6 Questions with Tarish "Jeghetto" Pipkins of THE HIP HOPERA OF 5P1N0K10

Tarish Pipkins a.k.a. Jeghetto is puppetry infused with Hip Hop culture. He has been building his puppets out of recycled and found materials for about 20 years. He has worked with Missy Elliott, Pharrell Williams, Alec Baldwin, and others. Jeghetto travels the country performing his unique style of puppet theater and facilitates puppet workshops and performances online. Learn all about him at jeghetto.com. Jeghetto will be performing four performances of The Hip Hopera of 5P1N0K10 from March 23–26, which will be the first full performance in the newly-renovated 74 East 4th Street. Tickets can be purchased here, and puppet packages (for those who'd like to see two or three upcoming puppet shows at a discounted rate) can be purchased here. 

Jeghetto will also be performing in and facilitating La MaMa Kids: Puppet Self Portrait on Saturday, March 25 at 12PM. Watch him get lost in his imagination as he performs with his unique puppets made out of recycled materials. This production gives you a glimpse of his process with visual projections, spoken word, and hip hop beats.

1. How would you describe your work as a puppetry artist?

I would describe my work as “making something from nothing.” I use mostly found and recycled materials to create my work. I like to call my puppets “moving sculptures”.

2. Who or what has inspired you?

Life itself inspires my work. It could be a past experience, watching a documentary, or a conversation with a stranger. 

3. What should audiences expect from the performance?

I like for audience members to leave my show with questions about themselves and the world around them. 

4. What are your upcoming plans for 2023?

My upcoming plans for 2023 is to stay on the current path of creativity and discovery that I’m on. I can’t imagine being in a better place in my life artistically. I foresee a great future in puppetry.

5. How would you Remake a World?

I believe the world has an over abundance of resources for everyone. I would make energy and resources available so that humans wouldn’t have to pay to live. Poverty and famine is intentional. A control mechanism to keep the evil that runs our world in power. I would establish a system of true justice where everyone is equally held accountable for their actions.

6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you?

Working at La Mama means everything. To be able to perform in such a historic venue is very motivating. I’m standing on the shoulders of giants. 

La MaMa presents

The Hip Hopera of 5P1N0K10

March 23 –26, 2023

The Club
74 East 4th Street
New York, NY 10003

Thursday at 7:30PM

Friday at 7:30PM

Saturday at 7:30PM
Sunday at 12PM

Tickets:

Adults: $30
Students/Seniors: $25
First 10 tickets are $10 (limit 2 per person)
Ticket prices are inclusive of all fees.

6 Questions for Boxcutter Collective

Photo by Trudi Cohen

The Brooklyn-based Boxcutter Collective was formed by veterans of the world-famous Bread and Puppet Theater. They both make puppet shows to underthrow the rotten empire. Joe Therrien and Sam Wilson are two members of the collective, who will be performing four performances of The Divinity Supply Company this weekend in The Downstairs from June 30–July 2. Tickets can be purchased here.

1. What inspired you to create and perform this specific show, here and now?
 
Joe: Boxcutter had been planning to make a specifically Bread and Puppet/Boxcutter Collective collaborative puppet show since before the pandemic. Peter was very adamant that we not pre-plan our project, but that we get together and see what we make. A lot of the initial work was compositional, just taking Boxcutter puppets and Peter’s puppets and creating short tableau vivants with sound—no text initially. Then, as our brains started organizing and reorganizing short pieces of puppetry, meaning and content began to trickle in and make connections with other pieces, which then inspired new puppet sequences in a continuing cycle of inspiration and evolution. Boxcutter loves to write together, so we did many writing sessions over the course of the project, pieces of which were used, thrown-out, reused and reworked as the process unfolded.
 
Sam: We have been working on this show for a while and the show has evolved with the issues. Making puppet shows is a way that we process the political events of the moment. It is a way that I feel I can engage in the dialogue around specific issues. This show is a table or a sort of envelope to hold the items that we are thinking hard about, are deeply upset and confused by, and are keeping us up at night. It is a show, in part, about how we face this moment.
 
2. How does your work as part of the Boxcutter Collective impact and inform your other creative endeavors?
 
Joe: At this point, 90% of my creative endeavors fall under the umbrella of The Boxcutter Collective. When I am lucky enough to work with other groups, I try to bring Boxcutter’s spirit of joy and freedom in the creative process. It is an exhilarating feeling when we are all connected and our group brain approaches flow state, and there is playfulness and confidence as we barrel forward making a new show. It comes from trust and inspiration in each other, and I try to foster those feelings in all the projects I’m a part of. Boxcutter has also developed some timed writing exercises to create scripts for shows, and I’ve brought these exercises and variations to other groups to help structure some of their creative work, and it has been really interesting to see what from that process is useful or not to other groups.
 
