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PRODUCTION GRANTS ($7,000) |
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Concrete Temple Theatre (New York, NY)
PACKRAT: The Quest por la Abundancia
PACKRAT: The Quest por la Abundancia embraces the language of dreams and the presence of ancestors. It is a blend of puppetry, projections, and music, an intercultural co-production rooted in Indigenous knowledge and ecological awareness. Photo: Stefan Hagen
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David Lane / New England Puppet Arts (North Adams, MA)
Émile Zola’s The Belly of Paris
Inspired by Émile Zola’s novel set in 1850's Les Halles marketplace, The Belly of Paris is a puppet show full of laughs, love affairs, art treatises, and ironic deaths-by-meat-pie — exploring the insatiable thirst for more, which modern capitalist society has all but baked into the mold. Photo: Carlos Caicedo
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Drama of Works (Brooklyn, NY)
The Falcon King
Using natural and found material assemblage puppets, The Falcon King tells a tale of confusion, heartbreak, anger and action. In a world where humans’ DDT war on insects is destroying their blood lines, the birds are hoping they can find a miracle. Photo: Drama of Works
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Emily Batsford (Brooklyn, NY)
Cumulo
Whimsical and violent, Cumulo examines how we reclaim autonomy when life sends us into freefall. Protagonist Plum plummets through a sentient skyscape of clouds and creatures in a journey of embodied self-transformation, supported by a cotton candy set embedded with fans, and a large-scale mobile of floating cloud islands. Photo: Ken Pao Studio
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Evan Silver aka Tiresias (Brooklyn, NY)
Tiresias Presents NEW WEIRD FUTURE
Tiresias Presents NEW WEIRD FUTURE is a speculative eco-opera and multispecies puppet pageant that unfolds in fables and prophecies for a new era. Photo: Rachel Rampelman |
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Gaby FeBland and Sammy Zeisel (Brooklyn, NY)
The Undercity
When an otherworldly artifact falls into her paws, Rat Girl uncovers a conspiracy that threatens the fate of the entire rat metropolis. Merging tabletop, shadow, and body puppetry, The Undercity navigates unchecked greed, climate catastrophe, and the engineered hopelessness of industrial life—a web of rat tails our hero can untangle. Photo: Walls Trimble
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J Hann (New York, NY)
Bequeathed
Bequeathed is a surreal, playful, semi-autobiographical puppet show about the fight to unravel the gender binary, all told through a fantastical fiber arts world. Photo: Dillon Heape
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Loco7 Dance Puppet Theatre (New York,NY)
Cause and Effect
Cause and Effect is an innovative dance-puppet experience that intertwines rod puppetry, marionettes, dance, acrobatics, and video to explore the connections between humans, animals, and the environment, highlighting the profound impact each has on the other. Photo: Semin Lee
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Mixed eMotion Theatrix (Beverly Hills, CA)
Hans Christian Andersen’s The Shadow
A dance musical reimagining Andersen’s tale. This innovative production uses enchanting puppetry and vivid projections to transform a mysterious Shadow’s journey into an uplifting, epic adventure for all. Photo: Barry Weiss
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Monica Lerch (Brooklyn, NY)
Endless Forms
Endless Forms is an original science-fiction myth realized through tabletop puppetry. As a scientist’s body begins to fail, survival demands radical evolution, revealing the beauty and violence of transformation in the search for freedom beyond the natural form. Photo: Richard Termine
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Tommy Nguyen (Brooklyn, NY)
The Magnificent Ms. Pham
Using traditional Vietnamese Water Puppetry, The Magnificent Ms. Pham is a fantastic retelling of the true story of boatperson Kim Pham. Legendary warrior Lady Trieu joins along on the journey to remind her of Vietnam’s history while literary figure Lady Kieu joins to remind her of Vietnam’s art and culture. Photo: Tommy Nguyen
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Aleah Black (Brooklyn, NY)
Thicket
Thicket is a queer fairytale that weaves puppetry, poetry, and folk music. A brother and
sister run away to the woods where they meet foxes and demons and
farmers and something stranger still. Journey with them as they learn how to survive the wilds and love one another. Photo: Amanda Crommett
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Blair Thomas / Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival (Chicago, IL)
Stonehouse
Inspired by the poetry of Chinese Zen monk Stonehouse, (石屋 Shíwū, 1272–1352), Stonehouse intertwines two lives separated by time and space—a previously successful working woman adrift after a personal loss, and the hermit-poet Shíwū, who sought solitude in the mountains. Photo: Evan Barr
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Brzezinski & Schap (Waltham, MA)
say mama
In the hauntingly beautiful world of a miniature dollhouse, a mother tries to soothe her baby to sleep. Inside the house, shadows transform into nightmares that blur the line between reality and hallucination. With intricate shadow effects and claustrophobic stage design, say mama captures the raw, unsettled feelings of new motherhood. Photo: Dominic Berube
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Chelsea M. Warren (Pittsburgh, PA)
She Took to the Sea
Harriet the Marionette Aguanaut is a scientist-explorer-inventor whose every mission is a fiasco. And yet, profound discoveries occur in the liminal space of failure. She Took to the Sea explores the intersection of puppetry technologies and contemporary scientific research. Photo: Alex Griffin
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David Hanzal (Minneapolis, MN)
Wishes in the Sand
Wishes in the Sand follows Bradley, a queer puppeteer, who confronts painful childhood memories after receiving a box of dolls from his estranged mother. Through multiple puppetry styles, the story blends realism and fantasy as his nine-year-old self meets a magical mermaid named Cove who guides him toward self-acceptance.
