On Friday, September 25th, 2009, I performed Stuffed and Mounted, the opening duet from Bride of Wildenstein – the Musical at the Tank in New York City.
In Bride of Wildenstein – The Musical, an aging socialite grows fur and claws to recapture her philandering game hunter husband’s attention. Using puppets and masks to augment the body, this solo cabaret performance playfully unpacks desire and the contagion of identity with songs that examine the making of a monstrosity.
The weird and tragic love story wildly reimagines tabloid accounts of the real-life “cat woman”, Jocelyn Wildenstein. As the protagonist’s marriage dissolves, she begins to reinvent herself through drastic measures. But biomedical and surgical procedures to become more feline only heighten her sense of estrangement and embolden her quest to find a fiercer sense of self.
Marsian De Lellis, NYC, 2009, Photo: Richard Termine 
Marsian De Lellis, NYC, 2009, Photo: Richard Termine 
Marsian De Lellis, NYC, 2009, Photo: Richard Termine 
Marsian De Lellis, NYC, 2009, Photo: Richard Termine 
Marsian De Lellis, NYC, 2009, Photo: Richard Termine 
Marsian De Lellis, NYC, 2009, Photo: Richard Termine Marsian De Lellis, NYC, 2009, Photo: Richard Termine Marsian De Lellis, NYC, 2009, Photo: Richard Termine
In this particular number, “Stuffed and Mounted”, I played the cat woman, Jocelyn Wildenstein on my front side, and her philandering game hunter husband, Alec on the back. In this iteration, music was composed by Josh Senick with costumes by Lee Frank and Hunter Wells.
PERFORMANCES
Friday,
September 25, 2009
at 7:30PM
Saturday,
September 26, 2009
at 3:00PM
Saturday,
September 26, 2009
at 7:00PM
At the time, The Tank was located at 354 W. 45th Street between 8th and 9th. As a non-profit arts presenter, it serves emerging artists engaged in the pursuit of new ideas and forms of expression. One of their goals is to foster an environment of inclusiveness and remove the burden of cost from the creation of new work for artists launching their careers and experimenting within their form.
PERFORMERS
Leslie Carrarra-Rudolph, Lolly, and Jim Napolitano hosted
Ryan Dillon
Train of Thoughts
Honey Goodenough
Handle with Care
Carole Simms D’Agostino
Flirty Birdie
Excess Baggage
Eric Wright
Taps
Marta Mozelle MacRostie
“On All Fives”
Morning Toast
Alissa Hunnicutt
Raggedy Ann
Brodrick Jones
Knitting Granny
Jon Levin
Coffee
Jon Little
The Seagull and the Airplane
Bonnie Berkowitz
Violin Lesson
Jamie Haas-Powell
Hide and Seek
Lindsey “Z” Briggs
This Will Only Hurt a Little
Marina Tsaplina
Unsatisfied
Elizabeth Hara
I Want Candy
Ed Valentine
Alaska
Curated by Honey Goodenough, Puppet Pandemic was a showcase of works developed at the National Puppetry Conference, that explored the infectious nature of puppets. From marionettes to papier mache mayhem, puppeteers bred new strains of creativity and redefined conventional notions of puppetry
Like a pandemic, the passion for puppetry is spreading! The only cure – a prescription of puppet performances!
All profits from performances benefited the Alumni Scholarship for the National Puppetry Conference, in order to continue propagating provocative theatrical works. If you are so inclined, you can still make donations here.
Bride of Wildenstein was developed at CalArts and the National Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center with funding from The Durfee Foundation and Ibex Puppetry.