Sam: Being a member of a collective feels like a huge gift to myself as an artist. I have support in different ways for anything I might want to try to do and as a result I say yes to more things.
 
3. What goes into building a show like The Divinity Supply Company?
 
Joe: The biggest factor, in my opinion, was the scheduling of everyone to get together in Vermont for multiple development periods and the added logistics we had to figure out to contend with Covid. Once we all got into the same room—it was paradise! At the Bread and Puppet farm, the resident company let us take over a beautiful indoor rehearsal space for multiple month long residences. Most of the development was during winter times, so one of us would get there extra early and start a fire in the wood stove and make coffee. Then we’d get together and decide what to start with, whether it be puppet experimentation, building, writing, or rehearsing. Peter would usually start the day with us, and then come back in the afternoon—sometimes with new paintings or writing inspired by what we had shown and talked about in the morning. It was a very fun back-and-forth and we threw a lot of spaghetti at the wall and many things were created that did not end up in this version of the show—but having a lot of uninterrupted time together to try things out was very important!
 
Sam: This show was developed over two residencies which were a year apart. There was work on it in between and a shorter version was performed. We don’t start from one place. We start with texts and ideas we are interested in one hand, visuals and puppets that speak to us in another hand, performance and movement themes in one foot, sound in the other foot and then there is also the ongoing discourse of the moment. All those different inputs come in and out of the process until they start to select each other and adhere together into something we can shape.
 
4. What should audiences expect from the performance?
 
Joe: Hmm… puppets? And cut-up cardboard boxes? And bread. Primary colors. Foolish and serious dances. Lots of live music. Endearingly-misguided salesmen. Hucksterism of the finest quality. Surprises! Celebrations of the totally obvious. Bad jokes. And the feeling that you aren’t alone in the madness!
 
Sam: Expect to leave with more questions than answers and some understanding that we are not alone.
 
5. What are your upcoming plans and performances?
 
Joe & Sam: After this show closes, some of us are headed to Glover, VT to be a part of Bread and Puppet’s summer company of puppeteers. Jason Hicks has some new puppet shows he will be performing with his Detroit co-conspirator, Lindsay McCaw through their project, Flying Cardboard Theater. Ali Dineen will be performing live music throughout the rest of the summer in the NYC area. She’s also continuing to work on Saint Joan, an evolving musical project about Joan of Arc, gender non-conforming patron saint of revolution. We will perform Divinity Supply Company again on October 7 at the Puppeteers of America’s festival happening in Coney Island and hope to tour it next year (if you have a theater that wants it, let us know!) Then, after the festival, we shift our focus to another new show we are making that received a Henson Artist Grant called Happyland! Now!! It’s a subversive episodic puppet spectacle rock-operetta we are creating in collaboration with The Jalopy Theater and School of Music in Red Hook, Brooklyn. We’ll perform some of it at the Brooklyn Folk Festival, and then premiere it in November at Jalopy. We are also working on a movie that Tom is directing and has been writing (details are under wraps at the moment). We plan on continuing our work with various grassroots and activist organizations, especially the “No North Brooklyn Pipeline” fight and Sane Energy. We’re also curating puppets on the Jalopy stage including an evening of shows called Cafe des Cheape Artistes in December. And, beyond that, there’s only a few dozen projects in various states of fermentation and fruition that we will be sharing throughout the year. Follow us on Instagram @boxcutter_collective or check out www.boxcuttercollective.org to stay up to date on what we are doing next.
 
6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you?
 
Joe: I am thrilled that this show gets to premiere at La MaMa! I’ve lived in NYC for 20 years and I have seen so many shows here. The history of this theater in fostering new work for so many years—including the early days of both Bread and Puppet (when it was just around the corner) and La MaMa—is so inspiring. I also appreciate La MaMa’s commitment to accessibility of theater to people who can not necessarily afford the crazy Broadway prices (the 10 tickets for $10 to every performance is amazing!) and the work that is being created and showcased here is coming from such a diverse group of people, many from populations that have historically been marginalized and kept out of the conversation. It’s an incredible and important institution and I’m honored to be a part of it.
 
