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produces and promotes cutting-edge
theater and puppetry in Philadelphia by bringing local and touring artists to perform at various venues. |
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Past Events: March 19th, 2008 |
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 Poster for both of Puppet Uprising's March 2008 events by Morgan F.P. Andrews
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Local puppeteer Beth Nixon hosted Cardboard, Shadows, Sheets & Suitcases, an evening of assorted shows implementing a range of puppetry techniques presented by performers from near and far. Five veteran puppeteers premiered new work in five different styles: cantastoria (an old form of picture-recitation involving a sung narration accompanied by reference to painted banners or placards), suitcase theater, shadow puppetry, toy theater, and object manipulation. The performances and styles were chosen as representations of things that were not represented in an exhibit called "The Puppet Show" at Philadelphia's Institute of Contemporary Art.
Clare Dolan came from Vermont with her brand new cantastoria entitled The Adventures of GoGo Girl in Vermont: Episode 23, in which Go-Go Girl struggles with a bossy head nurse, a frozen barn door, Hilary Clinton, Barack Obama, solitude and a flying egg sandwich. Anthony Heard unveiled Finding Winston with collaborator Shamari Kamau, a suitcase puppet show about a young boy who moves from the country to the city to live with his sister. Erik Ruin debuted the first part of his new shadow projection show Flight, showing a boy fleeing the post-colonial persecutions of arson, militarization, and boy-eating lions, set to a live score by violinist Katt Hernandez. Shoddy Puppet Company (Morgan F.P. Andrews with ad-libbed assistance from Beth Nixon) presented a sneak preview of The Phoenix, a cardboard story about a boy made out of tin who marries a chicken—part of a longer work premiering at the International Toy Theater Festival in New York this May. Tim Harbeson rounded things out with Fence Kitchen, a perpetual work in progress synthesizing various forms of puppetry with ambient setting, animation of lighting and antique objects, plus Tim's original music. Also, Spiral Q Puppet Theater made an appearance with a few giant papier-mâché friends to greet and usher people from show to show
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Cardboard, Shadows, Sheets & Suitcases artists biographies and links: |
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| BETH NIXON is a puppeteer and founder of Ramshackle Enterprises. She writes builds and performs her own puppet
shows and facilitates children and adults making puppets, parades, and pageants of their own. She is honored to have been asked by the ICA to pick a handful of her favorite puppeteers to share their various techniques. Beth will provide the theatrical padding between the 5 acts. More about her work is available here, and you can find out about her bewest production, MITE WE, here. ERIK RUIN is a Michigan-raised, Philly-based printmaker, shadow-puppeteer, and occasional editor of various publications, most recently the anthology Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority (w/ Josh MacPhee, AK Press, 2007). Check out some of his print work here. KATT HERNANDEZ collaborates with a sea of musicians, dancers, and others, and performs in a vast slew of subway passages, urban grottos, and performance spaces throughout the East Coast Metropolii. More about Katt's work can be found here. MORGAN F.P. ANDREWS is Puppet Uprising's co-founder/artistic director. He regularly performs with Ramshackle Enterprises and the Bread & Puppet Theater, and occasionally in his own Shoddy Puppet Company. Over the past year Morgan has been building a series of performative academic lectures on radical puppet history, and his essay, "When Magic Confronts Authority: the rise of protest puppetry in North America," can be found in the pages of Realizing the Impossible: Art Against Authority (AK Press, 2007). |
CLARE DOLAN has performed in Europe, South America, Asia, the Middle East, and here at home with and without the Bread & Puppet Theater. While currently living a secret double life as a nurse in her small Vermont town, she lectures, leads workshops, creates, performs, and participates in collaborative projects in puppet theater, cantastoria and toy theater. She dances on stilts and is the founder and chief curator of The Museum of Everyday Life who recently presented The Babel Cabaret at Bartram's Garden. ANTHNY HEARD and SHAMARI KAMAN are both students at The Art Institute of Philadelphia. Beth first met Anthony when he was in 9th grade and part of a suitcase puppet theater workshop she was teaching. Six years later, Anthony is again working his suitcase puppet magic. Alongside his scholastic and theatrical endeavors Anthony is also focused on the advancement of his own production company, 'YA HEARD' Records. Shamari is a promising artist, musician and videographer, making his puppetry debut at the ICA. TIM HARBESON has a background in sculpture and music composition. From 2002 to the present, he has employed Fence Kitchen as both alter ego and vehicle for exploring his interest in multi-disciplinary solo performance. SPIRAL Q PUPPET THEATER seeks to mobilize communities and illuminate the victories, frustrations and possibilities of living in the neighborhoods of Philadelphia and similar urban settings through the construction of full-scale giant puppet parades, toy theater and neighborhood pageantry. Visit their website here. |
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