PRODUCTION GRANTS ($7,000)

Maria Camia (Brooklyn, NY)
The Healing Shipment
The Healing Shipment is a spiritual / sci-fi musical play about a grandmother stuck in the future, a mother trapped in the past, and a daughter with her crew who will bring them back to the present moment. Photo: Steven Pisano

Concrete Temple Theatre (New York, NY)
Stranded
An episodic odyssey sparked by the isolation and confusion of our time, Stranded blends puppetry, humor, and a raw understanding of our profound collective reality. Photo Stefan Hagen

Feisty Elephant, Annie Evans (Redding, CT)
Aanika's Elephants
An orphan girl is adopted by a wild elephant herd then must use her ingenuity to save them from poachers. Photo: Martin P. Robinson

Kessto Kreatures, Anthony Michael Stokes (El Paso, TX)
The Scarecrow
Newly appointed his Majesty the Scarecrow is tasked to save the citizens of Winkie country from an ever-increasing horde of crows, and discoveres his life before becoming the scarecrow and the lynching of an African American man. Photo: Stella Gutierrez

Maiko Kikuchi (Brooklyn, NY)
Daydream Tutorial
Daydream Tutorial is a surreal tutorial consisting of various unique puppets, objects manipulations, original sound work, and mask-performances integrated with projected animation. Photo: Maria Baranova

Tom Lee (Chicago, IL)
Sounding the Resonant Path

Sounding the Resonant Path explores the spiritual connection between the human world and the natural environment, especially the living material of bamboo and trees, harvested and crafted into performing objects -- the flute and the puppet. Photo: Richard Termine

Sandglass Theater (Putney, VT)
Feral
Feral takes us on one woman’s journey exploring the tension between her learned behaviors and intuitive knowledge. This project explores gender marginalization and the resiliency of our more wild natures. Photo: Eric Bass

ShadowLight Productions (San Francisco, CA)
Sojourner ZY
An original science-fiction play written by Eugenie Chan, original score by Paul Dresser Ensemble produced by ShadowLight Productions in their signature large-scale cinematic shadow puppetry style. Photo: Jacquelyn Serrano

WORKSHOP GRANTS ($3,000)

Tristan Allen (Brooklyn, NY)
Tin Iso and the Dawn
Tin Iso and the Dawn is a shadow puppet symphony performed alongside an original, full length album. The project shares the origins of an imaginary world created to give age-old magic life through puppetry and music. Photo: Bailey Hein

Alva Puppet Theater (New York, NY)
The Harlem Doll Palace
The Harlem Doll Palace is about a family of dolls, their beloved defender, Lenon Holder “Aunt Len” Hoyte, and the home she created for them in Harlem. Photo: Alva Rogers

Auricular Visions (Narrowsburg, NY)
UNSETTLING
UNSETTLING is an aspiration of breath, an unearthing, a recording, a reflection, and a projection…a continually evolving story about migration to, from, and around North America; one part listening project, one part puppet performance, and one part moving sale. Photo: Isaak Berliner

enormous face (Bellevue, WA)
Offal Unstory
Non[/Anti-]Narrative animistic Puppet-Objects roam the Garbage pits mourning the death of nature, issuing Nornish stabs at Stories-Per-Se & Stories-As-Such with fragments of World Literature sometimes inverting the Hex of being.  Photo: Kalan Sherrard

In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre (Minneapolis, MN)
Phantom Loss by Oanh Vu
Phantom Loss is an original narrative tabletop and shadow puppetry show by Oanh Vu that uses humor and fantasy to explore crimmigration (criminalized immigration), intergenerational trauma, and healing. Photo: Oanh Vuu

Jerrell L. Henderson (Chicago, IL)
AmericanMYTH: Crossroads
A new genre-defying historic reckoning with five performers mixing live theatre, shadow puppetry and immersive sound. Photo: Jerrell L. Henderson

'It Figures' (Brooklyn, NY)
unspun
In a post-human world, all remaining life forms have been devastated by environmental collapse. A nameless protagonist , the last of its kind, has a chance encounter with another being. A symbiotic relationship grows and the distinction between merely existing and living becomes apparent. Photo: Dave Glista

