This website is an archive of Studio Reynard projects created in 2012 – 2016. The studio is currently on extended hiatus, as Hélène pursues a different path, with projects at the intersection of regenerative economics and just transition. Find her at Good Work Institute.
Nimble, curious, and wily. Interdisciplinary works forged in the mountains.
Directed by Hélène Lesterlin, Studio Reynard productions embodied a creative practice that crossed boundaries: live performance/visual art, dance/text, solo/epic, rural/urban, puppetry/sound, object/ephemera.
Using an archeologic, omnivorous research process – historical archives, medieval fables, philosophy, folk music – each original work interweaves political, aesthetic, communal, and fantastical wisps, in order to upend complacency and illuminate the dance of being human.
Be like the fox
who makes more tracks than necessary,
some in the wrong direction.
– Wendell Berry, from the poem Manifesto: The Mad Farmer Liberation Front
Fox vs Kingdom, our biggest and most outrageous show, was an ancient beast epic, based on the darkly funny escapades of Reynard the Fox.
As told by a trio of French troubadours using puppetry, dance and live music, animal appetites dominated in this retelling of a medieval blockbuster. By turns raucous entertainment, gorgeous shadow play, and masked dance, this original production premiered in 2016 at the Byrdcliffe Theater in Woodstock after four years in the making!
Visit the project page to learn more…