Photo: Bruce Silcox
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Flying Cardboard Theater & the Noise Committee (Detroit, MI)
Neither Here Noir There: Punch, Private Eye
”Neither Here Noir There” presents Punch as a debauched private eye. In Noir style, he takes the case of a Great Dane in distress, sets out to investigate the 2-dimensional Detroit criminal underground, and discovers nefarious evildoers in cahoots with greedy developers clearing parts of the city for cheap cardboard condominiums. Photo: Flying Cardboard Theater
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In The Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre (Minneapolis, MN)
Ubu Roi/Rey
A bilingual puppet adaptation of Alfred Jarry’s Ubu Roi, leveraging Jarry’s script to engage with the current context of American politics and identity: a country caught in an absurdist power struggle between ruling classes, while the world they seek to rule crumbles before them with toilet humor. Photo: Adriana Foreman
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Leah Lara (Chicago, IL)
P.K.(Pastor’s Kid) A Puppet Ballet Operetta
Travel into the mystical world of reverse mermaids in an experimental retelling of Hans Christian Anderson’s the little mermaid. P.K. (Pastor’s Kid), A Puppet Ballet Operetta, explores the archetype of the mermaid through blackness, religious ritual, the digital age and the turbulence of queer adolescence in a tale of love and betrayal. Photo: Leah Lara
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Leah Levine (Brooklyn, NY)
Facing the Other
Facing the Other is a series of vignettes that explore how we are made of our relationships with other people. The piece uses painting, shadow puppetry, and mask work to transform theory into an immersive narrative through embodied metaphor. Photo: Norman Blake
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Matthew Paul Olmos (South Pasadena, CA)
Richie never slept, was always up, moving around at night…
In collaboration with Lynn Jeffries and Michael John Garcés. A Mexican immigrant family theatrically revisits their past in order to understand why their youngest son took a drastic turn in his life. Inspired by the upbringing of Richard Ramirez, the show focuses on the struggles immigrant families face in attempting lives in the United States. Photo: Matthew Paul Olmos
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Megafawn / Kalan Sherrard and Ron Shalom (NYC/Cascadia)
Gilgamesh
MegaFawn is an artists collective dedicated to exploring ecological catastrophe through epic literature. Gilgamesh, the world's first recorded story of queer love and war, seduction and betrayal, intertwines immersive sound, sculpture, and puppetry, tracing the ontological rupture between Nature and Civilization. Photo: Megafawn
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Nyssa Collins (Knoxville, TN)
Wayang Katalistrik (Electric Wampus Cat)
Wayang Katalistrik is a shadow-puppet work with live electro-acoustic gamelan that follows the Wampus Cat—an Appalachian cryptid—from the deep prehistory of Eastern Tennessee into the age of electricity. As electricity spreads across the region by way of Depression Era Works Progress initiatives, prosperity grows while myth, intuition, and connection to the land fade into shadow, asking what we sacrifice when progress outpaces spirit. Photo: Kai Mote
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Orren Fen (Minneapolis, MN)
Bug Ballet by Orren Fen
Bug Ballet is a large puppet and mask spectacle told through movement and original music, centered on the creeping, otherworldly, and overlooked creatures with whom we share our homes. Bug Ballet throws the typical rules and structures of traditional ballet out the window, replacing them with giant puppets and theatrical dance. Photo: Sishir Bommakanti
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Sarah Fox (San Antonio, TX)
Untangling the Snare
Untangling the Snare is a southern, feminist folktale that reimagines the cycle of domestic abuse. Anthropomorphic marionettes create a world where women discover the strength, magic and sisterhood to escape their oppression. Photo: Colette Copeland
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William PK Carter (Central Valley, NY)
Beautiful Without Consequence
Beautiful Without Consequence is about removing the prey mentality from the Queer Black identity and founding community in its absence. Mimicking the life cycle of a butterfly, a baby deer changes physical form in search of an existence outside of the grasp of their oppressors- liberating their body and mind. Photo: Richard Termine