Sam: I am thrilled to be a La MaMa! When I was growing up in Buffalo New York my parents worked in theater there. We would take trips to NYC to see shows (this was the late '80s and early '90’s). I remember seeing shows at La MaMa and learning that it was an important and exciting place for rule-breaking theater.

Photo by Amelia Castillo

La MaMa presents

The Divinity Supply Company

June 30 – July 2, 2022

The Downstairs
66 East 4th Street, basement
New York, NY 10003

Thursday at 8PM

Friday at 8PM

Saturday at 3PM

Saturday at 8PM

Tickets:

Adults: $25 in advance; $30 day of show
Students/Seniors: $20 in advance; $25 day of show

6 QUESTIONS: Kiku Sakai

Sam records Kiku in the La MaMa offices.

La MaMa resident artist Kiku Sakai is curating and performing in TALES OF PELE: HAWAI'I'S GODDESS OF FIRE, a myth told through the arts of hula and hula ki'i, June 19th - 20th in the Ellen Stewart Theatre. She sat down with Sam Alper for an impromptu six questions.

1. As a resident artist, how did you first become involved with La MaMa?

Originally, at the beginning, I was a student studying theater administration and I needed to find a an internship. I somehow got into La MaMa as a an intern and I really liked it. So I extended my internship period for one year and I thought maybe I can do some part time job here. I got a part time job and then I got a full time. At the same time I was doing hula, separately. It was pretty much at the encouragement of Ellen Stewart, Mama, saying I should do a hula show. She was really encouraging. I was like 'no no no no no, hula is not really a show..." but finally I did it with Pua Ali’i ‘Ilima, a hula halau (hula school) that I am a member of, in 2010.

2. You dance hula and also do a form of puppetry related to hula. Can you tell us a little about that?

In addition to hula I was doing puppetry work, mainly with Loco 7 and Federico Restrepo, Theodora Skipitares, Vit Horejs. Then my kumu hula, who is a hula master, master teacher, Vicky Holt Takamine, found out I was interested in puppetry. She told me, there is a traditional, somewhat forgotten, hula form, hula ki'i, which is puppetry hula. She had a student Mauliola Cook, who learned from Aunty Nona Beamer, who is the one who revived modern hula ki'i. So my teacher Vicky thought I could learn from Mauliola. That's how it all started.

3. Do you have a preference between hula and hula ki'i?

Hula ki'i is so much fun but so difficult. Hula you dance with your body, but in ki'i, you have an additional body on your hand, and you have to collaborate with the puppet. In hula, usually you use both hands, but you have to work with one hand and then the other is devoted to the puppet, so technically, that's why it can be difficult.  

4. What can audiences expect from TALES OF PELE?

You're going to learn the journey of Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire. Now she resides in a volcano on the Big Island, the island of Hawai'i. She had to come there from Havaiki, another island, so you're going to learn how her journey was - with hula and hula ki'i.

5. What shows in the past La MaMa season inspired you?

Of course all the puppet shows, because I'm still learning how to do puppetry. And of course the dance festival is great. Each choreographer and each dancer has a different style of expression. I like Miki Orihara's work. She has so much deep emotion that gets expressed through her movement. Her work is very inspiring to me.

6. Can you tell us a bit about your collaborators on Tales of Pele?

I mentioned my kumu hula, Vicky Takamine, and then her son is also a kumu hula,  Jeffrey Takamine. Mauliola Cook, my teacher is a part of the show. Then I had the privilege to meet another hula ki'i master from Maui, Kapono'ai Molitau and his student Moanalani Beamer, who is another great kumu hula. All the hula dancers and local artistsin New York are so supportive. We couldn't do the show without them.

La MaMa presents:

TALES OF PELE: HAWAI'I'S GODDESS OF FIRE

Curated by Kiku Sakai
Featuring Kumu Hula (master teachers of Hawaiian dance) and performing artists from O’ahu, Maui and Kaua’i islands of Hawai’i and New York City

June 19th – 20th, 2014 @ 7pm

The Ellen Stewart Theatre @ La MaMa
66 East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $20 Adults - $15 Student/Senior; ten tickets priced at $10 are available, in advance, for every performance via web, phone or box office as part of La MaMa's 10@$10 ticketing initiative. 10@$10 tickets not available day of show.

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

6 QUESTIONS: Alice Tolan-Mee

Photo by Omar Amador

Alice Tolan-Mee is a co-composer and performer for Theodora Skipitares' THE CHAIRS, a response to Eugene Ionesco's play of same name, running May 22th - June 8th in the Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa. Here, she answers our six questions.

