La Mama Puppet Festival

Marcus David
December 2023

La Mama Puppet Festival 2023

“La MaMa has once again proven its commitment to nurturing emerging artists and pushing the boundaries of theatrical expression. This year’s Puppet Festival showcases the incredible results of La MaMa’s Artists Residence Program. It is with immense joy that we get to present the world premieres of four exceptional shows, all of which took shape during La MaMa’s 58th, 59th and 60th seasons. We are pleased to continue nurturing and giving room for growth to emerging creatives, ensuring that puppetry remains a vital force in the ever-evolving landscape of the performing arts, and shows our commitment to fostering the development of groundbreaking puppetry.”

– Denise Greber, Festival Director and Curator

For those who love puppet theatre, La Mama has put together a spirited blend of highly experimental, thought-provoking, and visually stunning fun that the whole family can enjoy. For this years Puppet Festival La Mama presents four world-premieres by Tom Lee, Maria Camia, Maiko Kikuchi, and Aaron Haskell, plus works by Canadian companies Les Sages Fous and Puzzle Theatre.

La Mama’s commitment to the art of puppetry and keeping it alive and well in New York City keeps us lovers of the craft and theatre goers alike engaged and well entertained. Every production I attended was performed to a full and enthusiastic house.

“Puppetry has been an integral part of La MaMa’s programming since 1962, when our founder Ellen Stewart invited puppet artists from Korea to perform their production of Head Hunting by Pagoon Kang Wouk. Ellen recognized puppetry as an art form that exists across world cultures in many different forms. Despite the cultural specificity and variety of these forms, she saw a universal magic in bringing inanimate objects to life. By setting objects in motion, puppet artists can penetrate linguistic and cultural barriers to tell stories that are  accessible to audiences around the world. Bringing international puppet artists together leads to innovation, experimentation, and increased awareness of puppetry as a sophisticated art form.”

–  Denise Greber, Festival Director and Curator

This years festival opened with The Healing Treatment, a highly spiritual, pro-extraterrestrial, anti-smartphone extravaganza. This eye popping Sci-Fi musical charms with numerous plot twisting musical numbers performed with puppets that give new meaning to the phrase speaking from the heart. Maria Camia is a Filipino American artist, director, playwright, fashion designer, and introspective hypnosis practitioner who creates Spiritual/Sci-Fi Theater with the intention to globally inspire healing and play. WORLD PREMIERE.

Next up was Resounding the Resonant Path, by director, designer, and puppet artist Tom Lee. A mystical tale told with both traditional and shadow puppets, along with what may very well be described as a camera obscura-like mechanism projecting a magical world of knowledge onto a misty wall of dreams. Using science and history, Resounding the Resonant Path  offers us an origin story to the art and music we hold to be quintessentially human, so representative of our humanity, in fact, that we choose to share it with alien life we intend to eventually encounter in outer space. Music by Ralph Samuelson & Perry Yung.  WORLD PREMIERE.

In the second week of the festival we have Tricyckle, presented by the Canadian company Les Sages Fous (Quebec). In this production we take a journey into the world of a hapless tricycle riding bumbler as he traverses a landscape of shadows and the grotesque. With a cabinet of curiosities in tow, our man opens up odd worlds where we see a gruesome baby grow up to be a side show human cannonball attraction, followed by a terrifying spider creature that menaces the audience in the spirit of true side show horror. Interpretation by Jacob Brindamour and staging and puppets by South Miller. US PREMIERE.

Next Japanese visual artist and theater maker, Maiko Kikuchi presents Daydream Tutorial, a dreamy how-to guide for living in the hustle and bustle of New York City. The overall look of the production reminded me at times of both Czech surrealist Jan Švankmajer and animations I have seen in Monty Python.  With the help of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, a serene female companion, and large doses dry humor, our protagonist demonstrates new ways to navigate both mundane and awkward situations such as how to use sheep to fall asleep, build a zen garden or avoid a neighbor knocking at your door.  The puppets have a graphic photocopied appearance that easily lends itself to cloning, as they appear as masked actors, traditional puppetry and animation. Heady, no pun intended. WORLD PREMIERE.

In the final week, puppeteer, puppet maker, director, designer, actor, dancer, and visual artist Aaron Haskell leads us into the world of The Pact where an epic battle between good and evil is waged. The puppetry borrows from Chinese Dragon Dance puppets and traditional animal puppets to illuminate the lives of wolves in this spooky dreamscape of the forest where the hunt, the fight and the formation of the pact occurs in eerie twilight. WORLD PREMIERE.

The excitement of puppet theatre continues to grow in New York City with each subsequent season and La Mama continues to be the place to go for your puppet fix.

For more on upcoming performances at La Mama →



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