Anna Kiraly and Kuba Gontarczyk
John Dyer, Rima Fand, Brendon McMahon, Erin Orr, and Lake Simons
Drama of Works
Dramaton Theater
Archives:
VOICE 4 VISION 2006
Slow Ascent
by Anna Kiraly and Kuba Gontarczyk
Oct. 12 _ 9:30, Oct. 13 _ 8:00, Oct. 14 _ 9:30, Oct. 15 _ 3:00
A psychological mystery with apocalyptic themes and a tormented, existential hero. Reality, imagination, and nightmarish apparitions converge. A beautifully mysterious story investigates the effect of cataclysms on the hero. The piece is told through shadow puppetry, complex soundscapes, music, and a live actor.
CREDITS
Directed by Anna Kiraly, designed by Anna Kiraly and Kuba Gontarczyk. Sound and Music by Joemca.
COMPANY BIO
Anna Kiralys recent and past projects include costumes for "Darkling" (AOP), "Kafka Fragments" with Peter Sellars, production design for "Pay Up" with the Pig Iron Company. She received the Arts Link Grant (SOROS Foundation), the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Designers (2003-2005) and the TCG New Generation grant.
How I Fixed My Engine with Rose Water
by John Dyer, Rima Fand, Brendan McMahon, Erin Orr, and Lake Simons
Oct. 19 _ 8:00, Oct. 20 _ 9:30, Oct. 21 _ 8:00, Oct. 22 _ 4:30
Images unfold and sounds swirl as survival and transience are explored through physical storytelling, puppetry/object theatre, and live musical themes. Chaos verses serenity.
Created and performed by John Dyer, Rima Fand, Brendan McMahon, Erin Orr, and Lake Simons.
Additional staging by Chad Lynch. Puppets, objects and costumes by Lake Simons. Music composed and performed by John Dyer and Rima Fand.
Lake Simons is collaborating with Erin Orr, Rima Fand, John Dyer, Brendan McMahon, and Chad Lynch on this piece. The group have created theatre pieces for the past eight years combining and experimenting with physical theatre, puppetry and live music. Simon is a recipient of two Jim Henson Foundation Grants. She is an artistic associate with the Hip Pocket Theater in Texas and a proud member of Fjörk. She attended Ecole Jacques Lecoq in Paris, France and NCSA.
Warhol™
by Drama of Works
Oct. 12 _ 8:00, Oct. 13 _ 9:30, Oct. 14 _ 8:00, Oct. 15 _ 4:30
The piece explores the many enigmas in Warhol's life that made him the fascinating icon he is today. Andrew Warhola, before the nose job and legal name change, was a sweet gifted boy who loved his mother. The irony or course is that besides the nose job and the name change, he was the same sweet gifted boy who loved his mother the day he died. Society loves to believe he was a sex-obsessed, druggie, party-hopper who lived on the fringe. But, as with many pop icons, the truth doesn't really matter, does it? We watch as Warhol is transformed from an art student to his own artistic creation. Drama of Works actually had to pay a fee to make a puppet of the man, as his likeness is copyrighted. How does this happen to a person?
"Warhol™" explores these contradictions as a beautiful bunraku-style puppet of Warhol emerges from the first of a series of boxes. It turns out that these boxes were cleverly disguised time capsules from his life. The puppet goes on to open each box with the help of his three puppeteers. Then he observes and looks back on his life and what he has become, as scenes from his past come literally out of the boxes. Objects of consumerism depicted in his paintings come to life and speak to him or act out memories, helped by the fourth Warhol-clad puppeteer. The piece has no spoken dialogue, but a sound design including quotes from his infamous interviews, sounds from his past, as well as iconic disco music, sounds of the New York street and much more.
Created by Drama of Works, directed by Gretchen Van Lente, Warhol puppet by David Michael Friend, sound design by Jill DuBoff.
Drama of Works, "New Yorks tightly organized satirists" (In Pittsburgh), are known for their innovative works and "high on fantastic production value" (Village Voice) that cross the line between actors and puppeteers. "Whatever it is supposed to be, it isnt boring" (Puppetmaster). Led by Artistic Director Gretchen Van Lente (also president of UNIMA-USA), they have performed locally and abroad: around New York City plus all over Pennsylvania and New England with their unique brand of theatre: gaining members, fans and supporters along the way.
Drama of Works has performed at six international festivals to date: The Barents Region International Puppet Festival in Oulu, Finland; The FOOT Festival of Original Theatre in Toronto, Canada; The Istanbul International Puppet Festival and The World Festival of Puppet Art in Prague, where WARRIOR received a special award for BEST ORIGINAL ADAPTATION and were nominated for Best Original Creation and Best Actor (Amy Carrigan). This May they went again to Prague to participate in the Prague Fringe Festival and for a second time in the World Festival of Puppet Art, this time taking home the prize for Best Original Performance for "Warhol™".
Drama of Works was accepted into the program, "New, New Stuff," at Performance Space 122, where "Warhol™ received a weekend performance in the Spring of 2005. Its "Sleepy Hollow" received a prestigious Project Grant from the Henson Foundation and was accepted into the Dream Music Puppetry Program where it will receive its premiere in January 2006. For the past six months, Drama of Works has curated, hosted and performed monthly at Galapagos Art Spaces PUNCH puppetry cabaret in Brooklyn.
