged great-great-great-great granddaughter, in her first visit to her extraterrestrial, utopian ancestral home, Aricama, the land of practice, play, and healing. For five years, Maria Camia has developed this world with song, geneology, and new ceremonies. Come for the mini Bunraku-style puppet, the potato spaceship, or the demon removal ritual! Anything can happen! Maybe there will be an appearance from Allimah's great-great-great-great grandmother. Find out in joy!
Program B: May 24-26
Remembered Joys Are Never Past
Created by Ayun Halliday
Performed by Ayun Halliday, Eevin Hartsough, Mary Albert, Felicity McKenna, Lottie Probst, and Nina Watson
Remembered Joys Are Never Past is your ticket back to middle school circa 1977-78. Love's Baby Soft and Seventeen! Doritos and TAB! The ecstasy of slow dancing! The bewildering hell of betrayal! All text drawn verbatim from creator Ayun Halliday's actual 7th grade diary.
With thanks and apologies to the Class of '83.
You Can See Nothing from Here
Created and performed by Vincent Mraz & Chris Carcione
Billions of years ago, the universe was a tiny speck. From that speck came everything that exists today. Inspired by the work of Annie Jump Cannon and her fellow “computers” at Harvard in the early 1900s, You Can See Nothing from Here examines our relationship to time, space, and the universe around and within us. Using a mix of digital technology and analog arts and crafts, You Can See Nothing from Here explores our desire to explain the universe’s mysteries, and the universe’s indifference to our quest for understanding.
Damascus
Written and directed by Jenny Hann
Musical Direction by Kirk Bixby
Performed by Jenny Hann, Christine Schisano, Kirk Bixby, Mery Cheung, and Emily Marsh
Music by Vienna Teng (used with permission)
Puppets built by Jenny Hann, Christine Schisano, and Rob Pedini
In the far distant future, a darkness erupts over the Earth, eliminating all but one city. Its citizens move silently through their daily routines as ghosts of a once-flourishing empire. In this totalitarian state, hope is forbidden. But choosing hope may be the resistance the world needs. Inspired by the "Last Man on Earth" themes of Romantic literature and the "hopepunk" literary movement, Damascus uses song to explore the journey of hanging on to humanity at all costs.
Dark Ages Deadly Wit
Created and performed by Tyler Gunther
Much has been written about King Edward II’s ill-fated reign at the turn of the 14th century. He is regarded as one of the worst monarchs in English history. Much less has been written about his best friend, and possible lover, Piers Gaveston. Piers was thrice exiled from the kingdom for being insufferably sarcastic and was ultimately executed for the offending behavior. This shockingly relatable true story will be recounted through two medieval pageant wagons, one man, and the desire to understand why we can’t control our worst impulses.