Puppet Lab at St. Ann’s Warehouse

We have been invited to join the Puppet Lab at St. Ann’s Warehouse – a development workshop for object theater and puppet works – for our puppet project The Fox versus the Kingdom! That means we’ll be in New York City every week, meeting with a group of artists and the lab directors, evolving our work in a setting of support and feedback. We couldn’t be more excited! It starts this month and runs through May, with a showing as part of LABAPALOOZA! A Mini Festival of New Puppet Theater in early June 2014. Save the date and come see a wide variety of experimental puppetry works while cheering on your friend Reynard!

 

Hedgehog in the Fog

Hedgehog in the Fog by Yuri Norstein, 1975.

I showed this at our launch event, and I thought I’d post the link for those who missed it! Stop motion animation, anthropomorphic animals, magically beautiful… what more could you want? It inspires us as we figure out how we want to stage the story of Reynard the fox, that smooth operator, not as animation but as object theater.

 

Café Isegrim : June 29th

It’s June, it’s getting warm, and Spain is our current source for all inspirations culinary while medieval tapestries are fueling our visuals. Café Isegrim is the name we have given our pop-up dinner event. The launch party was such a blast we wanted to keep the format! Puppets, food, friends… and for all curious souls, Isegrim is the wolf.

Last day of studio construction + cooking for launch event + puppet prep

The studio space is reaching that “substantial completion” point. Floor and stairs are painted, walls are done, windows and doors are in, and the trim and shelves are going in today!

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, we are cooking up a storm for our Studio Reynard launch dinner event in one week. We have been sold out for a while but please join the mailing list to find out when will we host our next Cafe Isegrim pop-up dinner salon.

Lastly, Anastacia and I have been collecting materials for weeks : gnarly roots, foam, faux fur, fabric, detritus, plaster, papier maché, wire, cardboard, dried stalks and seed pods, rolls of paper. Beginning prototype work on the puppets is already underway. So far, a rooster, a fox and a crow. Moving all our stuff into the studio tomorrow!