1. What is it like to write music for Theodora Skipitares?

I'm collaborating with Sxip Shirey who is abroad, he's on tour with a circus, so we're collaborating over Skype and e-mail. He's worked with Theodora a lot before, so whenever I'm confused, or can't figure out where to go with something, I ask him and he gives me guidance.

Working with Theodora specifically is great. She has a really clear idea of the feeling she wants out of the music, which is really helpful. It's helpful to work with someone who knows what they want from you. At the same time, she gives me free rein and lets me try different things. Most of the music is coming out of improvisation and her saying 'oh, that thing you did at that moment - do that more.' So, a lot of it is coming out guided improv.

2. This production is inspired by Ionesco's The Chairs, but does not follow that text exactly. How has the piece developed away from that starting point?

It still comes out of the original inspiration of Ionesco's The Chairs. In that play there are guests coming but there aren't enough chairs. In this play guests come, but each guest is a chair. And each chair gives a political speech. It's like the Old Woman is inviting these people into her home as a summit. It was always like that, in earlier versions of this production, but the text for the Old Woman has changed a lot. It's been heavily influenced by Judith Malina, who plays her, and Judith's ideas, her preferences with the text and her performance... and her ideas about Ionesco. She's not the biggest fan. Also, now Gertrude Stein is one of the 'star' chairs and one of the most vocal. Ionesco is a chair now. So those two have had quite an influence on the emotional structure and the message.

3. As a younger artist, what is it like for you to be around someone like Judith Malina? What do you see in her that interests or affects you?

She is incredibly fierce and forceful. Seeing that in her, it makes sense to me that she's had the career she's had, and that she is as strong of a presence in the theatre scene as she is. And that she is a female artist... I affects me to see a woman who comes into the room and is instantly running it. But at the same time, she always gives over to Theodora and she just wants to serve the piece. Always. So it's like this... fierce service.

I've read some of her diaries from '47, when she was my age. They're published. She's an avid diary keeper and a lot of them have been published. So, back in June, I was reading her diaries and seeing her in rehearsals, and that got to be a little bit much. I thought 'maybe I should wait to read anymore of this'. It felt like a little too much of a personal experience to be having without her involved in it. But... it's really cool being around her. She's badass. She's really badass.

4. You first worked with Theodora as a singer. How is it different to collaborate with her as a composer versus as a performer?

When I performed for her in Prometheus, maybe two years ago, I was mostly working with Sxip. He was composing that, and we were in rehearsals with Theodora but our direct contact was more with Sxip. So this is the first time I feel like I'm intimately collaborating with Theodora herself.

Also, I'm new at composing. Two years ago, when I did that piece, I had never composed. Over the past couple of years I've gone from never imagining that I would write anything, to writing music for Theodora. So just being a composer and trying to bring her ideas into a musical world is new for me. At the same time, it's similar work because I am still working with Sxip from afar and that grounds me. That's like a safety net.

5. What kind of music have you been listening to, or has been influencing you, lately?

That's a funny questions because the band that I'm in, Anawan, is just finishing recording an album, so that's mostly what I've been listening to because we're mixing it. It's five vocals and I play electric bass and there's a Wurlitzer keyboard and a nylon string guitar and electronics.

But I've also been listening to...Hmm... Beyonce's new album... Animal Collective. I've been listening to them a lot because composing on the computer is new for me and Animal Collective is helpful to listen to for that. Also friends' bands, electronic musicians, I've been listening to a lot. Like Andrew Ryder and JX Randall. They're people who've done this a lot and I'm drawing on them for help. I'm playing cello in this and singing a little bit, but most of what I'm doing is creating music in Logic with synthetic instruments. So I've been listening to music that helps me figure out how you infuse deep emotion into music made that way.

6. What does working at La MaMa mean to you?

I was a La MaMa kid. So it's totally crazy now being a La MaMa adult. I grew up going to La MaMa when I don't think anyone my age was going to La MaMa. I was probably three the first time I went with my dad. Working here and coming here every day feels very much like there is continuity in my life. Also, La MaMa feels like the New York I always wished still existed. I wish this was possible, and it is here, somehow. To just do what you believe in and have that be enough to draw an audience and get your work up.

