10 New Contemporary Puppet Works to Debut at LA MAMA PUPPET SERIES

La MaMa - one of the first major theatres in the U.S. to present contemporary puppet artists and their work on its mainstages - will begin its 60th season with the celebrated, biannual LA MAMA PUPPET SERIES from September 29 to October 24 at the Ellen Stewart Theatre and Downstairs Theatre, both located at 66 E. 4 St, it has been announced by Denise Greber, La MaMa's longtime puppet series director and curator.

Highlights of LA MAMA PUPPET SERIES include two World, one U.S., and two New York premieres along with five new works-in-progress representing artists and cultures with perspectives as varied as Colombian, Japanese, African-American, Indigenous and more.

As well, the Series will feature an exhibition of work by the beloved photographer Richard Termine, who has been documenting American puppet theatre for more than 30 years - starting with Jim Henson in 1987, and subsequently photographed the Muppets extensively, along with countless other puppet productions. Mr. Termine received an Emmy Award for his work on Sesame Street.

THE Jim Henson FOUNDATION PRESENTS: CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN PUPPET THEATER TODAY: PHOTOGRAPHY BY Richard Termine - will be on display at La MaMa's Galleria (47 Great Jones) from September 29 -October 10.

Following is a list of productions in the 2021 LA MAMA PUPPET SERIES:

LUNCH WITH SONIA - Sept. 29-Oct. 4 at the Ellen Stewart Theatre. Loco7 Dance Puppet Theatre, a resident company at La MaMa, will present the world premiere of this new, full-length work, written by Federico Restrepo and directed by Mr. Restrepo and Denise Greber. With a cast of six puppeteers, LUNCH WITH SONIA is inspired by the real-life circumstances of Mr. Restrepo's 72-year-old aunt in Colombia who, after a long illness, chose to end her own life with dignity.

QUOTE FROM Denise Greber, SERIES DIRECTOR:

"Many of the artists participating in the PUPPET SERIES continued to develop their work during the Covid-related lockdown last year, and we are curious to see how that isolated, larger-than-life experience is reflected in the nuances that make puppet artistry so exceptional. The productions in this festival are from the heart and explore both the joy and the sorrow of the human experience. Though the work is profoundly personal, these artists are compelled to share it. The festival reaffirms our need for courageous artists to tell their stories."

THE TALL KEYAKI TREE - Sept. 30-Oct. 3 in the Downstairs Theatre.

Conceived and designed by Watuko Ueno. World-premiere. A shadow puppet show with live music and dance, THE TALL KEYAKI TREE is inspired by the novel "Five Storied Pagoda," by Japanese novelist Koda Rohan, about a carpenter who builds an exceptionally tall pagoda, designed to withstand typhoons and earthquakes. Watuko Ueno has been based in NY for many years, having created work in conjunction with such great artists as Jun Maeda, Ping Chong, Tadeusz Kantor, Andrei Serban, Tom O'Horgan and Joseph Chaikin.

WHEN I PUT ON YOUR GLOVE - Oct. 7-10 at the Downstairs.

Performed and created by Shoshana Bass, this New York premiere is a puppetry, dance and spoken word piece that explores a daughter's relationship to her father and his artistic craft: specifically, Ms. Bass's new work is inspired by her father, the renowned puppeteer Eric Bass, as she prepares to assume leadership of the internationally-recognized Sandglass Theatre, begun by her father and mother in Putney, Vermont in 1982.

BODY CONCERT - Oct. 7-10 in the Ellen Stewart Theatre.

A U.S. premiere by Kevin Augustine, a solo puppeteer inspired by Butoh dance in this wordless piece in which Augustine animates puppets using full body movement -- hands, arms, feet, toes, outstretched legs - in dream-like vignettes that depict the human journey between birth and death. Founder of Lone Wolf Tribe, Mr. Augustine's body of work includes THE GOD PROJECT at La MaMa, BRIDE and THE PEOPLE VS. NATURE.

DREAMING - Oct. 14-17 at the Ellen Stewart Theatre.

New York premiere. Dreaming is Torry Bend's most recent collaboration with playwright Howard Craft and director JaMeeka Holloway. It follows two men deeply affected by Winsor McCay's comic strip Little Nemo in Slumberland. In a world where comic book characters live side by side with real people, Malachi Washington works to free comics cast in prejudiced bodies while Winsor's son, Bob McCay, seeks to revive the old comic strip. What follows is a compelling story of reckoning, healing, and examining the racist legacy of comics and animation. Bend's previous work, The Paper Hat Game, received the UNIMA citation of excellence, the highest honor in North American puppetry, and was a New York Times Critic's pick and was nominated for a Drama Desk Award.

PUPPET SLAM - Oct. 14-16, Downstairs Theatre.

Puppeteer Cathy Shaw will curate this slam that features contemporary short-form puppet and object theatre from emerging and seasoned puppet artists.

JUMP START - Oct. 21-24, Ellen Stewart Theatre and Downstairs Theatre.

Five excerpts from works-in-progress will be performed on the same program. These puppet artists have been developing their new works via La MaMa residencies supported by Cheryl Henson and the Henson Foundation since the onset of the pandemic:

--LIVING NOT DYING by Leah Ogawa; a solo puppet work about life's transformations.

--MIA M.I.A. by Charlotte Lily Gaspard; a new shadow puppet musical for adults. A Midnight Radio Show production.

--LADY XOK by Rebekah Cristana de Ybarra, an interdisciplinary presentation combining puppetry with dance, song, electric and Mesoamerican instruments.

--SOUNDING THE RESONANT PATH by Tom Lee; a performance installation with music that draws on the spiritual connection between the human world and the natural environment.

--THE AUTOBIPUPPETRY OF JEGHETTO by Tarish "Jeghetto" Pipkins; a barber and self-taught artist from a small mill town in Pennsylvania, Jeghetto has been creating puppets and performances for over a decade at his home base in North Carolina. AUTOBIPUPPETRY is comprised of Mr. Pipkins' life story as told through a puppet miniature of himself.

A PANEL WITH LESLEE ASCH and Cheryl Henson - Oct. 3 at Ellen Stewart Theatre; a panel discussion in which Leslee Asch and Cheryl Henson discuss the Henson Festivals and Leslee Asch's book Out of the Shadows: The Henson Festivals and Their Impact on Contemporary Puppet Theater.

FAMILY PROGRAMMING - NOSTALGIA - Sept.30-Oct. 24, Lobby of Downstairs Theatre. NOSTALGIA reveals instances of love through stories based on imagined or remembered reality from members of Loco7's Sirovich Senior Center's community of artists and teenage students from New York City Public Schools. This interactive video installation is made up of 13 unique short toy theatre pieces that the intergenerational participants created around the theme of nostalgia and love.

FAMILY PROGRAMMING - will take place Oct. 16-17, date/time/place and shows to be announced.

For performance and ticket information about LA MAMA PUPPET SERIES, visit www.lamama.org.

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