The People vs. Nature
By Lone Wolf Tribe
Created by Kevin Augustine
With only hours to live, a death-row inmate fights to free a chimpanzee from medical captivity. In solitary confinement he reenacts a court trial based on true events, litigating the value of some lives over others. For writer/director/performer Kevin Augustine, his own death & life story becomes part of the show as audience members are invited into community onstage, helping bring his primate puppets to life.
The People vs. Nature provides the opportunity for a small number of audience members to volunteer as assistant puppeteers during each performance.
Press Representative: Sam Rudy Media Relations
Lone Wolf Tribe is an award-winning international touring puppet company. As writer & director, Kevin Augustine is the eponymous lone wolf-- performing alongside his tribe of foam-rubber puppets he makes. With a mission to Investigate, Challenge & Spellbind, LWT uses low-tech magic and poetic brutality to create gutsy live theatre about our collective human story. Embracing art as a life-line to possibility, LWT tells stories that elevate voices deserving to be heard: be they veterans, animals or the vaccine injured.
Script, direction, puppets, solo actor: Kevin Augustine
Co-direction & dramaturgy: Rachel Schroeder
General Manager: Gloria Sun
Sound Design: Kate Marvin, Mark Bruckner, Travis Wright
Composer: Mark Bruckner
Video Design: Chris Carcione
Lighting Design: Daisy Long
Puppeteer: Jaime Moore
Original Music: Mark Bruckner
Set and costume consultant: Andreea Mincic
Technical puppet consultant: Ilya Vett
Set builder: Aaron Treat
Lighting Consultant: Ayumu Poe Saegusa
Technical puppet consultant and engineer: Ilya Vett
Dialect coach: Susanne Sulby
Set builder: Aaron Treat
Stage Manager: Maranda Salvas
Rehearsal Assistant: Ryan Richter
Stage crew: Sena Pate
Thank you to: the theatre students at the University of Iowa & University of Maryland, Flushing Town Hall in Queens, North American Cultural Laboratory, Artist residency programs Djerassi & Yaddo and La MaMa's artist residency program for assistance in developing this production. Thanks to Denise Greber for inviting LWT back for its last NYC premiere! Funding: thank you to all of our individual donors (including Christie Van Kehrberg) who supported our fundraisers and to New York State Council on the Arts, Culture and Animals Foundation, The Jim Henson Foundation (seed grant) and the Brooklyn Arts Council. Special thanks to: Rachel Schroeder, Rich Grunn, Islah Abdul-Rahiim, Gloria Sun, Jamie Moore, Leigh Smiley, Mark Bruckner and Mary Beth Easley, dialect coach Susanne Sulby, Ilya Vett, Eva Lansberry, Ellen Kodadek, Andreea Mincic's Pratt Theatre students, Aaron Treat & my dear Meilin Mehri.
The 11th La MaMa Puppet Festival Fall 2024 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 Acción Cultural Española (AC/E), the Cultural Office of the Spanish Embassy in Washington DC and the Cultural Office of the Consulate General of Spain in New York, the Howard Gilman Foundation, The Jim Henson Foundation, the Québec Government Office in New York, Puppet Slam Network, Radio Drama Network, The Shubert Foundation. Additional support from Cheryl Henson is gratefully acknowledged.
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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.