Photo Flash: The Traveling Players Present THE WOMEN OF TROY 10/8-10/25

La MaMa presents a trio of adult puppet Theater Productions that are brimming with international art forms in "La MaMa Puppet Series 3" from October 8 to October 25, 2009. The series opened with the newest work by Theodora Skipitares, "The Traveling Players present The Women Of Troy," from October 8 to 25.

The play is based on the merging of two sources: the text of Euripides, and the words of incarcerated women on New York's Riker's Island, developed in performance workshops at the prison. The play features a group of contemporary puppeteers (shadow and Bunraku), who recreate events from the fall of Troy in shadow theater and video projection. In between shadow scenes, a series of ¾ life-size, realistic rod puppets emerge from behind the screen. Each one, operated by a single puppeteer, begins a monologue from an adaptation of Euripides' "The Women of Troy." The characters are: Helen of Troy, Queen Hecuba, her daughter Cassandra, and her daughter-in-law, Andromache. Each is being dragged off "like cattle, far from home," to a life of slavery. As each character is revealed in her monologue, the focus shifts from the puppet to the puppeteer, as the text transforms itself to a present-day reality of imprisonment. The inmates' personal stories bring to life the fabled tales of Greek literature.

From October 29 to November 8, Aphids Puppet Theatre of Australia will perform "A Quarreling Pair," three miniature puppet plays inspired by the work of the same name by American avant garde writer Jane Bowles. From November 12 to 29, Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre will perform Shakespeare's "Twelfth Night" on three trays with three puppeteers and 22 eight-inch actors. The Series is curated by Denise Greber.

The La MaMa Puppet Series is now an annual event. It derives from a festival that La MaMa presented in 2004, which contained multicultural works from USA, India, Poland, Bali, Japan and the Czech Republic. That festival was supported by The Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater and utilized all three of La MaMa's performance theaters. It made the La MaMa community long to revive its traditional place as an entry point for international puppet theater artists.

Last year (2008), under the curatorship of Denise Greber, La MaMa presented The La MaMa Puppet Series 2, which contained three productions: "Room to Panic" by Federico Restrepo/Loco7 (Colombia), "Ko'olau" by Tom Lee (Hawaii) and "The Doll Sisters" (Ningyo Shimai) from Japan, directed by Setsu Asakura.

The series has been supported each year by the Jim Henson Foudation with additional support by Heather Henson and Cheryl Henson.

To encourage audiences to see all three productions this season, La MaMa has established incentive pricing for the Series. All three shows are $18 general admission. There are special discounts for purchasing multiple shows in the series: the Two Show Combo is $30; the Three Show Combo is $40. This incentive price is available online, by phone and at the box office. Tickets can be purchased online at www.lamama.org. The phone number for audience information is (212) 475-7710. La MaMa is located at 74A East Fourth Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery, in the East Village.

For more information, please visit http://www.lamama.org/.

Photo credit: Aaron Long

The Cast of The Traveling Players

La Vonda Elam and Cast

Quince Marcum and Cast