This year’s installment of its biannual festival will include New York and world premieres of works by Chinese, French, Japanese, and African-American artists.
La MaMa has announces the lineup for its 2018 Puppet Series, a biannual festival showcasing new contemporary puppet theater by American and international artists. This year's selections will feature New York and world premieres of works by Chinese, French, Japanese, and African-American artists — many of them women — and they will take place November 1-25 at the theater's Ellen Stewart Theatre and the Downstairs.
Among the world premieres are Everything Starts From a Dot (November 8-10), conceived and featuring design by Sachiyo Takahashi and her company Nekaa Lab; and Food for the Gods (November 15-18), written and directed by Nehprii Amenii. This year's festival will also include New York premieres of Alice Therese Gottschalk, Raphael Mürle, and Frank Soehnle's Wunderkammer: Cabinet of Curiosities (November 1-3); Tian Wen: Heavenly Questions for Modern Times (November 3-5), created by Visual Expressions and directed by Hua Hua Zhang; Blind (November 8-11), featuring concept Duda Paiva and Nancy Black, and direction by Black; and Théâtre d'Un Jour's Exodus (November 15-18), directed by Patrick Masset.
The season will also include a works-in-progress showcase (November 23-25) featuring developing new work by Loco7 Dance Puppet Theatre, Tom Lee and Lisa Gonzalez, Maiko Kikuchi, Torry Bend, Concrete Temple Theatre, and Sova Theater. Loco7 is also behind one of this season's family shows, Don Quixote Takes New York (November 10-11), reimagined and codirected by Federico Restrepo and Denise Greber. The other family show is WonderSpark Puppets' Chicken Soup Chicken Soup (November 17-18).
Finally, this year's Puppet Series will include a Puppet Slam (November 5) curated by Jane Catherine Shaw, and a Coffeehouse Chronicles installment focusing on renowned puppeteer Ralph Lee.
For more information on La MaMa's 2018 Puppet Series, click here.