La MaMa presents 

The Chairs

Conceived and Directed by Theodora Skipitares

May 22 – June 8, 2014 
Thursday - Saturday @ 7:30pm / Sunday @ 2:30pm

The Ellen Stewart Theatre @ La MaMa
66 East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $25 Adults - $20 Student/Senior; ten tickets priced at $10 are available, in advance, for every performance via web, phone or box office as part of La MaMa's 10@$10 ticketing initiative. 10@$10 tickets not available day of show. 

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

PUPPET-SLAM artist interview: Larry Hunt

La MaMa Puppet Slam 2013

November 15, 2013 @ 7pm

First Floor Theatre

Curator: Jane Catherine Shaw

A one-night only puppetry-slam, featuring contemporary short-form puppet and object theatre. These super short works make their point fast and furious, and bring artists and audiences together for an evening of puppetry mash up fun.

Tickets: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe.c/9821585

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Website | Facebook 

We asked La MaMa Puppet Slam participant Larry Hunt to take on The Proust Questionnaire, the basis for Inside the Actors Studio's '10 questions.' 

Call this Inside the Puppet Studio -or- The Puppet Questionnaire.

What is your favorite virtue?

Charity (Love) unchained.

What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Lovelessness.

What is your idea of earthly happiness?

To be able to exhale freely and know the children and elderly are taken care of.

Where would you like to live?

In a much more fair, honest and less arrogant country which this one should be.

To what faults do you feel most indulgent?

Self-Indulgence.

Who are your favorite composers?

Ady Cohen.

Who are your favorite painters?

Van Gogh, Paul Klee, Kandinsky, Modigliani, Thomas Hart Benton, Marc Chagall.

What are your favorite names?

Names that flow nicely off the tongue.

What is the natural talent you’d most like to be gifted with?

Understanding the Blues guitar.

What is your favorite occupation?

The one that chose me. Making masks.

Who would you have liked to be?

A really good Blues guitarist. Any.

Your most marked characteristic?

Not the mole on my left cheek because I do not have one.

What do you most value in your friends?

Support!

Who are your favorite poets?

My wife Jennifer, Virginia Small, Cortney Davis

Who are your heroes in real life?

All kind, nurturing, understanding men.

Who are your favorite heroines in real life?

All kind, nurturing understanding women.

What is it you most dislike?

Unnecessary misery.

What natural gift would you most like to possess?

Unfettered Compassion

How would you like to die?

Like?

What is your present state of mind?

Too confused to know.

What is your motto?

“I think I had a thought; only the sensation of failing to remember remains.”

PUPPET-SLAM artist interview: Leila Ghaznavi

La MaMa Puppet Slam 2013

November 15, 2013 @ 7pm

First Floor Theatre

Curator: Jane Catherine Shaw

A one-night only puppetry-slam, featuring contemporary short-form puppet and object theatre. These super short works make their point fast and furious, and bring artists and audiences together for an evening of puppetry mash up fun.

Tickets: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe.c/9821585

_________________________________________________________________________________

We asked La MaMa Puppet Slam participant Leila Ghaznavi to take on The Proust Questionnaire, the basis for Inside the Actors Studio's '10 questions.' 

Call this Inside the Puppet Studio -or- The Puppet Questionnaire.

Leila Ghaznavi is multi-disciplinary theatre artist and founder of Pantea Productions.

Q: What is your favorite virtue?

Honesty and Courage.. sorry that's two


Q: Respond to this Proust quote. 

"The need to be loved; more precisely, the need to be caressed and spoiled much more than the need to be admired."

I agree with the caressed, not sure about the spoiled. I could handle not being admired if I was loved by those important to me.

Q: What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery? 

The absence of peace with one's self.


Q: What is your idea of earthly happiness?

To have all the resources I need to create art, to be loved and to love, to be secure in my future and my income.


Q: Where would you like to live?

San Francisco!

Q: To what faults do you feel most indulgent?

Procrastination and procrastinating and wait... what's over there... I'll get back to this question...


Q: Who are your favorite composers?

Bach, Elgar, and Brahms


Q: Who are your favorite painters?

Van Gogh



Q: What are you favorite names?

Darius, Arya


Q: What is the natural talent you’d most like to be gifted with?

Creativity


Q:What is the quality you most admire in a man?

A strong sense of self and purpose and protectiveness... crap that's three. I'm not good with numbers.


Q: What is the quality you most admire in a woman?
Courage and assertiveness coupled with tenderness and caring.


Q: What is your favorite occupation?

Day dreaming, creating and performing.


