A former Weimar Girl, sent to Theresienstadt Concentration Camp (a unique camp in the history of the Holocaust for its population of artists) and a rat prove through their friendship and new understanding of each other, that the creative urge cannot be destroyed by the grotesqueries of hatred, but is the inviolable desire ‘to be.’ When all the other rats leave in search of food, Pavel stays on, spellbound by the performances. He scrounges for food in the kitchen where he encounters the cook, Sofia.

Director Nancy Smithner
Actor Hilary Chaplain
Puppeteers Jason Hicks & Mindy Escobar-Leanse
Creative Team Nancy Smithner, Hilary Chaplain, Ariel Lauryn & Jason Hicks

Hilary Chaplain tours internationally with her award winning show A LIFE IN HER DAY, directed by Avner Eisenberg, and in variety shows worldwide with her short comic numbers.

Jason Hicks, Trashville, co-founded the RPM Puppet Conspiracy, The Flying Donkey Theater, the Semi-Upright Puppet Collective, the Boxcutter Cabaret and has worked for the Bread & Puppet Theater for the past decade.

Pinocchio, a dreamer made of wood, finds comfort in secretly hooking up with the only person who doesn’t make him feel different. Allen, the flamboyant boyfriend, assists in the quest for answers after learning about the want to transition from puppet to boy. Sgeppetto, the authority and creator, attempts to craft a ‘real’ boy. Imaginary insecurities of being queer begin to bleed because of his perfectionist father, until the ability to live an authentic life comes into play as BLUE fairy emerges with the ability to grant wishes. Watch an honest relationship struggle with Pinocchio’s newfound ability to lie.

Featuring/Collaborators @HausOfFemAnon

Parker Allen Stanley The embodiment of pop culture and product of seeing reality television as fine art. As an international artist they create autobiographical performance through the most abstract lens to protect the vulnerability of the memory. A line between real and the art of reality constantly being blurred in the work, a graduate of Pace University’s Acting International Performance Ensemble last May, they focus on acknowledging privilege to create a better tomorrow with socio political work that hopefully reminds audience members of situations in their past… or at least gives them an empathetic way to look at it for the future. @ParkerAllenStanley

Treat as Urgent and Get Back to Me takes its text directly from spam emails of the sort that prey on the credulous and compassionate. No penises will be enlarged, but a breed of mutant puppets will be metastasized from ordinary materials live onstage, to a litany of carcinogenic woe.

Ayun Halliday is a performer, playwright, and author of seven books, including No Touch Monkey! And Other Travel Lessons Learned Too Late. As a member of the Neo-Futurists from 1989-1998, she wrote, directed and performed in over 500 short plays and several full-length solo performances. Longer works include The Mermaid’s Legs, Fawnbook and  most recently, Zamboni Godot. Ayun is proud to be a 2017 Target Margin Theater Institute Fellow. Co-founder of Theater of the Apes. Chief Primatologist of The East Village Inky zine. Homeschooler. Hoos-Yorker. ayunhalliday.com

Made possible in part with funds from the Jim Henson Foundation.