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Alex and Olmsted (Baltimore, MD)
Really Quite A Lot of Mechanisms
This is a darkly comedic puppet show set in the not too distant Now. Nations are at war, bad things happen to good people, and dropped toast always lands butter side down. But good people take solace that just beneath the seen world there are…Really Quite A Lot of Mechanisms. Photo: Alex and Olmsted
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Anthony-Michael Stokes / Kessto Kreatures (Chicago, IL)
An Anansi Experience
Tasked with traveling the world to gather stories and wisdom, Anansi shares his experience with the audience. An immersive work of puppetry and Griot storytelling, Anansi's quest reveals that no one has more life lessons to learn than himself. Photo: Loren Toney
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Feeble Flame (Ora Fruchter, Sarah Smith) (Portland, OR)
You’re Doing it Wrong
Through silly micro-investigations of animal and plant habitats, meet heroes who are not naturally adept at the things nature expects of them. All the other birds know how to make a nest, while you feel like…you’re doing it wrong. Photo: Feeble Flame
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Feisty Elephant, LLC (Redding, CT)
Sybil’s Ride
Sybil's Ride is a family puppet play (ages 6 and up) exploring the ride of Sybil Ludington who galloped 40 miles through Putnam county on the night of April 27, 1777, gathering the Patriot troops that engaged the British in the Battle of Ridgefield; a ride almost three times as long as Paul Revere’s, in the pouring rain, through far rougher terrain. Photo: Feisty Elephant
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Layne Kunce / The Dusty & Dott Company (Fort Worth, TX)
The Hurt Monster
The Hurt Monster is an original piece exploring how children understand and navigate big emotions. When the stars vanish from the sky, young Kiya encounters a legendary creature who may hold the key to restoring them—together, they go on an epic journey, discovering resilience, empathy, and friendship. Photo: The Dusty & Dott Company
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Matt-a-Magical (Glendale, AZ)
Ghost Stories of Grimbleton Manor
A collection of short stories, poems, songs, and other vignettes all centered around the peculiar visitors and eccentric tenants of an old spooky manor. The ghost of the former groundskeeper is all that remains to share these tales, shedding light on the dark secrets that have transpired over the years. Photo: Matt-a-Magical
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Midnight Radio Show / Charlotte Lily Gaspard (Brooklyn, NY)
Dreamcats!
Enter an enchanted world where Cats rule and study dreams. We follow the adventures of the magnificent Puccini and his beloved Princess. One part musical, one part shadow play, "Dreamcats!" is a whimsical theatrical experience, another avant garde enchantment brought to you by the makers of Midnight Radio Show. Photo: Richard Termine
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Mr. Damon’s Shadow Puppets (Stone Mountain, GA)
Shadow Quest
Shadow Quest is an interactive shadow puppet adventure where audiences help shape the story. Guided by a magical talking cloud, our heroes may travel by hot-air balloon, slip through the Bermuda Triangle, time-travel, and meet dinosaurs, creating a playful, one-of-a-kind journey fueled by imagination. Photo: Mr. Damon’s Shadow Puppets
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Puppet Art Theater Co. / Art Grueneberger (Sacramento, CA)
Tommy and the Time Machine
Tommy and the Time Machine blasts audiences through history as Tommy Mouse and his trusty Robodog accidentally trigger a wild time-hopping adventure! From knights to cavemen to sneaky outlaws, their hilarious missteps reveal how even tiny actions create giant ripple effects.
Photo: Art Grueneberger
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Yanniv Frank (Bronx, NY)
Garbanzo the Gentle Caveman
Through puppetry and song, we meet Garbanzo, a gentle caveman who would rather forage for berries than hunt animals. When his brothers reject him, Garbanzo discovers his creativity through cave painting, shadow storytelling, and music. Will Garbanzo’s unique talents help him make a contribution to his pack? Photo: Yanniv Frank
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