Q: Who would you have liked to be?

A better version of myself.


Q: Your most marked characteristic?

Play


Q: What do you most value in your friends?

Loyalty


Q: What is your principle defect?

Shyness and being reserved


Q: What would you like to be? Relevant Proust quote: 

"Myself – as those whom I admire would like me to be."

See above. Myself as I know I can be but have not yet achieved. Sorry Proust I don't trust the opinions of others.


Q: Who are your favorite prose writers?

Dun know.


Q: Who are your favorite poets?

Rumi, Emma Lazarus


Q: Who are your favorite heroes in fiction?

Indiana Jones!


Q: Who are your heroes in real life?

Hal Lasco


Q: Who are your favorite heroines in fiction?

Hermoine? Maybe?


Q: Who are your favorite heroines of history?

Maybe Queen Victoria, a mother with hutzpuh to run a country when all others said it couldn't be done.


Q: Who are your favorite heroines in real life?

Those who accomplish much when given little.


Q: What is it you most dislike?

My personal failures


Q: What natural gift would you most like to possess?

To be indomitable


Q: What is your present state of mind?

Ponderous!


Q: What is your motto?

To do more good than I do harm to those around me.

PUPPET-SLAM artist interview: Joshua Holden

La MaMa Puppet Slam 2013

November 15, 2013 @ 7pm

First Floor Theatre

Curator: Jane Catherine Shaw

A one-night only puppet slam featuring contemporary short-form puppet and object theatre. These super short works make their point fast and furious, and bring artists and audiences together for an evening of puppetry mash up fun.

Tickets: https://web.ovationtix.com/trs/pe.c/9821585

_________________________________________________________________________________

We asked La MaMa Puppet Slam participant Joshua Holden to take on The Proust Questionnaire, the basis for James Lipton's '10 questions' on Inside the Actors Studio. Call this Inside the Puppet Studio -or- The Puppet Questionnaire.

Joshua Holden - Photo by Chadwick Ford

Joshua Holden is an award winning puppeteer who combines his dance training, musical skills, and love for classic vaudeville physical humor to create a style that is truly unique and radiates pure joy. Before creating his own show, The Joshua Show, he was seen on the Broadway national tour of AVENUE Q, and was the Lead Puppeteer in Peter Pan 360, the world’s first production to use brand new 360-CGI technology from London-Based ThreeSixty Entertainment. In August 2013, Joshua was one of 24 puppeteers representing American puppetry at Puppet (r)Evolution: The Puppeteers of America’s National Festival with The Joshua Show, and was awarded “Best Performance” and was voted “Audience Favorite.” This proud Massachusetts native is an alumni of the Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and has a B.F.A. in Acting from The Chicago College of Performing Arts, Roosevelt University.


Q: What is your favorite virtue?

Kindness.


Q: What do you regard as the lowest depth of misery?

Eating raw onions while spinning in circles.


Q: What is your idea of earthly happiness?

I wish the world always felt like Halloween night: you can be whatever you want, without judgement, and strangers are friendly to one another.


Q: Where would you like to live?

In a castle decorated by Punky Brewster & Wayne White.


Q: To what faults do you feel most indulgent?

I eat a half pound of feta every week.  By itself.  With a fork and a HUGE smile on my face.  


Q: What are you favorite names?

I had a great great aunt named Ruby Pearl.  She use to wear tiny top hats to fancy events.  I love that name.


Q: What is the natural talent you’d most like to be gifted with?

I wish I could sing like Freddy Mercury.


Q: What is the quality you most admire in a man?

Vulnerability.


Q: What is the quality you most admire in a woman?

Confidence.


Q: What is your favorite occupation?

I don't know that it gets any better than being a puppeteer.


Q: Who would you have liked to be?

Jane Goodall.


Q: Your most marked characteristic?

My desire to spread joy to others.


Q: What do you most value in your friends?

Sense of humor & unconditional love.


Q: What is your principle defect?

Procrastination.


Q: What would you like to be?

I want to be the next Mr. Rogers.


Q: Who are your favorite poets?

Shel Silverstein


Q: What is it you most dislike?

Cruelty & disrespect


Q: What natural gift would you most like to possess?

Patience.


Q: How would you like to die?

I expect to live forever, so this doesn't apply to me.


Q: What is your present state of mind?

Nostalgic for fall.


Q: What is your motto?

There is no one in the entire universe who is quite like you. So don't try to be somebody else.  Just be you!  After all, no one can do that better.