Various Artists | Works in progress
[Program tbd]
Runtime: 50-60 minutes
La MaMa’s annual Jump Start series gives puppet artists the opportunity to workshop and showcase current work-in-progress. Six artists will be presented in this year’s event…
Justin Perkins • William Carter •
Andrew Murdock • Marcella Murray •
Torry Bend
Scroll down to see the schedule details
Credits
Playwright,Director & Puppet designer: Deniz Khateri
Composer & sound designer: Bahar Royaee
Performers: Hayley Spivey, Siobhan Carroll, Megan Paldino
Program a
Torry Bend and Company
Coat and Coyote
Stripped of purpose, a discarded coat bonds with a female coyote, leaving a human-centered view of the world for reclaimed identity, wildness, and meaning.
Credits
Playwright,Director & Puppet designer: Deniz Khateri
Composer & sound designer: Bahar Royaee
Performers: Hayley Spivey, Siobhan Carroll, Megan Paldino
Andrew Murdock
Beacon
A figure awakens in the dark and illuminates a landscape of memories, fears, and dreams. This visually driven performance blends puppetry with pre-cinematic devices.
Credits
Andrew Murdock (lead artist/performer)
Gabrielle Schutz (dramaturg)
Sarah Finn (performer)
Sean Devare (sound/music)
Program B
Justin Otaki Perkins
Swan Lake Variation
An original puppet work suggested by Tchaikovsky’s ballet, tells the story of an unexeptional man’s encounter with the inexplicable.
Credits
Creator:
Justin Otaki Perkins
Composter:
David Leon
Special Lighting:
Camille Cooper
William PK Carter
Not Yet Buried
is a nature-based fantasy portrayal of a Queer Black experience that emphasizes the importance of community in the face of hate-fueled tragedy.
Credits
William PK Carter: Lead Artist, Fabricator, Playwright, Composer, Puppeteer, Vocalist
Ash Winkfield: Technical Advisor, Puppeteer, Vocalist
Emily Batsford: Puppeteer, Vocalist
Joseph Limos: Puppeteer, Vocalist
Thalya David: Puppeteer, Vocalist
Marcella Murray
Other Atlantas: Something Out The Mud
The trick, they say, is to not look down. I’ve learned that looking up can be a trap too. Look to your neighbor. Slowly, unsteadily, we make do.
Credits
Created and performed by Marcella Murray
The artists
Torry Bend
torrybend.com
bio
Bend’s puppetry has performed across the US, The Paper Hat Game was a NY Times Critic’s Pick, and nominated for a Drama Desk. She is a professor at Duke University.
Andrew Murdock
andrewmurdock.com
@AMurdock_Projects
bio
Andrew Murdock is an interdisciplinary artist whose work collages multiple modalities of imagery, often utilizing techniques in animation, video, physical theater and puppetry. After living in the Adirondacks for several years, and amidst the wake of AI, he began to question his relationship with technology and sought to reimagine his craft through pre-cinematic techniques of storytelling; like shadow theater and magic lanterns. Over the past few years, this experimentation has resulted in Beacon.
Justin Otaki Perkins
jstnprkns.com
@jstnprkns
bio
Justin Otaki Perkins is a puppeteer, designer, and director. Recent & upcoming work includes Lincoln in the Bardo (Met Opera, puppeteer), A Midsummer Night’s Dream (Shakespeare Theatre Company, puppeteer, associate puppetry director), Becoming Eve (NYTW, puppeteer), See What I Wanna See (Out of the Box Theatrics, puppeteer, puppetry director), Madama Butterfly and Florencia en el Amazonas (Met Opera, cover). Justin’s puppetry work has been supported by Jim Henson Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Puppet Lab, Catwalk, Center at West Park, Dixon Place, and more. He’s a founder and curator at Object Movement Puppetry Festival, a year-long development residency program for puppet artists with new works in development, currently in its tenth season. New Hampshire-born; MFA Sarah Lawrence College; lives in beautiful Brooklyn.
William PK Carter
WilliamPKCarter.com
@baeslleaf
bio
Marcella Murray
bio
Marcella Murray is a New York-based theater artist from Augusta, Georgia. She is a playwright, performer, collaborator, and puppeteer. Murray’s work is heavily inspired by the observed ways in which people tend to segregate and reconnect, themes of identity within a community, and forward momentum in the face of trauma.
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