Jump Start: A Presentation of Works in Progress

“Part celestial creature, part sophisticated human” is how Charlotte Lily Gaspard has been described by Faerie Magazine when contemplating the ethereal artist and her work in one of their features. Shadow puppet artist, educator, and children’s entertainer, Charlotte’s mission is to activate imaginations and celebrate playfulness wherever she goes. A “multi-faceted enchantress...the fanciful mastermind behind Midnight Radio Show” (Broadway World), Charlotte is the founder and artistic director of Midnight Radio Show, a shadow puppet sci-fi fairytale theater company based in Brooklyn, NY. She designs puppets for theater and film, including A Snowy Day & Other Stories by Ezra Jack Keats.

Tristan Allen is a composer and puppeteer who’s work employs the narrative power of instrumental music and puppetry to create rich works of wordless fantasy. tristanallen.org

EVOLVE PUPPETS (TANYA KHORDOC & BARRY WEIL) have been creating innovative puppet theatre in NYC for more than two decades. In 2019, they presented their show HOME (a Jim Henson Foundation Grant recipient) at the Tank NYC. Recently, they created a series of puppet films, including LIGHT AS PAPER (for the Object Movement Festival) and ONCE UPON A PLASTIC FOREST (for La MaMa Kids Online). Evolve created the world premiere production of former Czech President Vàclav Havel’s play MOTORMORPHOSIS for UTC61’s Havel Festival. They’ve created puppets for Dell’Arte Opera Ensemble’s PRINCESS MALEINE at La MaMa; crafted live-video-projected models for UTC61’s adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s CAT’S CRADLE; and designed the puppetry for Theater East’s DEVIL AND THE DEEP, a musical co-written by Graham Russell of Air Supply. Evolve has also performed many original works (written, designed and directed by Tanya & Barry) at venues that include La MaMa, HERE Arts Center, St. Ann’s Warehouse, The Brick, Dixon Place, and two Puppeteers of America National Festivals. They are currently developing their fourth full-length puppet play, THEY WERE CALLED TREES.

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. Her work tends to focus on themes of identity within a community and (hopefully) forward momentum in the face of trauma. Performances include Sonntags wird gelogen Or We Only Lie on Sundays written and directed by Leonie Bell at The Brick; The Slow Room, a piece directed by Annie Dorsen at Performance Space New York; a workshop of Ocean Filibuster which was co-created by the team Pearl D’Amour (Lisa D’Amour and Katie Pearl) with composer Sxip Shirey at Abrons Arts Center; I Don’t Want to Interrupt You Guys which was created in collaboration with Leonie Bell and Hyung Seok Jeon during RAP at Mabou Mines; New Mony created by Maria Camia at Dixon Place; and Shoot Don’t Talk at St. Ann’s Warehouse/Puppet Lab created by Andrew Murdock. Along with David Neumann/Advanced Beginner Group, she recently co-created Distances Smaller Than This Are Not Confirmed (Obie Special Citation for Creation and Performance) which opened at Abrons Arts Center, co-produced by Chocolate Factory, in January of 2020. She is also one of four curators of the Object Movement Festival at Center West Park.

Jump Start is made possible by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature, the Howard Gilman Foundation, The Jim Henson Foundation, Puppet Slam Network, the Mellon Foundation, and The Shubert Foundation. Additional support from Cheryl Henson is gratefully acknowledged.

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