Drama of Works prides itself on including members from a variety of backgrounds, including puppetry, experimental theatre, clowning, classical theatre, folk dance and comedy. They are proud members of THAW (Theatres Against War), Theatre Without Borders, The Magdalena Project, Puppeteers of America, UNIMA-USA and Dance Theater Workshop. They are the recipients of three Henson Foundation grants, two grants from the Rhode Island Foundation, a grant from the Fund for US Artists at International Festivals, and an Ensemble Studio Theatre/Sloan Project Commission. They have participated in various festivals and developmental labs, including the ONeil Puppetry Conference, the Arts at St. Anns Puppet Lab, the Black Sheep Puppet Festival, the International Toy Theatre Festival, the Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, the New York and Philadelphia Fringe Festivals, and HEREs American Living Room Series, in association with Lincoln Center Theatre, among others.
The Traveler
by Dramaton Theater
Oct. 19 _ 9:30, Oct. 20 _ 8:00, Oct. 21 _ 9:30, Oct. 22 _ 3:00
"The Traveler" is a trilogy of ghost stories that follow vagabonds on the road between "here" and "there" as they confront the forces that hold them back in their journey. Opening with an original dramatic adaptation of Richard Middletons "On the Brighton Road" (1911), a tramp awakens on a snow-covered road, wondering how he got there. A young boy that might have the answer he seeks soon joins him. In the second tale, William Yeats' Purgatory (1922), a desperate father tries to redeem himself and his son by ending the cycle of transgression that has defined their lives. The final tale, "K," was written for Dramaton Theater by Enma Ito, Artistic Director of Fantoma Theater Company of Osaka, Japan, and translated by Shima Ushiba. In it, the faceless ghost of a painter and a nameless street-wise alley cat help each other awaken their identities in a lonely world. Dramaton Theater uses a minimalist design with an original style of puppetry and an evocative soundscape, transforming the stage into a threshold between life and the beyond.
Created and Performed by Ken Berman and Frankie Cordero. Performed also by Sarah Frechette. "The Road" and K Directed by Ken Berman and Frankie Cordero. "Purgatory" Directed and K Co-Directed by Tim Lee. Sound Design by Mark Berman. Lighting Design by Michael Spitzer. Purgatory performed with permission by Samuel French, Ltd.
Dramaton Theater is a company of four puppeteers who met while earning our degrees at UConns Puppet Arts Programs. Until "The Traveler," Dramatons productions had been non-verbal, and integrated live original scores. Dramatons approach to the art of puppetry has remained consistent: creating through gesture and the defiance of human-boundaries a superhuman world that reaches beyond ourselves, to reveal the human mysteries of the world within ourselves.
Dramaton's goal is to create an "experience," rather than creating just a "puppet performance" wherein puppetry is the vehicle for, rather than the point of, communicating these abstractions. We have performed 4 different original productions throughout the northeastern states since 2000. Our last production, "The Painted Rose," is an original rod-puppet opera using life-size rod puppets in a wordless drama about a painter teetering between passion and reality on the threshold of his canvas.
Dramatons most recent honor is a 2006 Henson Seed Grant to develop our next production, an original dramatic adaptation of Hans Christian Andersens The Shadow. In addition to theatrical collaboration, we also work as a design and construction company, most recently creating the puppets for a new PBS Kids show, "SeeMores Playhouse," to be seen this Fall.
Puppets on Film
Oct. 15 _ 8:00, followed by Q&A
* WORKS BY INDIVIDUAL ARTISTS
featuring
IN THE HOUSE OF THE SIN EATER (2006)
by Matt Acheson & Paul Kloss
A short film that reinterprets the ancient Welsh ritual of "sin eating." Evocative, beautiful and eerie, with baby doll found object style marionettes, lush interiors and landscapes and delicate manipulation.
* HANDMADE PUPPET DREAMS
Fresh from showings at the Cannes Marche' du Film 2006, the 30th Annual Atlanta Film Festival, and the RhodeIsland Film Festival, Heather Henson presents "Handmade Puppet Dreams," a touring festival of independent artists' films exploring the art of handmade craft especially for cinema. Handmade Puppet Dreams; a provocative, challenging, and savvy collection of puppet shorts created by the next generation of small-scale artists.
With this presentation, Heather explores new territory that expands an art of puppetry with the help of a select group of talented filmmakers. "I love to see artists use the ancient art of puppetry to express their independent souls," Henson says "This collection of short films exposes a rare breed of filmmakers and storytellers. Puppetry today has become a residential medium for contemporary artists in the world of performing and fine arts. Handmade Puppet Dreams provides an opportunity for all audiences to enjoy this unique storytelling medium from an original perspective."
Handmade Puppet Dreams is a touring festival of independent artists films exploring their handmade craft specifically for the camera. These films have allowed artists to build their vision, and then breathe life into their dreams. Currently touring the world and coming to a theater near you!
See also: myspace.com/handmadepuppetdreams
Recently screened this year at the Alamo Drafthouse in Austin, TX
Post Card Design by Michael Kelly
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