Curated by Morgan F.P. Andrews and Ken Berman.
Poster by Morgan F.P. Andrews & Bob Kamzelski.
Hosted by Lemur.

A blizzard ushered in Puppet Uprising's fourth bi-monthly cabaret on the night before New Year's Eve. Performers braved the storm, driving down from New England (though Carl Wieting from Boston's Puppet Showplace Theater was unable to make it) and the CEC was packed past capacity despite the inclement weather. PU#4 also brought our first ever Cheap Art Bazaar, organized by Suzanne Francis and Dan Gashewski of Twitchy Puppets fame, and an MC whose between-act bits are still some of the most memorable Uprising performances to date.

West Philly performance artist "Lemur" played host with a variety of solo skits that included a drag routine where a man has a convestation with his mother, a POW escapee from the PLF (Puppet Liberaton Front), a vomitous skull delivering an oratorio as to why the puppets at the 2000 Republican National Convention had to be destroyed, and the unforgettable banjo tune, "The Puppets Are Gonna Rise Up...The Puppets Had Better Wise Up."

Chicago's RPM Puppet Conspiracy (Dave Bailey and Rebecca Tennison) performed its first show, The Trial of General Torture, commisioned by the Illinois chapter of Amnesty International. Puppeteers of America president Steve Abrams presented his seasonal series of short Winter Solstice stories, Raven's Feast, based on Native America folklore (with some interruption from the Puppet Liberation Front of course). Philadelphia native Ken Berman (Dramaton Theater) brought us his brass-butterfly-with-flashpaper-puppet piece Wending Wind and invited two fellow puppeteers from the University of Connecticut to perform their workshop piece Icarus. Paul, Andy and Monica's Puppet Universe rounded things out in 2575, a science fiction epic starring a Champion Juicer, a large tray of wheat grass sprouts, a trash bag full of empty Fresh Samantha bottles, and giant UFO puppets fashioned from welded scrap metal. Wow.

See what Dramaton Theater has been up to here.
RPM Puppet Conspiracy is still kicking! See it here.
Look up Steve Abrams in the Puppetry Yellow Pages here and find out about the Puppeteers of America here.
Paul, Andy and Monica started Firhouse Bicycles, Philly's best collectively run bike shop. Visit them here.
And find ourt about our Chaep Art Bazaar right here.