Play an episode below to start listening:

Episode 1: “I Feel More Comfortable with the Weirdos” with Tom Lee. Tom (he/him) thinks puppetry is not as easy as it looks.  Tom Lee makes it look easy as a puppeteer, director, theatre maker, projection & set designer, making original puppet theatre works like Shank’s Mare and Ko’olau, as well as puppeteering in Madame Butterfly at the Met and in Warhorse at Lincoln Center.  Tom performed with Lisa Gonzales in their original puppet theatre piece, Place (No) Place, as well as their original show for families, Tomte, at the inaugural New York State Puppet Festival, June 2018. Find out more about Tom at www.tomleeprojects.com

 

Episode 2: “Creative Engineering,” with Nehprii Amenii. Nehprii (she/her) thinks puppetry is a spiritual artform.  Nehprii Amenii is a Brooklyn-based writer, director and educator.  As a theatre artist, she has a passion for personal narratives, puppetry, and grand-scale spectacle. She is known for creating experiences that dismantle the wall between players and audiences, enchant the imagination and inspire new ways of seeing and thinking. She is the founder and Artistic Director of  Khunum Productions, a creative consultant and production company.  Her work includes Penumbra Theatre Company, The Flea, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, Bushwick Starr, Iati Theatre, La MaMa Experimental Theatre Company, In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre, The Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre, Virginia Stage Company, Lumber Yard Performing Arts, The Holland Festival, The Minnesota Orchestra, Bread and Puppet Theatre, Fordham University at Lincoln Center, The Public Theatre,  the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center, and Cirque Du Soleil.  Find out more about Nehprii at www.nehpriiamenii.com

 

Episode 3: “Puppeteering the Space,” with Lake Simons. Lake thinks puppetry is about playing with things as if you are a kid. Lake Simons (she/her) is a director, designer, puppeteer, physical performer, and a maker of things. She has collaborated with many artists creating theatre productions from the ground up utilizing puppetry, movement, & live music. But most importantly Lake relies on make-believe. Lake is a co-director for the Puppet Lab at St. Ann’s Warehouse in Brooklyn. She teaches in the theatre department at Sarah Lawrence College. Find out more about Lake at www.lakesimons.com

 

Episode 4: “What Is My Body Saying,” with Ashley Winkfield. Ashley thinks puppetry is an expression of movement and humanity through things. And community. Ashley Winkfield (Xe/Them) is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on puppetry, poetry, and performance arts. Introduced to puppetry through Basil Twist’s Rite of Spring, Ashley has found ways to include puppetry in every artform they encounter, including Only Child’s immersive aerial experience Two Fold. Ashley has also puppeteered in Rachael Shane’s The Paper Piece, Mabou Mine’s China tour of Animal Magnetism, and Torry Bend’s The Paper Hat Game and Dreaming. Find out more about Ashley at www.ashleywinkfield.com or check out their Instagram: @ashleyk.music

 

Episode 5: “Bloviating,” with Dan Hurlin. Dan thinks puppetry should be outlawed. Dan Hurlin (he/him) has been creating original theater since 1980. His work has won multiple awards (two OBIEs, two Bessies and a UNIMA Citation of Excellence) and has been seen at a variety of alternative presenting spaces throughout the US and Europe. Until recently, Dan was the director of the Graduate Program in Theatre at Sarah Lawrence College, where he taught performance art, dance and puppetry. In addition to being a three-time Fellow at MacDowell, Dan received a Guggenheim fellowship for choreography, a USA Artist Fellowship as well as the Alpert Award for Theatre, and the 2013 Jesse Howard Jr. Rome Prize for visual art. Find out more about Dan at www.danhurlin.com

 

Episode 6: “Living With Ubuntu,” with Sifiso Mabena. Sifiso thinks puppetry is…..challenging. Sifiso Mabena (she/her/hers) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist who’s worked as an actor, teacher, puppeteer, writer and singer. She’s made original puppet theatre works like Mashup Dreams For Nostalgics and Phenomenal Woman (#blackgirlmagic) that were performed at Dixon Place’s PuppetBlok. Sifiso also puppeteered in Dan Hurlin’s Bismarck, Lake Simon’s Carnival of the Animals, Andrew Murdock and Marcella Murray’s Shoot, Don’t Talk at St. Ann’s Puppet Lab and Riddle of the Trilobites at the New Victory Theatre. You can follow Sifiso on Instagram at @fisozozomab or check out her website at www.fisopearlmabena.com

