SHORT STORIES Set for HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program This Week

HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program presents Short Stories. This production from the internationally acclaimed Teatro Hugo & Ines plays 6 performances from today, April 21 - Saturday, April 25 in the Dorothy B. Williams Theatre at HERE (145 Sixth Avenue).

Short Stories, an original puppetry work by the internationally acclaimed Teatro Hugo & Ines, brings to life a picturesque parade of colorful characters that illuminates those little poetic moments hidden in everyday life. Using their bodies - hands, feet, knees and elbows - the show's creators and performers Ines Pasic and Hugo Suarez create an array of distinct characters, who with their dreams and frustrations, their successes and failures, vividly depict the eternal drama of human tragicomedy. The performance, aimed at audiences 8+, runs 55 minutes.

Based in Peru, Teatro Hugo & Ines has performed around the world for nearly three decades. With amazing dexterity and delightful creativity, Ines Pasic and Hugo Suarez transform the ordinary into the extraordinary in performances combining mime, dance and puppetry, enjoyed by children and adults alike. Hugo Suarez was born in Lima, Peru and Ines Pasic is originally from Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina. Eventually, their paths crossed in Italy where Hugo was performing mime on the streets. Ines, a trained pianist from the Sarajevo Conservatory, began to study pantomime with Hugo. They founded Teatro Hugo & Ines in 1986 and premiered their first piece, Return to Darkness, in 1987. The company's signature production Short Stories has been presented by more than 300 international festivals and theaters across the globe - including Japan, USA, Canada, France, Spain, Brazil Argentina and Columbia - garnering awards and accolades along the way. The Jim Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater included Short Stories in three of its five New York City festivals. This presentation of Short Stories is part of a U.S. tour that includes engagements with Center Stage at North Carolina State University and the University of Florida, Gainesville. Hugo & Ines are also slated to teach as part of the 2015 National Puppetry Conference in June at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center.

The OBIE-winning HERE (Kristin Marting, Artistic Director and Kim Whitener, Producing Director), founded in 1993, is a leader in the field of producing and presenting new, hybrid performance viewed as a seamless integration of artistic disciplines-theater, dance, music and opera, puppetry, media, visual and installation, spoken word and performance art. Standout productions include Basil Twist's Symphonie Fantastique and Arias with a Twist, Hazelle Goodman's On Edge, Trey Lyford & Geoff Sobelle's all wear bowlers, Young Jean Lee's Songs of the Dragons Flying to Heaven, Corey Dargel's Removable Parts, Taylor Mac's The Lily's Revenge, Kamala Sankaram's Miranda, and Robin Frohardt's The Pigeoning, among many others. In 2008, following an extensive renovation, HERE re-opened the doors to its long-time downtown home for the arts, where it continues as a vibrant, welcoming haven for artists and audiences alike. In addition to commissioning, developing and producing innovative new work from artists in the HERE Artist Residency Program (HARP), HERE co-produces the acclaimed PROTOTYPE opera-theatre and music-theatre festival, with Beth Morrison Projects. Through its popular SubletSeries@HERE, HERE also proudly hosts adventurous artists, companies and productions - whether emerging or acclaimed - from New York and around the country.

HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program is one of few programs in the country to grow and commission contemporary adult puppet works. Dream Music provides performance opportunities to puppet artists and encourages multidisciplinary collaboration to develop new puppetry techniques. This program was inaugurated with the premiere of Basil Twist's OBIE-award winning Symphonie Fantastique in 1998 and the opening of the Dorothy B. Williams Theatre, an intimate space created specifically for intimate puppetry. Under the artistic direction of Twist, with producing direction from HERE co-founder Barbara Busackino, the Dream Music aesthetic is geared toward puppet works that feature live music as a collaborative element. Dream Music seeks to secure the future of puppetry by providing increased development and performance opportunities to puppet artists, and by collaborating with artists from other disciplines to develop new puppetry techniques. Over the past ten years, Dream Music has presented in the Dorothy B. Williams Theatre many exciting artists ranging from eclectic international troupes to The Jim Henson International Festival of Puppetry and has commissioned over 20 full-scale puppetry works from New York based puppeteers including the acclaimed Arias with a Twist in 2008 (which returned in September 2011 for a limited engagement at Abrons Arts Center).

HERE's 2014-2015 producing season launched with the premiere of the Artistic Director production Trade Practices by Kristin Marting & David Evans Morris, an immersive theater event on Governors Island (August 31-September 21) and followed with Send for the Million Men by Joseph Silovsky (December 3-13), the third annual PROTOTYPE: Opera/Theatre/Now festival (January 8-17) and CULTUREMART (March 4-14). Following Short Stories by Teatro Hugo & Ines (April 21-25), will be the Resident Artist production Bloowst windku, a dance installation by Rebecca Davis (April 30-May 3).

Short Stories plays Tuesday, April 21 - Saturday, April 25 at 7:00pm, with matinee on Saturday, April 25 at 2:00pm. Tickets are $20 ($15 Youth Ticket, ages 8-18) and may be purchased at www.here.org, (212) 352-3101 or at the HERE Box Office (5PM until curtain on show days). HERE is located at 145 Sixth Avenue, one block below Spring Street. For more info, visit www.here.org.

HERE's presentation of Short Stories is made possible with support from The Jim Henson Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts, with the support of Governor Andrew Cuomo and the New York State Legislature.

With additional support provided by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council; The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation New York Theater Program; the Mental Insight Foundation; Mertz Gilmore Foundation; The Shubert Foundation; The Fan Fox & Leslie R. Samuels Foundation; The Scherman Foundation; the Leon Levy Foundation; the Joseph and Joan Cullman Foundation for the Arts; Barbara Bell Cumming Foundation; Select Equity Group; and HERE and Dream Music's generous community of individual donors.