On July 29th, 2011 I performed Web of Mystery at the Warehouse (a secret location) in San Diego where Animal Cracker Conspiracy held it’s Adult Puppet Cabaret. In Web of Mystery, a spider dances with it’s puppeteers before overtaking one of them. Melissa Dunphy composed original music.
On April 27 8-10pm, I presented my Artist Talk at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in Baltimore for Valeska Populoh’s graduating class in the Fiber Department. While at MICA I spoke about performances like Growing Up Linda and Bride of Wildenstein – The Musical.
This artist talk was made in conjunction with my performance, Fudgie’s Death at the 14Karat Cabaret and my presentation Object/Fetish at a salon/art party in the H&H Arts Building as part of the 2011 Transmodern Festival.
In the “The North American Puppet Slam Scene in 2010”, I was interviewed by Teresa Smalec for Puppetry International on my work as a curator of short-form puppetry for adults and in my role as co-founder of the Puppet Slam Network.
Continue reading “Puppetry International – The North American Puppet Slam Scene in 2010 (press)”
On July 7th, 2010, Dan Walechuck appeared on CJOB (Winnipeg) to talk about The Puppet Slam Network and the Winnipeg Puppet Slam, in which I performed Fudgie’s Death, a segment from Growing Up Linda.
Continue reading “CJOB, Winnipeg”
On May 15th, 2009 I earned my MFA degree from California Institute for the Arts (CalArts) in Scenic Design in the Puppetry track from the Theater School and the Cotsen Center for Puppetry and the Arts. I attended CalArts between 2006-2009 under the mentorship of Janie Geiser and Susan Simpson and developed two major productions, Growing Up Linda and Bride of Wildenstein – The Musical,.
In 2008, I was the recipient of funding from the Office of the President at California Institute for the Arts for the workshop of Growing Up Linda and premiere at Venue 13 in Edinburgh.
Continue reading “CalArts, Office of the President (support)”
In 2008, I was the recipient of an Interdisciplinary Grant from the California Institute of Arts for a workshop of Growing Up Linda and the premiere at Venue 13 in Edinburgh.
Continue reading “Interdisciplinary Project Grant – 2008 (support)”There have been many exciting developments integrating new technologies with puppetry – from the machinima’s live manipulation and rendering of three-dimensional graphics found in the virtual puppetry of the Jim Henson Company’s Meet the Skrumps, to advances in robotics, like wireless servos responsible for the facial expressions of the puppets in Team America. Audiences have witnessed the combination of video and puppetry in the development of video ventriloquism (central in Evan O’Television’s cabaret acts), the use of video Foley tables in Cynthia Hopkins Accidental Nostalgia and most popularly, the use of live feeds, otherwise known as “I-MAG”. In puppetry, I-MAG, an abbreviation for “image magnification”, involves creating a live feed of all a performance captured with video camera and viewed simultaneously on a monitor or projection screen. In this paper, I will be exploring the use of I-MAG in contemporary puppet theatre – excavating its roots and looking at its evocative range such as uncanny doubling, changes in scale, cinematic effects, economy of space, and a reframing of the proscenium).
Continue reading “New Technologies in Puppetry: I-MAG (paper)”
From June 7th-30th, 2007, I was a puppeteer in Lead Feet and Nothing Upstairs: A History of the Lifelike at the Manual Archives in Los Angeles. Lead Feet, written and directed by Susan Simpson, was a puppet play that focused on female triplets raised their grandmother and ideas about originality and personal identity. In Lead Feet, performed in the role of the grandmother, a marionette which I also voiced. There were 15 performances during the run of the show.
Continue reading “Lead Feet & Nothing Upstairs, LA (puppeteer)”
On July 1st, 2006, I performed my short marionette dance piece, Rango Tango, at the Revolving Museum in Lowell, MA. The performance was part of a special edition of Blood from a Turnip I hosted with Vanessa Gilbert as part of the Revolving Museum’s Pulling Strings: Traditional and Contemporary Puppetry Exhibit. Rango Tango was choreographed with Philip Huber at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center as part of the 2006 National Puppetry Conference with funding the Kevin Clash Minority Scholarship.