World Premiere
Directed by Theodora Skipitares Conceived and Directed by Theodora Skipitares Music by LaFrae Sci Choreography by Edisa Weeks featuring the Soul Tigers Marching Band
The Transfiguration of Benjamin Banneker is a multi-disciplinary spectacle with a marching band, 12-foot puppets, shadow puppetry and moving projection screens. The band is an award-winning group, the Soul Tigers, young men and women who attend Benjamin Banneker High School in Fort Greene, Brooklyn.
This event celebrates the life of Benjamin Banneker, a free black man living in Maryland from 1731 to 1806, who taught himself mathematics and astronomy, and made important scientific discoveries. In addition to Banneker's life, students from the high school contribute autobiographical material to the performance and will participate alongside professional performers.
Received support as part of The Jim Henson Foundation 2019 Presenter's Grant
Press
"With abundant ingenuity that brings to mind the wonders of Alexander Calder's circus, Theodora Skipitares makes of the Trojan War, a central saga of Greek tragedy, a puppet spectacular." - The New York Times
"Her work is an illuminating exploration into the laboratories of life." - The New York Times
"Skipitares' works have a bitter humor and dreamlike brevity...she is a possessed and clairvoyant miniaturist." - The Village Voice
About the Artists
Skysaver Productions, a resident company at La MaMa, is an award-winning interdisciplinary performance group based in New York. Under the direction of Theodora Skipitares, the company has created 30 performance works, each featuring documentary texts, original music, video, and as many as 300 puppet figures. Ms. Skipitares and her group have worked in India, Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea, Brazil and Iran.