Josh Rice Projects (Perry, NY)
KAYFABE
Pro wrestling meets puppetry in this absurdist semi-autobiographical metafiction--a tabletop puppet sports entertainment spectacular! Photo: Kat Kuo

Moira Lael MacDonald (Los Angeles, CA)
Blue Waves
Lily Golden (an African-Soviet Scholar) and Svetlana Alliluyeva (the daughter of Joseph Stalin) carefully navigate 1960’s Moscow in search of personal freedom. Photo: Gina Marie Napolitan

Andy Manjuck & Dorothy James (Brooklyn, NY)
Parched
Parched is a sci-fi/western revenge story about humanity’s complicated relationship with water. Photo: Evan Barr Photography

Marcella Murray (Brooklyn, NY)
Other Atlantas
Other Atlantas is a celebration of the marginalized who remain in spaces left off and left behind for the sake of some other entity’s idea of progress. Photo: Steven Pisano

Odd Savvy (Oakland, CA)
The Ground
The Ground is a sonic/visual poem exploring the intersection of nature and technology through the journey of a lone tabula rasa. Photo: Fred C. Riley III

Rogue Artists Ensemble (Sun Valley, CA)
Happy Fall: A Queer Stunt Spectacular
An original highly immersive live stunt show about a queer closeted stuntman’s journey in a world of faux masculinity, unmasking the importance and danger of being true to oneself. Photo: Courtesy of the Artist

Rough House Theater, Mike Oleon (Chicago, IL)
Melodies from the Void: A Puppet Seance
An intimate performance in which spirits of both the living and the dead communicate through a collection of fantastical objects designed, built, and animated by puppet artist, Mike Oleon. Photo: Evan Barr Photography

Second Sister Productions, Aaron Haskell (Brooklyn, NY)
The Pact
Fearing a future filled with separation and destruction, two wolf siblings are called upon by the ancestral mother on a mission to change our path, imbued with the strength to lead the way through love and unity. Photo: Steven Pisano

Joseph Silovsky (Brooklyn, NY)
Who's Oklahoma
Who's Oklahoma unravels the disparate traumatic creation stories of the “Sooner”  state, revealing what we all really want to know - why is it shaped like a pan? Photo: Teddy Wolff

Jaerin Son (Chicago, IL)
Dogs or Cats; Augmented Body
Dogs or Cats; Augmented Body, based on Jaerin Son's own immigration experiences, tells the story of a female robot and her human physical therapist’s burgeoning friendship. Photo: Kerberus Production

FAMILY GRANTS ($4,000)

Chinese Theatre Works (Long Island City, NY)
The Tiger of Zhao
An original blend of traditional Chinese shadow theater and contemporary overhead projection performance,  based on a story from Pu Song Ling’s 17th century classic Strange Tales from Make-do Studio. Photo: Stephen Kaplin

The Gottabees (Boston, MA)
Don't Make Me Get Dressed
Don’t Make Me Get Dressed is a show about the feelings we have when we choose our clothes… but also about when our clothes come to life and choose us. Photo: Courtesy of the Artist

Deva North & Zach Bramel (Louisville, KY)
Time & Energy: A Puppet Show about Thermodynamics & Rabbits
Full of animals, humor, music, and minor injuries, this silly yet poignant play uses The Four Laws of Thermodynamics to illustrate how the scientific truths that govern our world might also compel us to care for ourselves and to help each other. Photo: Courtesy of the Artists

Red Herring Puppets (Tucson, AZ)
Latino Tales: The Barking Mouse, Blue Frog & Chupacabra / El Ratón que Ladra, La Rana Azul & Chupacabra
A bi-lingual hand and rod puppet show based on folktales from Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. Photo: Katie Popiel

String Theory Theater (Baltimore, MD)
Defrag
Defrag follows a young boy on a surreal journey into his inner world to stop a war and collect the lost parts of himself. Photo: Dirk Joseph