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PRODUCTION GRANTS ($7,000) | |
| Animal Cracker Conspiracy (San Diego, CA)
The Black Hen Society
Blending secret societies, alchemy, and ecological disaster, The Black Hen Society is a moss punk fable that charts the moral journey we all may face as we seek knowledge and the wisdom it bestows. Inspired by the first Russian children’s book by Antony Pogorelsky. Photo: Richard Termine |
| Automata / Janie Geiser (Los Angeles, CA)
HERE/THERE
Here/There is a multidisciplinary work that uses a life-size bunraku puppet to evoke the lingering personal terror that remains after the direct experience of living with war. Here/There explores the body as a site of war, depository of memory, and vessel of scars, and is directed by Janie Geiser, conceived in collaboration with performer/veteran Jason Barlaan and video designer Hsuan-Kuang Hsieh, and and performed by an ensemble of 5 puppeteers. |
| Blackspace/Tarish "Jeghetto" Pipkins (Durham, NC)
5P1N0k10
5P1N0K10 is an Afrofuturist Hip Hopera revisiting the classic tale of Pinnokio. It is a multi media experience of puppetry confronting current social issues in the inner cities of current America. Photo: J Caldwell |
| Frank Maugeri (Chicago, IL)
Tabletop Tragedies: Grief + Grace
The Last Supper Club- A cowboy, a saint, a matador and a cosmonaut canine are just a few of the inhabitants of The Last Supper Club. In this intimate but epic event, we share short true tragic tales in a variety of puppetry styles, inviting audiences to pull up a chair at our long table to celebrate, commemorate and dream deeply, accompanied by live music and bread we break together. Created and directed by Frank Maugeri and Seth Bockley. |
| Nekaa Lab/Sachiyo Takahashi (Brooklyn, NY)
Everything Starts from a Dot
Inspired by a Wassily Kandinsky quote, Everything Starts from a Dot is an abstract journey of a humble dot told through a projection of miniature worlds and manipulation of large objects in live space. Through various encounters and a constantly shifting perspective and scale, the dot explores microscopic yet cosmic territories in itself and beyond. Photo: Richard Termine |
| Phantom Limb Company/Octopus Theatricals (New York, NY)
FALLING OUT
FALLING OUT is a multi-disciplinary theatrical event and the final installment in Phantom Limb’s environmental trilogy. Fusing Butoh tradition with puppetry, contemporary FLEX dance, visual design and soundscape, FALLING OUT is a story about water, Japan, Fukushima, heartbreak and climate crisis. Photo: Richard Termine |
| Lake Simons (Brooklyn, NY)
Tree Pop
Tree Pop is a meditation on and an exploration of memory, the life of objects, passing, & the way we play. A show without words, set to a sparse Americana-inspired score by composer & co-creator John Dyer, directed by Lake Simons & featuring a variety of puppetry techniques. Photo: Richard Termine |
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| Torry Bend (Durham, NC)
Dreaming: Little Nemo in Slumberland Revisited
Dreaming: Little Nemo in Slumberland Revisited is a collaboration between puppet artist Torry Bend and playwright Howard Craft. The piece investigates the comic strip genius Winsor McCay reimagining his fantasy dreamworld for the stage with overhead projectors, toy theater and table top puppets. Photo: Alex Boerner |
| Zach Bramel & Deva North (Louisville, KY)
CREATURE: A Wretched Frankenstein
CREATURE is an imaginative adaptation of Frankenstein and features a 7-foot-tall puppet, tabletop puppetry, live rock and roll accompaniment, and projected imagery. Following the Creature as it makes defining choices, the performance strives to restore the intelligence, grace and violence with which Mary Shelley originally imbued it. Photo: Kriech Higdon Photography |
| Caitlin Brzezinski & Libby Schap (Chelsea, MA)
Flying Lessons
Flying Lessons is a shadow puppet and physical theater piece, which follows three female characters as they explore unrealized dreams. Through the shadow world and their shadow counterparts, the characters are able to do the impossible and examine desires - for transformation, for family, and for freedom from societal norms. Photo: Kaitee Tredway |
| Concrete Temple Theatre (New York, NY)
PACKRAT
PACKRAT tells the story of Bud, a packrat aka a woodrat. His tale is one of intrigue, adventure, and a lust for power that examines what is preserved, saved, collected and what is ignored, discarded, forgotten. Photo: Stefan Hagen |
| LOCO7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company (New York, NY)
Don't Tell Me No (working title)
Don’t Tell Me No (working title) is inspired by Restrepo’s true-life experience with his Aunt, a woman who decided to end her life with dignity after a long illness at the age of 72. The show will use puppets, live actors, music, video and physical theatre to deal with the themes of life, love and loss. |
| Margarita Blush Productions (Storrs, CT)
The Rule of the World
