Alex and Olmsted

08/14/2026

🗞️Extra! Extra! 📰A&O Awarded a Rubys Grant for "Really Quite a Lot of Mechanisms!"

"The Rubys Artist Grants provide direct funding of up to $15,000 to Baltimore-area artists to support innovative projects with significant impact." -Robert W. Deutsch Foundation

“Mechanisms” is at the halfway point of a two-part process in a 26 month development period. 🧰 Save the Date for the Rubys premiere May 6-23, 2027 at Baltimore Theatre Project! 💥

♦️♦️♦️♦️♦️

"The Rubys Artist Grants provide direct funding of up to $15,000 to Baltimore-area artists to support innovative projects with significant impact. Grants are offered in four broad discipline categories—Performing Arts, Media Arts, Visual Arts, Literary Arts—for the creation of new artwork. The Rubys supports the notion of risk-taking (in practice, content, process, and/or outcome) and equally values artistic integrity, strong ideas, feasibility, and communal meaning. ♦️ Launched in 2013, the Rubys Artist Grant program was conceived, designed, and initiated with funding from the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation. To date, the program has granted over $680,000 to 92 artists. The Rubys Artist Grant Program was inspired by the work of Creative Capital in New York City and named in honor of its visionary founder, Ruby Lerner. ♦️The Deutsch Foundation is hyper-local. We focus on Baltimore because the money we distribute was made here, because the needs are massive, and because Baltimore has exciting potential. The city’s history as an entrepreneurial hub and its contributions as a creative leader are significant, but our former prominence in 19th and 20th century industry has been lost. Now that we are a 21st century city, we need to participate in a new, creative economy. The Deutsch Foundation sees its role as providing seed funding to create and sustain human capital—helping the inspiring change-makers here do what they do best." - Robert W. Deutsch Foundation

📷 Photo by Ryan Maxwell Photography

08/06/2026

International Premiere! for "Happy Birthday, Mon Ami" by Alex and Olmsted.
🐌
Sat, Aug 8 @ 11:15am & 4pm
Sun, Aug 9 @ 11:15am & 4pm
at Puppets Up! In Almonte, Ontario, Canada
Tickets: link in bio!
🪗
Class, cultures, and expectations clash when Jacques’ American cousin Sam visits him in Paris for a birthday celebration. Winner of a 2024 Jim Henson Foundation grant award, Happy Birthday, Mon Ami combines glove puppetry, live music, and audience participation to create a delightful hour of fun for the whole family.
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Happy Birthday, Mon Ami was awarded a 2024 Jim Henson Foundation grant.

07/31/2026

New on our Patreon! How we built the Boshie and shadow puppets for Happenstance Theater 's ADRIFT | A Medieval Wayward Folly in its final performances this weekend at Round House Theatre .

🤘😈📯

Photos by the inimitable L By Night

07/31/2026

https://www.patreon.com/alexandolmsted/posts/adrift-boshie-165380105?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Hello, Patrons! We are in the final week of performances for Happenstance Theater's ADRIFT | A Medieval Wayward Folly, one of our favorite s

07/22/2026

ADRIFT | A Medieval Wayward Folly
with Happenstance Theater
at Round House Theatre
4545 E West Hwy | Bethesda MD 20814
July 16 - August 2, 2026
Tickets: link in bio

"At this point, the individual artists that make up Happenstance... feel more like the interconnected limbs of some great and goofy beast, moving not in unison but in a more impossibly imperfect harmony. There's a telepathic synergy that courses through their interplay that could never come about from one isolated production, one that simply necessitates years of collaboration and trust."
- BroadwayWorld

“In the delightfully exuberant and inventive Adrift: A Medieval Wayward Folly, Happenstance Theater company lifts the veil of fear by reminding us that, like our medieval forebears, we have ways of dealing with the demons that confront us. We can laugh at them, and we can use our imaginations to envision other worlds and other, less destructive, ways of being.”
- DC Theater Arts

🍓📯

07/09/2026

Dino Day 2026 is this Saturday, July 11! Hosted by the National Capital Puppetry Guild , and ALL ONLINE, Dino Day is our guild's annual membership drive and is not to be missed.

Come for the workshops, stay for the Slam funded by the The Puppet Slam Network Network! There will be workshops on Hansjürgen Fettig puppets and on video production for puppetry. There will be two panels featuring international artists on the subjects of Eco-Puppetry and Education in the puppetry arts today. There will also be an opportunity to perform in the Potpourri puppet open mic hosted by yours truly, Alex and Olmsted.

Members, check your emails for the links to attend this fantastic event! And to the puppet curious, come join us! A membership with the NCPG gives you access not only to Dino Day but also a year's worth of workshops, events, and performance opportunities with some of the leading puppetry artists and enthusiasts today.

Link in bio for more info!

🦖🍩

07/06/2026

https://www.patreon.com/alexandolmsted/posts/baker-artist-and-162905242?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

A&O are 2026 Baker Artist Awardees Big News Alert! We have been awarded the prestigious 2026 $10,000 Baker Artist Award for Performing Arts.

06/27/2026

'Death and the Fool" with Happenstance Theater.
💀🃏

06/20/2026

DEATH and the FOOL | A Medieval Folly Touring June 20 - 27!

Where/When:

Howland Cultural Arts Center, Beacon NY: Saturday 6/20 @ 2pm

The Foundry, West Stockbridge MA: Sunday 6/21 @ 3pm

Puppet ShowPlace Theater, Brookline MA: Monday 6/22 @ 7pm & Tuesday 6/23 @ 7pm

Sandglass Theater, Putney VT: Thursday 6/25 & Friday 6/26 @ 7pm

Mayo Street Arts, Portland ME: aturday 6/27 @ 7 pm

06/11/2026

Big News Alert! We have been awarded the 2026 $10,000 Mary Sawyers Baker Prize for Performing Arts for the prestigious Baker Artist Awards. The recognize Baltimore artists who demonstrate excellence in three areas: Mastery of Craft, Depth of Artistic Exploration, and Unique Vision.

Since 2009, the Baker Artist Awards has recognized more than 168 artists and awarded nearly $1.5 million directly to artists in the Baltimore region, making it one of the most sustained and significant direct-to-artist prize programs in the country.

We are full-time theater artists. This is a monumental honor.

Baltimore has played a critical role in our company's development over the past decade. We could not have made our original, theatrical productions without , , and the support of Baltimore audiences which have encouraged us, beyond reason, to take great, creative risks. Wherever we tour, we champion this city and its dedication to the performing arts.

We are deeply grateful to Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance for their stewardship of this critical program and for championing the culture of our visionary city.

Thank you for recognizing us. We have so many ideas; and we can't wait to get back to work.

🧰⚙️🎨

Link in bio to learn more about the Baker Artist Awards and awardees.