La MaMa Kids: Go Home Tiny Monster
By The Gottabees
After a sudden storm, Sylvie and her loving family of homespun creatures find themselves in need of a new home. Luckily, they have an audience full of people who can help them out! Go Home Tiny Monster is a wildly creative theatrical ode to a community's generosity. The show, told entirely without words, features The Gottabees’ signature mix of puppetry, live music, physical theater, and joyously absurd silliness.
Recommended for ages 3 & up.
The show was inspired by true events—four members of The Gottabees were displaced from their homes (two by fire and two by weather-related damage), and this show attempts to make sense of their shared experiences.
We, as creators, posed these questions to ourselves—
How can we use our seemingly silly, magical, illogical style of puppet theater to “talk” with children and families about what it’s like to not have a home?
How can we have the audience actually help build a home for the characters on stage, together as a community?
How can this shared experience inspire families to take action in their communities to help those displaced from their homes?
Photos by Liz Linder
The Creative Team:
Creator & Performer: Bonnie Duncan
Director & Co-creator: Dan Milstein
Music: Tony Leva & Brendan Burns
Puppets: Marte Ekhougen
Costumes: Penney Pinette
Lights: Harrison Pearse Burke
Set: Bonnie Duncan, Marte Ekhougen, Penney Pinette
The Gottabees started making super fun theater for families in 2013. They regularly sell out venues, inhabit computer screens, and inspire homemade puppet shows throughout the U.S., Canada, and beyond. They aim to inspire community, connection, and autonomy by providing an outlet for families to giggle, gasp, sigh, and cheer in forty-five minutes or less. The Gottabees' stories reflect children's everyday aspirations, concerns, and emotional experiences.
We want children to know in their hearts that they, too, can make theater wherever they are and whomever they are.
The Gottabees’ work has been performed in 18 states, 5 countries, for over 43,000 people and was awarded an UNIMA-USA Citation of Excellence. Their projects have been funded by the Jim Henson Foundation, Puppeteers of America, US Artists International, Boston Cultural Council, and the Boston Foundation.
The show was generously supported by Puppet Showplace Theater’s Incubator program, is a recipient of a 2018 Jim Henson Foundation Family Grant, was developed in part at the Charlestown Working Theater, and was also developed in part at the National Puppetry Conference at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center. This piece was created in part at The Yard, an artist residency and performance center dedicated to contemporary dance, theater, and related arts, as part of the 2017 Off-Shore Creation Residency. Additional support provided by the Jim Henson Foundation.
La MaMa Kids 2023–2024 is supported in part by public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council and the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional support provided by The William C. Bullitt Foundation, Con Edison, the Howard Gilman Foundation, The Jim Henson Foundation and The SQA Foundation.
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.
La MaMa Kids
La MaMa Kids Online presents kids performances and hands-on workshops online, timed especially for “after school” viewing! La MaMa will continue to use emerging technologies to create a new venue for artistic expression that questions how art can function and how we as a society can survive challenging periods of history.