Snapshots from the Road

Posted on August 24, 2016 by ccbooks

We’re proud to have completed a tour of D.C. and Arlington, VA with our show Saudade this year, partially supported by a City Arts Project grant from the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities. Below are some snapshots of the places we performed.

Lincoln’s Bedroom at President Lincoln’s Cottage, in Washington, DC.

Performing for an adult ESL class at the Arlington Education and Employment Program (REEP)

We were part of the On the Move tent at the 2016 Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

We performed in the beautiful and historic Arts & Industries Building for the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

The view from the stage at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival.

Five Firsts: Wit’s End Puppets in 2015

Posted on December 29, 2015 by ccbooks

It’s been a busy year here at Wit’s End Puppets; a year filled with new work and new friends and collaborators! Here is a list of our top five ‘first’ moments from the year.

5. First crankie!
Ever since I saw Katherine Fahey’s amazing crankies, I’ve wanted to tackle constructing one ourselves. It was a thrill to work with Katherine this year on our shadow play Saudade.

4. First Fringe show in way too long!
Our very first show using the name Wit’s End Puppets was back in 2010 for the Capital Fringe Festival. We had a wonderful time working with banished? productions on their piece I Thought the Earth Remembered Me for this year’s festival.

3. First video shoot!
It was a whole new world for us, incorporating puppets into a gothic, lush set for a music video with She Monster Productions.

2. First City Arts Project grant!
We are thrilled that DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities decided to award us a grant to tour Saudade around the city in collaboration with the American Immigration Council and GALA Hispanic Theatre. If you would like to help support this tour and send us to even more places, you can donate here!

1.First International performance!
Traveling to Winnipeg for the Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival was an amazing opportunity. We met so many incredible artists and teachers; people who work every day to help immigrants and refugees in Winnipeg. It was an honor to share our art with them and hear their thoughts and stories.

Here’s to a 2016 that’s just as rewarding and exciting!

Summer Collaborations

Posted on June 26, 2015 by ccbooks

It is finally SUMMER! We are thrilled to be working on several collaborative projects this month with other companies in and around DC. We will be updating this space with process photos and information on public performances, so check back often!

Our first project is called Drift, and is a caja lambe-lambe show created by Cecilia as part of I Thought The Earth Remembered Me, a promenade piece by banished? productions. We have been friends with the banished? team for quite some time (artistic director Carmen Wong directed our show Cabinets of Kismet in 2013) so we’re thrilled to get to play with this new show of theirs for the Capital Fringe Festival. Comprised of five separate segments that run the gamut from dance to music, to storytelling and food, the show is a reflection on belonging within tangible or invisible kingdoms in our environment. This piece will take be presented at the ARTillery in the Brookland neighborhood of DC and opens July 12. Check out the Fringe website for more details.

Our second project of the summer reunites us with friends at Arts on the Horizon in Alexandria for the workshop of a brand-new baby theater piece called Space-Bop. Created by Tia Shearer-Bassett and with music composed and performed by Christylez Bacon it brings our youngest theater goers into the world of outer space. We are excitedly researching rocket ships and astronaut suits right now, along with stars and comets. If you have children under the age of two, keep an eye out for an announcement of workshop performance dates when you can bring them to see our space-inspired puppets.

Winnipeg Photos

Posted on May 19, 2015 by ccbooks

Some photos of our trip to Winnipeg this month for the Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival:

The entire show of Saudade. Everyone was very impressed by our packing abilities!

The poster for the festival.

Genna sorts control rods before a show.

The puppets (60 in total) laid out ready for a show.

We performed in the gym at the NEEDS center, a community space for newcomers. Our fantastic sound guy, Hassaan is at the computer.

Talking with the kids at the NEEDS Center after the show.

The rivers of Winnipeg are beautiful in the sun.

Cecilia and Genna at the opening dinner of the festival.

We’re Going to Canada!

Posted on April 8, 2015 by ccbooks

Wit’s End Puppets is taking to the road! Or the plane, as a matter of fact. We have been invited by the good folks at the University of Manitoba’s Mauro Center for Peace and Justice to perform Saudade at the Winnipeg International Storytelling Festival in May.