 

Episode 7: “Actors are Meat Puppets,” with Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew. Jeanette thinks puppetry is a tool for community building, and to explore really abstract landscape storytelling. Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew (she/her) is a puppetry artist who devises, directs and designs interdisciplinary productions that experiment with and challenge the concept of puppetry. Her project with the Target Margin Lab, Act 4 of The Iceman Cometh was described by the New York Times as “consistently inventive”. Her immersive production, Are They Edible? premiered at La MaMa to sold-out houses and was similarly called “bold” and “inventive”. Additionally, her toy theater production of The Butcher Men was invited to the 2006 Prague Quadrennial and her digital puppetry adaptation of the Book of Genesis, MILK, was part of the Labapalooza 2007 presented at St. Ann’s Warehouse (NYC). Jeanette has received grants from The Jim Henson Foundation, Queens Council on the Arts, Urban Artist Initiative and was the recipient of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program. Harnessing her experiences as a lighting and projection designer for normal scaled beings, Jeanette also designs for contemporary puppetry performances within an interdisciplinary context. Some of her designs are: Shank’s Mare, Frankenstein (Mortal Toys), Invisible Glass, Saint Plays (various puppetry adaptations), and various productions within Erik Ehn’s commemorative cycle Soulographie: Our Genocides at La Mama ETC. Jeanette is based in NYC. More at www.jeanetteyew.com and www.vimeo.com/jeanetteyew

 

Episode 8: “Backstage Broadway Baconators,” with Rowan Magee. Rowan thinks puppetry is….natural??? Rowan Magee (he/him) is a puppeteer and teaching artist from Troy, NY, and a curator for the Object Movement Puppetry Festival, a Winter residency and Spring showcase of experimental puppet artists in NYC. Rowan has taught neurodiverse groups for CO/LAB Theater Group, Marquis Studios, Story Pirates, and has performed puppetry nationally and internationally, including in Angels in America on Broadway (2018) and the reference puppet for the titular character in the upcoming feature film Clifford the Big Red Dog, in theaters fall 2020. He doesn’t actually have a website or instagram, so please remember his name, Rowan Magee.

 

Episode 9: “Being a Mannequin,” with Leah Ogawa. Leah thinks puppetry is about connecting what you see, and what you think inside. Leah Ogawa (she/her) is a puppeteer, director, self-detective and model based in New York City. She has worked with puppeteers, artists, and companies including The Metropolitan Opera, Phantom Limb, Dan Hurlin, Tom Lee, Nami Yamamoto and others. Her original work Molting was part of Object Movement Puppetry Festival and Growing Not Dying was presented at Puppet BLoK 2019 at Dixon Place. To find out more about her work, visit leahogawa.com and follow @leahogawa on Instagram.

 

Episode 10: “Channeling Energy,” with Takemi Kitamura. Takemi thinks puppetry is a bridge between reality and a dream. Takemi (she/her) feels lucky to have known some great puppeteers and puppet makers already when she started in puppetry, and naturally her career as puppeteer started because those people welcomed her in their works. Those artists include Tom Lee, Lake Simons, Phantom Limb Company, Dan Hurlin, Matt Acheson and Chris Green. Takemi is thankful for the web that gave her those opportunities and the people who invited her into this magical world. Find out more about Takemi at www.takemikitamura.com and on Instagram @takemikitamura

 

Episode 11: “The Interns Go Wild,” with Dorothy James & Andy Manjuck. Dorothy thinks puppetry is excellent for shy actors, and Andy thinks puppetry is WHAT THE?! Check out their improvised Late Night Puppet Talk Show with Special Guest every Saturday at 10pm eastern time, at twitch.tv/talkpuppet2me. Dorothy James (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based puppeteer and teaching artist. Puppet theatre credits include The New York Spectacular… (Radio City), Hansel & Gretel (Basil Twist, Michigan Opera Theatre), Made in China (Wakka Wakka, 59E59), and Snow Child (Arena Stage). TV: Moon and Me (BBC), and Patriot (Amazon). As a creator, Dorothy explores narratives that blur the line between fantasy and reality, working primarily in paper, clay, and shadow. She is also a paper cut artist & avid baker. Find her at dorothy-james.com. Andy Manjuck (he/him) is co-founder and artistic director of Eat Drink Tell Your Friends, company member of the award-winning Wakka Wakka Productions, and often collaborates on new work from Robin Frohardt. He focuses primarily on devised theater and enjoys weaving narratives with surrealism, playing with scale, and solving problems with abstract ideas. Andy is also an established voice actor having worked in video games, animation, commercials, podcasts, and radio. Find him at Andymanjuck.com

