First Look at PEOPLE VS. NATURE

 

All photos by Richard Termine 

Kevin Augustine's PEOPLE VS. NATURE opened on Thursday, November 7th, 2024, in The Ellen Stewart Theatre.  Kevin's show deals with animal rights and the ethics surrounding animal testing.  Members of the audience join as the show as both participants and witnesses.  Kevin's puppetry is visual stimulating and haunting and the message is powerful.

PEOPLE VS. NATURE continues its run through November 17th as part of the 2024 La MaMa Puppet Festival.

CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS

LOVO at the 2024 La MaMa Puppet Festival

 

Production photos by Richard Termine

Spain's Teatro Lafauna brought their puppet-theatre work LOVO to The Downstais at La MaMa for the 2024 La MaMa Puppet Festival from October 25-27, 2024.

With direction by Carlos Cazalilla and performers/puppeteers: Vera González, Esther D'Andrea, and Carlos Cazalilla, LOVO dealt with nature, extinction and love.  The production was beautifully realized at La MaMa.

The 2024 La MaMa Puppet Festival continues through November 17, 2024.  You can see the full line-up HERE.

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.

AJIJAAK ON TURTLE ISLAND to play New Victory Theater

Photo by Theo Cote

IBEX Puppetry's AJIJAAK ON TURTLE ISLAND, seen at La MaMa in February 2018, returns to New York City to play The New Victory Theater on 42nd Street.

Visionary puppetry artist Heather Henson and Grammy Award winner Ty Defoe bring together an ensemble of North American First Nations Peoples to tell the tale of Ajijaak, a young whooping crane who must face her first migration south. Indigenous songs, languages, and dance weave together in a spectacle of artistry to create this affecting fable about the dangerous effects of climate change on animals and our Mother Earth. With puppets from Jim Henson's Creature Shop and music by Ty Defoe, Grammy nominee Dawn Avery and Kevin Tarrant of The SilverCloud Singers, AJIJAAK ON TURTLE ISLAND takes flight in a celebration of the natural world.

Don't miss your chance to see this amazing show once again.

Photo by Theo Cote

AJIJAAK ON TURTLE ISLAND
An IBEX Puppetry Production
Directed by Ty Defoe and Heather Henson

March 1 - 10, 2019

The New Victory Theater 
229 W 42nd Street
New York, NY 10036 

Tickets & Info: CLICK HERE

Howlround Series on Puppetry

Our friends at HowlRound recently ran an in-depth series on several different aspects of Puppetry and Puppet Performance. With our upcoming 2015 La MaMa Puppet Series that includes World Premieres by Tom Lee and Koryu Nishikawa V, Ibex Puppetry (Heather Henson & Ty Defoe), Loco7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company and Maiko Kikuchi we wanted to share these great articles.


One Thirty-Second of an Inch to the Left: A Measured Look at Puppet Building 
by Matthew Laird
Puppet builder Matthew Laird discusses the joys and challenges of crafting puppets for live performance.

Puppetry: Theatre or Television 
by Pam Arciero
Pam Arciero, Oscar the Grouch's girlfriend Grundgetta Grouch, considers the differences between being a puppeteer on television and on stage.

Puppetry for the Modern Shaman 
by James Godwin
Puppeteer James Godwin explores the philosophical and spiritual implications of puppetry.

Why Puppetry? Musings of a Solo Puppet Artist 
by Marsian De Lellis
Solo puppet artist Marsian De Lellis discusses his inspiration and process for creating object/puppet 

Puppetry, the Insular Art That Takes a Village 
by Jean Marie Keevins
Puppeteer Jean Marie Keevins reports on 2015 National Puppetry Conference and the Puppeteers of America National Puppetry Festival.

The 2015 La MaMa Puppet Series runs November 5 - 29, 2015, all all of the La MaMa venues. Discount Packages available for people who want to see multiple shows.

Julie Taymor Chats With Alec Baldwin on WNYC

Julie Taymor was a guest on Alec Baldwin's Here's The Thing talking about here career pre- and post-The Lion King success, including here time here at La MaMa with Ellen Stewart.

To listen to the interview: CLICK HERE

FIRST LOOK: Pele and Kamapua’a by Kiku Sakai

Melding ancient Japanese Kuruma Ningyo puppetry with Hula Ki’i, the indigenous puppet folklore of Hawaii, Japanese artist Kiku Sakai brings a much anticipated workshop production of the story of Pele and Kamapua’a to the The First Floor Theatre at La MaMa Experimental Theatre for one night only. This light-hearted prequel to her much anticipated opus “Pele and Hi’iaka” demonstrates the cultural pluralism of this unique artist. Sakai has merged her two favorite artistic expressions, her love of the historic Kuruma Ningyo puppetry with her second love, that of authentic hula tradition - she is a proud member of the Pua Ali’i ‘Ilima o Nuioka, under the prominent hula master, Vicky Holt Takamine.

La MaMa E.T.C. Artistic Director, Mia Yoo spoke about this workshop, “Kiku Sakai is an artist that exemplifies the mission and tradition of inclusion here at La MaMa by combining her original Japanese artistic sensibilities with authentic Hawaiian puppet culture to bring forth a collaboration of art and artist unlike any other. We are proud to present such a unique and talented creator of World Theatre.”

Ms. Sakai has assembled an impressive team of like-minded artists to join her for this workshop: the prodigiously accomplished musician and composer Yukio Tsuji (Macbeth(Broadway), Salome(Broadway), M. Butterfly(Broadway); the multidisciplinary work of dancer and puppet- theater artist Yoko Myoi (CBS Presents: A New York Christmas to Remember at St. Paul the Apostle); and the guiding hand of overall Project Supervisor, Tom Lee (WAR HORSE, Broadway; Madam Butterfly Met NYC).





La MaMa presents
PELE 
AND 
KAMAPUA'A
workshop presentation
by Kiku Sakai

Thursday, August 27th @ 7pm

The First Floor Theare
74A East 4th Street
(between Bowery and Second Avenue)
New York, NY 10003

All Tickets: $10

To Buy Tickets: 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.