The Rule of the World is a devised puppet theatre production that explores the themes of injustice and disillusionment. The show is intended for mature audiences and will feature live performance, puppetry, movement, original script, unique scenography, and live music. Photo: Amir Khosrowpour |
| Miniature Curiosa/Zach Dorn (Pittsburgh, PA)
Harkness Calls
It wasn’t long after Ruth Harkness received word that her husband was dead, stricken by throat cancer in Shanghai, that she found herself on the bow of a ship charging across the Atlantic, a young widow hell-bent on finishing the mission he started. |
| James Ortiz & Strangemen & Co. (New York, NY)
Dracula
Fresh off of the success of The Woodsman, Strangemen & Co's new movement and puppet-fueled adaptation re-examines the Bram Stoker classic to uncover a story about mankind's eternal struggle to do whats right when battling it's own darker, animal instincts. Photo: Isaak Berliner |
| Justin Perkins (Brooklyn, NY)
Unicorn Afterlife
A dead unicorn is offered a treacherous choice: forget the past, or remember it. Unicorn Afterlife is a work of puppetry, dance and object theater fueled by two millennia of art, myth and history, and the power of a solid disco four-on-the-floor. |
| The Public Theater (New York, NY)
Manual Cinema Presents Frankenstein
The Public Theater will partner with the University of Colorado, Colorado Springs to host a research residency for Manual Cinema. The artists will workshop their new production, which will be presented as a featured presentation in the 2019 Under the Radar Festival at The Public. Photo: Michael Brosilow |
| Kalan Sherrard (Brooklyn, NY)
The Inverted World: Body as Planet
The Body as Planet project is an ambulatory inverting world populated by strange edenic demons and angelic aliens, a mobile bestiary of otherness. Photo: Elisa Garcia de la Huerta |
| Spybird Theater (Brattleboro, VT)
Kasper and Gretel in Puppet Crimes
German hand puppet heroes Kasper and Gretel bicker and dream in the style of Punch and Judy. Struggling with the challenges of who takes care of the baby, who makes the money and who does chores, the two worst neighbors you could imagine create for us a world of grotesque tradition. Photo: Shannon Herrick |
| Basil Twist (New York, NY)
Grandma's Russian Painting Project
A memory performance where objects and a space take on a haunted life of their own in response to original music by Ljova Zhurbin. |
| Chamindika Wanduragala (Minneapolis, MN)
Fulfillingness' Rebirth
Fulfillingness’ Rebirth deals with the loss of creativity and sense of self after childbirth and the journey to regain self fulfillment. Photo: Bruce Silcox |
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| Carrie Morris Production (Detroit, MI)
O Motherland! Shadow Narratives of Bangladesh
A shadow puppet play collaboration between Carrie Morris Arts Production and the Bangla School of Music. Using simple metaphors to narrate broad concepts in Bangladesh’s history, the show will employ resonant narratives and crafted visual images to tell a story about the past and present of Bangladeshi culture. Photo: Photo: Cristina Mezuk |
| Doppelskope (Brooklyn, NY)
The Amazing Story Machine
The Grimm family are on the verge of presenting their amazing new Story Machine, which runs on steam, dreams, and promises to revolutionize how stories are told and how people connect. When their fabulous new machine malfunctions, they have to invent a new way of storytelling on the spot. Photo: Eric Michael Pearson |
| The Gottabees (Boston, NY)
Go Home Tiny Monster
After Sylvie and her family of handmade monsters experience a loss of epic proportions, the audience must help them find their way to a new home. Go Home Tiny Monster features The Gottabees’ trademark mix of puppetry, joyously absurd silliness, physical theater, and surprising poignancy. Photo: Liz Linder |
| Hamumu Theatre Collective (Indianola, WA)
Our Serpant Guide
Our Serpent Guide follows a young Sioux girl on her journey as a 'Water Protector' to block the dangerous 'Black Snake' as it assumes the physical form of an oil pipeline and travels toward the Salish Sea. |
| Kurt Hunter (Saint Louis Park, MN)
Penguin in my Pocket
Penguin in my Pocket tells the tale of a penguin scientist who crash lands in the jungle when her experimental jetpack fails and how she works with an artistic monkey to find her way home. A solo show featuring marionettes, rod puppets, audience member puppeteers and live concertina music. Photo: Kathy Hunter |
| New York City Children's Theater (New York, NY)
The Little Red Fish
THE LITTLE RED FISH, conceived and designed by Emily DeCola & Eric Wright of Puppet Kitchen, based on the book by Taeeun Yoo will incorporate a range of puppetry techniques to tell the adventures of a boy named Jeje, who chases after his pet fish when it jumps into a magical book at the library. |
| Teatro SEA / Society of the Educational Arts (New York, NY)
My Magical Colombian Bus / Mi Chivita Magica
Audiences hop aboard "La Chivita" a magical bus that journeys through the heartland of Colombia, and is joined by loveable characters that share traditional songs, dance and stories of their beloved homeland. |
