Body Concert
Lone Wolf Tribe
Kevin Augustine
A hauntingly romantic moving sculpture of muscles, tendons, and bone. Achingly animated in an extremely rigorous choreography, Kevin Augustine’s spectacle embraces a pure minimalism as he puppeteers solo—using his hands, toes, and outstretched legs. Inspired by Butoh dance, this hybrid work brings LWT’s exquisitely sculpted foam-rubber puppets uniquely to life in a wordless, tender meditation on life’s beautiful impermanence. A series of dream-like vignettes (50 min total) elevates our shared human journey between death and birth as the boundaries of puppetry itself are expanded. Within Mark Bruckner’s intricate, electro-acoustic score accented by hints of nature, Body Concert whispers a poetic resonance: we are all alive with life all around us...Unforgettably tender images appear and dissolve amidst lingering vapor and falling snow, a quivering leg is caressed by a compassionate arm, a sightless baby searches for its mother, and a giant eyeball gives birth to itself...
By Lone Wolf Tribe
Performed and Created by Kevin Augustine (USA)
Co-production: Les Sages Fous (QC)
Lone Wolf Tribe is a multi-disciplinary performance company based in Brooklyn, New York, helmed by founding artistic director, Kevin Augustine. Harnessing the transformative power of visual storytelling and Augustine’s virtuosic talents as writer/director, performer, and sculptor, LWT’s signature feature is its breathtaking tribe of hand-carved, life-sized puppets. Blending meticulous craft, physical rigor, and decidedly dark humor, LWT’s mission is to investigate, challenge, and spellbind with fearless original stories that speak compassionately to our collective human experience.
Kevin Augustine is trained as an actor and self-taught as a sculptor and puppeteer. Kevin Augustine founded Lone Wolf Tribe in 1997. An indefatigable craftsman with a mission to investigate, challenge, and spellbind, Kevin devotes 2–5 years to fully realize each new production. Having written and performed 7 full-length Tribe shows, including his opus BRIDE (PS122 commission & UNIMA citation), his original stories aim to speak compassionately to our collective human experience and unabashedly embrace art as a catalyst for social change. Kevin is currently creating a solo performance cycle including Body Concert (a textless Butoh hybrid developed in Norway, Canada, and at St. Ann's Warehouse 2018) and The People vs. Nature"In Kevin's hands the simplest act of bringing life to the inanimate becomes a hugely theatrical event." (an interactive courtroom drama featuring a prosecuting chimpanzee). Transforming ordinary foam into a visceral ensemble of acting partners, puppet artist Basil Twist says: Kevin's work with his foam creations is predicated on a puppet's inherent magic, coupled with the deep power of theatrical possibility which is pointedly not about "object manipulation."
La MaMa Puppet Festival
The La MaMa Puppet Festival showcases new contemporary puppet theatre by artists from around the world. Curated by Denise Greber, focusing on diversifying the voices, stories, and perspectives shared onstage, with the goal of uplifting marginalized identities within the puppet community.