 

Episode 12: “Puppets for Grown Folks,” with Jeghetto. Jeghetto thinks puppetry is magic. Tarish Pipkins a.k.a. Jeghetto (he/him) is a self taught artist and has been creating art from a very young age. He moved to North Carolina in 2005 where he launched his career in Puppetry. There, he fine tuned his skills by doing street performances with his puppets. In 2008 he started working with Paperhand Puppet Intervention. He has built puppets and performed in several Paperhand productions. Most recently, Jeghetto had the pleasure to work with national recording artist, Missy Elliott on her music video, WTF (Where They From) controlling the Pharell puppet and doing some puppet building. He also worked on the Amazon Echo commercial featuring Missy Elliott and Alec Baldwin as puppets. Jeghetto’s passion is promoting Oneness through the magic of Puppetry. More at jeghetto.com and on Instagram @jeghettos_puppets

 

Episode 13: “Going So Ham,” with Shayne Strype. Shayna thinks puppetry is innovation of materials. Shayna Strype (she/her) is a theater, film and puppetry artist based in Brooklyn. Her solo show MINE will be presented in Dixon Place’s upcoming mainstage season. Her short puppet film, “Pink Fluffy Hope”, was awarded Best NY Film in the LA Puppetry Guild’s 48 hr Film Festival in April. Shayna was an Artist in Residence at the Object Movement Puppetry Festival in 2018 where she created a multimedia puppetry piece called Antrak. Last summer, she was Director of Puppetry for Pig Iron and Mimi Lien’s new work, Superterrranean. She teaches theater at Friends Seminary in Manhattan. MFA Sarah Lawrence College. Find out more @woosieparty and shaynastrype.com

 

Episode 14: “Odd & Unlikely Entertainment,” with Robin Frohardt. Robin thinks puppetry is intuitive. Robin Frohardt (she/her) is an award-winning artist, puppet designer and director living in Brooklyn, NY. Frohardt has a knack for taking a simple premise to an elaborate realization. Her rich imagination, unique sense of humor and stunning technical craft come together to create work that defies the conventions of traditional storytelling. Her original play “The Pigeoning” hailed by the New York Times as “a tender, fantastical symphony of the imagination,” debuted in 2013 and continues to tour at home and abroad and has been translated into German, Greek, Arabic and Turkish. In 2016 she received a Creative Capital Award for her new work “The Plastic Bag Store” an installation and performance that takes place in a fake grocery store in a real storefront and addresses the long term impact of disposable plastic packaging. More at robinfrohardt.com

 

Episode 15: “Material Performance,” with Janie Geiser. Janie thinks puppetry is confusing. Janie Geiser (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice includes performance, film, puppetry, installation, and visual art. Geiser’s work is known for its recontextualization of abandoned images and objects, its embrace of artifice, and its sense of suspended time. Geiser is the recipient of a 2016 Doris Duke Award. One of the pioneers of the renaissance of American avant-garde puppet theater, Geiser creates innovative, hypnotic performances and installations that integrate performing objects, puppets, and projection. Her work has been presented at The Public Theater, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Redcat, The Walker Art Center, and other venues. Janie lives in Los Angeles, and teaches at CalArts School of Theater. More at janiegeiser.com

 

Episode 16: “Stapler Gaze,” with Emma Wiseman. Emma thinks puppetry is goofy, and Emily thinks puppetry is very uncanny valley. Emma Wiseman (she/her) is a multidisciplinary theater maker with a particular interest in puppets and objects. In addition to creating original and collaborative works of performance, including OOO: Out Of Office with the inimitable Emily Zemba, she has toured internationally with Robin Frohardt’s The Pigeoning and Nick Lehane’s Chimpanzee, and served as lead puppeteer for the Emmy-nominated “Animated Life”, a New York Times Op-Doc series created by Sweet Fern Productions.  More at emmawiseman.me. Emily Zemba (she/her) is a playwright and occasional office-object whisperer. Her work has been presented both on and off music stands at places like Local Theater, First Floor Theater, LPAC, Williamstown Theater Festival, Ars Nova, Rattlestick Playwrights Theater…and also at places not like them at all. She is a commissioned playwright with Theater Masters, a member of Two River Theater Emerging Writers group, an affiliated writer with the Playwrights Center, and a New Georges affiliated artist. Check out her upcoming projects with The Pool 2020 and Society emilyzemba.com

