Madame Edgewise Tells Your Fortune by Broderick Jones. The Moon and Stars are indifferent to your Existence! It is human nature to impose Meaning upon Chaos! Don’t let Fear or Confusion keep you from Creating your New Reality! Let the Cards Guide your Tale! The story of humanity is deeply linked with the role of the Fortune Teller. To some, they are a magical being who can connect to the profound truths of the universe through strange and compelling rituals. To others, they are a scoundrel who is merely good at telling convincing stories based on keen observation of the people around them. Madame Edgewise is certainly at least one of those things. In this preview/workshop/excerpt, she’ll present a toy theater vignette based on a Tarot reading of one brave member of the audience. What mysteries shall be revealed? KnowsAllTellsAll.com.

Brodrick Jones is a writer, illustrator, and puppeteer currently hiding in a giant pile of boxes somewhere in Brooklyn. His previous full-length show, Ubu Faust, premiered as part of Puppet BloK in 2015, and went on to tour tiny theaters all over the world. Edgewise was developed as part of the Object Movement Festival; huge thanks to all the OMF family for the invaluable advice and support. His non-puppet time is spent obsessing over board games, daydreaming about Dungeons & Dragons, or watching British panel shows. To stalk him, head to BrodrickJones.com.

DIRT by Amanda Card. Original music by Mikey Rose. How can you put down roots when you don’t have a green thumb? With Appalachian inspired music created by Mikey Rose, Amanda Card uses crankie puppetry to explore the stories that her Mama told her that her Mama’s Mama told her that her Mama’s Mama’s Mama told her.

Amanda Card (she/her/hers) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist. Most recently, her work has appeared at Music City Puppet Slam, Arts in Odd Places’ Anywhere Festival of Everywhere Stages, Great Small Works’ Toy Theater Festival, Kindling Arts Festival, Verge Theater Company’s Virtual Cabaret, and Nasty, Brutish & Short. She received her MFA from Sarah Lawrence College. Her solo show I May Be Ugly But I’m Also Scared received a development workshop at the O’Neill National Puppetry Conference and a grant from The Puppeteers of America Endowment Fund. Amanda was a Resident Artist with the Spring ‘21 Object Movement Puppetry Festival. amandacard.com.

Mikey Rose (@thedumbamerican) makes melodie and crafts theater experiences for audiences young and old. Recent musical dreams include: Metropolitan, ASHWA, Lovesick, The Parable of Pizza, Same Sky. Mikey is a member of Actor’s Equity, the Summer Director of the Performing Arts at TASIS (The American School in Switzerland) and recent MFA Grad of the Musical Theater Writing Program at TISCH NYU, where he acted as the co-president of the Graduate Student Organization. Mikey strives to find the magic in the mundane and won’t stop dreaming ’til he’s seen it all.

Beyond the Light by Leila Ghaznavi. Beyond the Light is an elegant hybridization of dance, puppetry, shadow work, aerial acrobatics, and lighting effects, all set to the poetry of Walt Whitman and Emma Lazarus. Journey through an odyssey of shadow and light as one soul split into two seeks to find its perfect half in love and live.

Leila Ghaznavi has an MFA in acting from the California Institute of the Arts and works as a puppeteer, actor and playwright. Her original work Silken Veils premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival where it was nominated for Best New Work and received numerous five star reviews. To learn more about her work go to panteaproductions.com.

[sunflower] an excerpt by Sifiso Mabena. “Home may not be where the heart is, nor even the hearth. … Home may be a mode of living made into a metaphor of survival” – Homi K. Bhabha.  Using elements of puppetry, Afro-Surrealism, poetry and movement, [sunflower] explores issues of home and displacement as they pertain to  immigration, identity and one’s own body. The piece follows a woman’s quest to ‘make herself at home’.

Sifiso Mabena (she/her/hers) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist working as an actor, teacher, puppeteer, writer, and singer. Her original puppet theatre works include Mashup Dreams For Nostalgics and Phenomenal Woman (#blackgirlmagic), both performed at Dixon Place in Puppet BloK. Sifiso puppeteered in Dan Hurlin’s Bismarck, Lake Simon’s Carnival of the Animals, Andrew Murdock and Marcella Murray’s Shoot, Don’t Talk, and Riddle of the Trilobites at the New Victory Theatre. Acting highlights: Red Hills (En Garde Arts), Art of Luv Part 6 (Abrons), and Molly’s Dream (The Public: Fornes Marathon). As a playwright, Sifiso has collaborated with The Royal Court Theatre and the British Council (ZW). Her work has been performed at Harare International Festival of the Arts (Winner of HIFADirect 2011), Intwasa Festival, and Chimanimani Festival. More recently she co-directed The Othello Project for Shake on the Lake. Sifiso holds an MFA in Theatre from Sarah Lawrence College, and is a CUNY Adjunct Professor in Theatre and a Teaching Artist at Sarah Lawrence. fisopearlmabena.com/ IG @fisozozomab