This is the first time we have been able to take a larger show to an out-of-town event, so we are extremely excited! Since we wrapped up our INTERSECTIONS run, we have been making some changes to the show, adding puppets, polishing scenes and revising sounds to better achieve the effects and images in our minds. We received lots of excellent feedback from our audiences at the Atlas, and have been considering how best to incorporate audience suggestions. The show has a new ending, several interludes that break up the stories of our three main characters and we are working towards creating recorded monologues to begin and end the show that will feature the voices of many of the people whose stories were captured and shared in the script. Here are a few pictures of the progress we’ve made so far:

Amy is carefully placing the tiny paper birds between these two silhouettes.

A new scene added at the end of show.

The ending images were all cut in one long big piece this time.

We have to carefully cut off the bottom edge to make sure everything matches.

March Grab Bag

Posted on March 31, 2015 by ccbooks

A round up of articles, links and videos that we shared on Twitter this month.

See item #5.

1. We wish we could head out to LA this spring for the Skirball Puppet Festival. It sounds like a blast!

2. Continuing with the theme of cool puppet events that we’ll have to miss, this production of The Little Prince in NYC also looks amazing.

3. Closer to home, it’s your last week to catch Pointless Theatre Company’s production of Dr. Caligari, with puppets designed and constructed by our very own Genna Davidson.

4. We were also excited to get to see The Winter’s Tale, produced by Half-Mad Theatre here in DC, with a puppet Mamilius.

5. This article about US puppeteer Paul Mesner was a lovely and thought-provoking read. Take a look!

February Grab Bag

Posted on March 4, 2015 by ccbooks

A roundup of links, articles and generally cool stuff we highlighted on Twitter in February.

See item #4

1. Here’s a super cool stop-motion video with cardboard puppets.

2. This exhibit at the Hirshhorn museum includes a piece involving light and cast shadows.

3. The official trailer for Song of the Sea, an animated film based on the selkie legend which we incorporated into Malevolent Creatures.

4. The picture book The Rabbits, written by John Marsden and illustrated by our favorite Shuan Tan has been turned into an opera.

5. This show came to the Artisphere in Arlington and we were sad to miss it! Hopefully we can see this company another time.

Workshop Photos

Posted on July 9, 2014 by ccbooks

Puppets are not for the faint of heart. Photo by Patricia Germann.

We had a fantastic two showings of Malevolent Creatures a few weeks ago. If you were unable to join us, here are some photos of the puppets and the process. Check back soon for more information about the next development stage of this show!

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June Grab Bag

Posted on June 25, 2014 by ccbooks

A roundup of articles, videos and more that we highlighted on Twitter this month.

A new book from Ashley Bryan. See #2.

1. Paul McCartney. And a robot puppet. Dancing together in this video. Need I say more?

2. Children’s author Ashley Bryan makes puppets from found objects washed up on the beach near his home on Little Cranberry Island, Maine. Read this interview from Publisher’s Weekly about his new book of puppets coming out this summer.

3. ADORABLE tabletop puppetry is featured in the production Moominsummer Madness from Polka Theatre in London. Based on the stories of legendary author Tove Jansson, you should definitely check this out if you are in the UK.

4. A gallery of Drabbits from the fabulous Imaginarium Galleries in Pennsylvania.

5. I think it’s safe to say that Julie Taymor’s work on Disney’s The Lion King was the first glimpse many people had of non-Sesame Street puppets. It’s coming back to the Kennedy Center this summer.

April Grab Bag

Posted on April 30, 2014 by ccbooks

A round-up of articles and events we’ve highlighted on Twitter this month.

Sleeping Beauty in performance. Photo by Gene Carl Feldman.

1. Pointless Theatre’s production of Sleeping Beauty: a puppet ballet has only one more weekend to run! You’ll be sorry if you miss it.

2. Elizabeth Hyde Stevens wrote this article for Salon about the Muppets and how they created Generation X.

3. A group of Argentine puppeteers is seeking participants for a convention of women puppeteers from around the world, to be held in Argentina this coming November. Stated goals for the convention include discussion about the messages of shows, the space we occupy, who we reach with our art and how we can help each other. If you are interested in participating or simply learning more, you can email convenciondetitiriteras@gmail.com

4. Poncili Creacion was in town for one night this month. Find out more about the work of this Puerto Rican theater company that creates surreal puppetry on their tumblr.

5. We were fortunate enough to see Ronnie Burkett’s amazing marionette show Penny Plain at the Kennedy Center (more of our thoughts here). For those interested in learning more about Burkett’s work, here’s an old interview from The Guardian.

6. Our favorite illustrator and key inspiration Shaun Tan has a new book out! It’s called Rules of Summer, read more about it on his website here.

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