Growing Up Linda, Brooklyn (exhibition)

In May and June 2008, I exhibited storyboards and pop-ups from Growing Up Linda – Fudgie’s Death at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn.

GROWING UP LINDA
FUDGIE’S DEATH

paper engineering by EuGean Seo, 2008

The storyboards and pop-ups I displayed were all from Fudgie’s Death, a segment of Growing Up Linda, in which table-top pop-up books transform into full-screen cinema in a neo-noir tale of desperation and depravity.

Growing Up Linda was an ensemble actor-puppetry performance in which a woman who believes she’s the daughter of a famous ice cream mogul must come to terms with her troubled past.

CREATIVE TEAM

Korean paper engineer, EuGean Seo, created the pop ups sourcing my hand drawn storyboards. I wrote the text with PJ McWhiskers and Joel Egger.

EXHIBITION

Great Small Works presented the pop ups and storyboards as part of their Toy Theatre Museum at St. Ann’s Warehouse.

Friday, May 23rd, 2008
through
Saturday June 1st, 2008

Opening Reception
Friday May 23rd from 5:00 to 7:00pm

St. Ann’s Warehouse
38 Water Street
DUMBO, Brooklyn

St. Ann’s Warehouse plays a vital role on the global cultural landscape as an artistic home for international companies of distinction, American avant-garde masters and talented emerging artists ready to work on a grand scale. St. Ann’s signature flexible, open space allows artists to stretch, both literally and figuratively, enabling them to approach work with unfettered creativity, knowing that the theater can be adapted in multiple configurations to suit their needs.

CURATORIAL

The Temporary Toy Theatre Museum, curated by Emmy Bean, was a companion attraction to Great Small Works’ Eighth International Toy Theatre Festival. Bean sought to expand the roster of toy theater experimenters with examples ranging from historic proscenium paper theaters to found-object construction, paper cuts, paintings, prints, cartoons, photographs, film, and digital work.

For the 2008 Toy Theater Festival, Great Small Works completely transformed St. Ann’s Warehouse, billing it as “a colossal event of miniature proportions”. There were six different programs for adult audiences, a late-night cabaret for developing work, two symposia, two public workshops.

Great Small Works is an OBIE Award-winning collective of theater artists who draw on folk, avant-garde and popular theater traditions to address contemporary issues. Its members are: John Bell, Trudi Cohen, Stephen Kaplin, Jenny Romaine, Roberto Rossi and Mark Sussman.

TOY THEATRE

“Toy Theater: The Grandest of Tales with the Simplest of Means”
Toy Theater (also called Paper Theater) was the rage in parlors across Europe and the Americas in the 19th century, a popular means of staging dramatic spectacles at home. But just as revolutions in print technology had brought Toy Theater into 19th-century homes, 20th-century advances in electronic media and mass culture led to the virtual extinction of this inexpensive family entertainment. The small box used to stage sumptuous dances, battles and stories in the parlor was replaced by an all-too-familiar box in the modern living room. Fantastic in scope, easily affordable and open to any imaginable content, Toy Theater begs to be rescued from obscurity and re-invented in a wide variety of contemporary styles.
Great Small Works announcement

EXHIBITING ARTISTS

The artists who had work on display in the Temporary Toy Theater Museum included: