Step into the colorful, comical, spiritual, sci-fi, psychedelic world of Aricama where duality and ancestry are explored with puppets, body costumes, Toy Theater, original live music, and projections in this full-length production.

In the human cloning family business, our heroine Allimah lives a quiet, regimented life with her parents on a tiny blue planet. But after experimenting with life, slowly her dreams become reality as she finds herself relating to the prestigious Utopian planet Aricama, the land of practice, play, and healing. Will she be able to live a normal life after aligning with her truth? Join Allimah in a groundbreaking awakening! Approx. run time: 65 minutes. Rated PG (because a puppet pulls a cardboard gun)

Conceived & Directed by Maria Camia
Puppeteers: Nikki Cologne, Fara Fraidzan, Iim, Leah Ogawa
Pianist: Sienna Aczon
Projection Designer/Animator: Camellia Bayle-Spence
Sound Designer/Costume Designer: Gill Hartley
Stage Manager: Mariel Sanchez
Puppet/Set Building Assistance: Yisel Garcia
Table Constructor: Matt Olowin

Join us Saturday, May 22nd after the show for an artist talkback on Zoom. It’s available to ALL ticket and package buyers, and a link will be sent to you via email, so keep a lookout!

Maria Camia is a visual theatre artist who creates spiritual/sci-fi plays, puppets, spiritual clothing, illustration, comics, and social media videos with the intention to globally inspire healing and play. Maria created and performed original work for La Mama, 7 Daughters of Eve’s Church Service, FEAST, Great Small Works, Concrete Temple, Dixon Place, The Center @ West Park’s Object Movement Festival, and Pan Asian Repertory Theatre. She is a 2020 Jim Henson Workshop Grant Recipient and a participant in DP’s Puppetry Residency Program, both in support of NEW MONY!, her first full-length puppetry production. For more on Maria, visit http://www.maricama.com/ or follow her on Instagram @themaricama

Sienna Aczon (she/her) is a Filipino-American multi-disciplinary artist born and raised in Honolulu, HI and currently based in New York City. It is her mission to support and collaborate with fellow AAPI and BIPOC artists, especially Filipino/x/a (Maria Camia!), and further push for diversity and representation across all disciplines. Recent projects include Stuck the Web-Series (Mia) on IGTV @stuckthewebseries and YouTube, and The Princess and the Witch Boy (Creator) on all music streaming platforms including Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Music. @miss.sepa

Camellia Bayle-Spence is a projection designer and digital artist based in New York City. She has designed for shows in the Prague Fringe Festival, in NYC at The Tank and the Hudson Guild Theatre and has collaborated with the Advanced Beginner Group at Mabou Mines on Distances Smaller Than This Are Not Confirmed. She additionally has a MA in Child Development from Sarah Lawrence College and enjoys finding ways to allow theatre to flourish in an increasingly digital world.

Nikki Calonge (she/her/hers/siya; puppeteer) is a theater artist, yoga teacher, and future movement therapist. She has had the pleasure of performing with Jim Findlay, Nellie Tinder, Hoi Polloi, Half Straddle, Katherine Brook/TELE-VIOLET, Witness Relocation, Spellbound Theater, William Burke, Normandy Sherwood/The Drunkard’s Wife, and The National Asian American Theater Company. As a founding member of ANIMALS, she is the recipient of Dixon Place’s Tom Murrin Award and has been presented at Fresh Ground Pepper, CATCH, Prelude as part of Target Margin Theater’s Gertrude Stein Lab, and Under the Radar’s Incoming Series. More information at nikkicalonge.com

Fara Faidzan (puppeteer) The Malaysian born actor has had their fair share of puppetry experiences, from a pink crayon hand puppet in a show called Crayons on Strike to shadow puppets & huge Bunraku puppets from Valencia College production of Creation : Birth of Mythology. Fara graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with a BFA in Acting. Currently, they are a virtual host for Performing Arts Mosaic (@pamosaic on Instagram) monthly open mic show OPEN STAGE | OPEN ROOM highlighting BIPOC & underrepresented voices in the arts. They also have a hip hop jazz fusion band called “Our Messy Ghost” as the drummer, percussionist & vocalist.

Gill Hartley (they/them) is a non-binary theatre artist based in Brooklyn. When they’re not performing, they love to work behind the scenes as a designer to bring the magic of theatre to life! They are thrilled to be making sounds and costumes for fellow Sarah Lawrence alumna, Maria Cama’s incredible world of Aricama. They are so grateful for the support of the production team, cast, and audience as the world dips its toe back into live theatre <3

lim (puppeteer) is an actor, writer, puppeteer, and filmmaker. past collaborations include Center at West Park, AMiOS, Anna Lublina, La MaMa, and numerous theaters all around the city. lim believes in the human imagination as a force to uplift soul and consciousness, to sharpen and protect emotional intelligence/oneness. limviolet.com

Leah Ogawa (puppeteer) is a mixed race artist, puppeteer, dramatist, self-detective, and model based in New York City. Raised in Yamanashi, Japan, Leah has worked with puppeteers, artists, and companies including The Metropolitan Opera, Phantom Limb, Dan Hurlin, Tom Lee, Nami Yamamoto, Loco 7, and others. She has performed across the US as well as at the Quai Branly in Paris and across Asia. Leah is a recipient of the Jim Henson Foundation’s workshop grant for her original piece, Growing Not Dying. She is currently a resident artist at La MaMa Experimental Theater Club.

Mariel Sanchez (he/she/they) is a Sarah Lawrence College alumna who graduated in 2019 with a BA. She’s been working for Ensemble Studio Theatre since August 2019 and continues to work there remotely as the Interim Company Administrator. He studied just about everything under the sun while in college, and has worked on several different productions, all under different titles. Some of their favorites include: Faulty Defense Mechanisms by Julie J as Production Manager, Georgia Mertching is Dead by Catya McMullen as Production Manager Apprentice, and NEW MONY! by Maria Camia as Stage Manager.

This Dixon Place Commissioned Production is made possible with private support from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, Cheryl Henson & the Jim Henson Foundation, Jerome Foundation, Scherman Foundation, and Shubert Foundation; public funds from the NYC Dept of Cultural Affairs w/the City Council, the NY State Council on the Arts w/the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo & the NY State Legislature; and generous donors like you!

Check out all 4 shows here.
Watch a short trailer for the 4 shows here.