Maria Camia

Blurb: Marikata plays games with the humans on her earth abduction! I mean… Expedition!

Maria Camia (@theMARICAMA) is a Filipino American Visual Theatre Artist who creates Spiritual Theater, Visual Art, and Fashion with the intention to globally inspire healing and play. Her first full length puppet show, NEW MONY! was commissioned and first presented in NYC by Dixon Place with support from The Jim Henson Foundation and The Jerome Foundation; and public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts and the NYC Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council. She has also performed original work at La Mama, Concrete Temple Theater, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre, The Object Movement Residency, The Henson Company, The Puppet Slam Network, Coney Island USA, Great Small Works, and The International Puppet Fringe Festival. www.maricama.com

Amanda Card
Title: DIRT

Blurb:  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.

Sifiso Mabena
Title: [sunflower] excerpt

Blurb: “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. www.fisopearlmabena.com/  IG @fisozozomab 

Leah Ogawa
Title: AVA, Friday 

Blurb: AVA, Friday explores the theme of pain and joy, two opposite elements that coexist in life through a large pair of legs. Come see what a day in a life is like for Ava. Collaboration with and music by John Chao.

Leah Ogawa 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. Website: leahogawa.com Instagram: @leahogawa

Ashley Winkfield & Max Gayford
Title: Genderslime: Gastropod Love
Original music by Xander Browne

Blurb: A person picks a pest off of a plant and is plunged into the wild world of snails & slugs, witnessing one of nature’s weird genderless romances. A reimagining of shadow puppetry via origami, live movement, and playful music, GENDERSLIME cultivates awe in the natural world and questions perceptions of nature’s laws.

Ashley Winkfield is a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on puppetry, poetry, and performance arts. They began their journey into professional performance at UNC-Chapel Hill where they were introduced to puppetry while workshopping Basil Twist’s RITE OF SPRING . After graduating with a degree in Performance Studies, Ashley began performing new works in NYC at locations such as Jazz at Lincoln Center, Abrons Art Center, LaMama, and Greenwood Cemetery. 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. Ashley is based in Brooklyn, NY and Winston-Salem, NC. www.ashleywinkfield.com IG @ashleyk.music.

Max Gayford is a puppeteer, maker, and care worker currently based in Perry, NY. Most recently, they performed Blown Away by Poetry virtually for Grand Pistachio theatre company. They were also a collaborator on Shake on the Lake’s Othello Project and Socially Distant Sea Serpent Parade, and a featured artist for the Arts Council for Wyoming County’s Tiny Concerts at Sunsets series. Max appeared in the radio play GOD HATES THE GAYS (AND OTHER DAILY AFFIRMATIONS), produced by Invited Dress. Max will be returning to NYC to pursue an M.S. in Dance/Movement Therapy at Pratt this fall. Eternal gratitude to Ashley, Xander, Josh, and all the gastropods.