 

Episode 17: “Shine Your Heart,” with Koryu Nishikawa V. Nishikawa-Sensei thinks puppetry is life. Koryu Nishikawa V (he/him) is the fifth generation headmaster of the 160-year-old traditional puppet theatre company, Hachioji Kuruma Ningyo, a national asset of intangible folk culture. Since he was a child, Koryu Nishikawa V was trained in the form by his grandfather (third generation) and his father (fourth generation). At the age of 23, he studied the three-person-manipulation-technique as an apprentice at the Bunraku National Theatre. In addition to regularly scheduled performances in Hachioji town, Koryu Nishikawa has performed throughout Japan. He also teaches and directs for many traditional puppet theatre companies throughout the country. Since 1995, he sponsored the program “Succeeding Traditional Puppet Plays” and continues to promote Japanese traditional puppet theatre in order to protect and preserve it. He and his company have performed for Union Internationale de la Marionnette (UNIMA) international festival in the Soviet Union, Belgium, India and France. Other invited performances include the 200th Commemoration of the Founding of the U.S.A., Belgian Music Festival, and the Lisbon International Puppet Festival. Since 1987, he has taught Kuruma Ningyo for The Swedish National Puppet Theatre Company and for the Swedish Puppetry Institute. In 2000, Mr. Nishikawa participated in the Uruguay Theatre Festival, where he received the Frorrenshio prize, a special prize for foreign play. In 2004 he was chosen as Hachioji sightseeing ambassador and in 2006 Koryu Nishikawa received the Hachioji city Cultural Testimonial Award. Since 2013, Koryu-Sensei has been a co-creator and performer along with Tom Lee in the multimedia puppet piece, Shank’s Mare, which has toured from NYC, to Japan, to Hawaii, across the USA, and France.

 

Episode 18: “Puppetry is a Love Language,” with Storm Thomas. Storm thinks puppetry is a tool, no more, no less. Storm Thomas (they/them) is a playwright/drummer-pastor/maker and has written and composed musicals: Notes on the Past, Ancient Future, and Be Like Bone. Storm has been everything from a Joker with Theater of the Oppressed NYC to a performer at the 2017 Obie Awards. In classes like Black Musical Theater, Music for Performance, and New Musical Theater Lab Storm’s teaching focus is on generating new material (UArts and Playwrights/NYU). Storm has an MFA from Sarah Lawrence and is currently pursuing a degree in engineering at City Tech. Performances include Skin of our Teeth (TFANA), Futurity (Soho Rep/ Ars Nova) and Lexus Verses and Flow Season 3, Episode 1, feat. Jill Scott.

 

More episodes may be coming soon. Stay tuned.

Note: This page is not updated in realtime. There may be more episodes on the Puppet Pod website that is not listed on this page.

 

Josh Rice (he/him) thinks puppetry is one of the last forms of magic that still exists.  Josh is a theater and teaching artist specializing in puppetry and improvisation. He the co-founder and Producing Artistic Director of Shake on the Lake, a not-for-profit professional theatre based in his hometown of Perry, NY.  He is the founder and Producing Artistic Director of the New York State Puppet Festival, a biennial festival of puppetry, also based in Perry.  In addition to making his own work, Josh has been a curator for Puppet Blok! at Dixon Place, and has collaborated on puppet projects with Dan Hurlin, Lake Simons, Tom Lee, Koryu Nishikawa V, Doug Fitch, and the New York Philharmonic Orchestra.  Find out more at joshriceprojects.com

Sara Stabley (she/her) thinks puppetry is a comfy abyss into which she has stumbled. Don’t know what that means? Neither does she! But it sounds right. Sara is a theatre technician, creator, and producer. Sara is the Stage Operations Manager at Geva Theatre Center in Rochester, NY and as co-producer, designer, and production manager for Shake on the Lake and the New York State Puppet Festival in Perry, NY.