Virtual Puppetry Residency

Virtual Puppetry Residency VPR is an online puppetry program developed by Tom Sarver. Administered by Pittsburgh Center for Arts and Media.

Supported by PA Council on the Arts, National Endowment for the Arts, and a private foundation.

05/27/2022

Looking to watch some puppetry this weekend? The long-awaited recording of the VPR Season 4 Celebration is now on YouTube. It's about two hours long with a great variety of shows and interviews with the participants. The original event was broadcast on April 30th to a private audience of VPR alumni, participants and project supporters.

https://youtu.be/NQAa9q9mHUE

Resident Spotlight: Frans Hakkemars. Frans is back for a second season of VPR. Aside from his work with Droomtheater, he...
04/29/2022

Resident Spotlight: Frans Hakkemars. Frans is back for a second season of VPR. Aside from his work with Droomtheater, he performs solo and with Kooman’s Poppentheater in The Hague. He is also councillor of UNIMA-Netherlands and member of the UNIMA Publication Commission.

Frans will be puppeteering with Droomtheater, but also will be presenting a solo show at the April 30 VPR Celebration titled, Radical Responsibility for Bamboo Bush. He describes the show as "a counterbalance to the polarization reinforced by social media, in favor for more constructive communication."

Resident Spotlight: Fernando Gurrola. We love the energy and creative spirit that Fernando brought to VPR this season! H...
04/28/2022

Resident Spotlight: Fernando Gurrola. We love the energy and creative spirit that Fernando brought to VPR this season! He a Mexican actor, puppeteer and mask maker. He is the founder of Mil Rostros Teatro, a puppet theater company. Its main focus is research in the animation of puppets and objects, their hybridization with the human body, and the creation of a poetics of silence.

Fernando has been working on a live show to perform at the VPR final celebration on April 30. Guisseppe, a small, curious and happy boy, is in love with the Moon. He will do everything possible to reach her. However, a series of obstacles will present themselves to him. Will it make it to the moon?

Resident Spotlight: Droomtheater. It is great to have Droomtheater from The Netherlands back for another season of VPR! ...
04/27/2022

Resident Spotlight: Droomtheater. It is great to have Droomtheater from The Netherlands back for another season of VPR! Members include Frans Hakkemars, Joanne Oussoren, and Arthur Sauer (who is new to VPR this season). Droomtheater is a roaming, performing platform for lifelong-learning-by-doing-projects, working on interdisciplinary, intercultural, international and intergenerational storytelling and puppetry both on and offline.

For the VPR Season 4 culminating celebration, they will be performing a live show over Zoom. They are continuing with their love of Shakespeare in their new piece, Hamlet/in the castle 2022. The work is inspired by a text of Jan Decorte and is performed by Frans in a cardboard Didadiv theatre box. Arthur provides the sonosymbolic soundscape. Idea, concept and voice by Joanne.

Resident Spotlight: Dave McCabe. Dave joined VPR in March, bringing a ton of energy, inspiration and an obsession with h...
04/27/2022

Resident Spotlight: Dave McCabe. Dave joined VPR in March, bringing a ton of energy, inspiration and an obsession with home appliances. He is a Pittsburgh-based performer. Dave's 'Give ‘em a Hand, a Mostly Puppet, Puppet Troop' performs live in theaters, online, in lines and by himself. Fueled by improvisation, the troop seeks opportunities to entertain and engage audiences.

Dave's puppet Stan Steel (pictured here) will lead the audience on a live investigative reporting adventure titled, Expired Intentions, at the April 30th VPR Season 4 Celebration.

As we near the end of the end of Season 4 of VPR, we plan to celebrate the accomplishments of the residency with a Zoom ...
04/25/2022

As we near the end of the end of Season 4 of VPR, we plan to celebrate the accomplishments of the residency with a Zoom celebration on Saturday, April 30th. We have a limited number of spaces available for VPR members, family and friends, but we plan to post edited video and highlights after the celebration on this page. Here is the current list of artists who will be presenting. For more info, feel free to contact me at [email protected]

1. Dave McCabe presents: Give ‘em a Hand! A Mostly Puppet, Puppet Troop, Greater Pittsburgh, PA.
2. Cath Whippey, Whitby, Yorkshire, UK.
3. Elyse Jacobs, San Francisco / London.
4. Moshe Sherman (Moshe & Friends), Greater Pittsburgh, PA.
5. Irene Papadaki (Reina), Athens, Greece.
6. Padmini Rangarajan, Sphoorthi Theatre for Educational Puppetry, Art and Craft-STEPARC, South India.
7. Droomtheater, The Netherlands (Frans Hakkemars, Joanne Oussoren, Arthur Sauer).
8. Faith-Ann Chester-Inniss, Puppets in Protest, Guyana, South America.
9. Cat Aceto, Pittsburgh, PA.
10. Transit-Theater-Berlin, Germany.
11. Sarina Pedroza and Ailin Ruiz of Lormiga Títeres, Mexico.
12. Nadia Parisi and Alessandro Prestipino, Sicily/France.
13. Fernando Gurrola from Mil Rostros Teatro, Mexico.
14. Jayne and Hannah Sweet, Greater Pittsburgh, PA.
15. Kelvin Chan, Hong Kong.
16. Dina Kaplan, Chicago.
17. Abi Stushnoff, Montreal, Quebec, Canada.

Resident Spotlight: Catherine Welsh Aceto. It has been a busy season for Cat Aceto. She is working on producing an onlin...
04/25/2022

Resident Spotlight: Catherine Welsh Aceto. It has been a busy season for Cat Aceto. She is working on producing an online puppet slam and working on a new piece for VPR.

Cat Aceto is a longtime Shakespeare nerd who serves on the board executive committee for Pittsburgh Shakespeare in the Parks, where she is currently curating a Shakespeare-themed puppet slam on April 28 for their Week of Will celebration of Shakespeare's birthday. She also works locally with Steel City Shakespeare Center, where she is creating shadow puppets for their May 2022, production of Macbeth, featuring a mix of live and puppet actors.

In 'Macbeth and the Red Crayon', Cat uses a horizontal version of a crankie to retell Act 1 of Macbeth, in the style of the children's book Harold and the Purple Crayon. This show was born from a Facebook prompt by Steel City Shakespeare Center: "What is the worst concept that you can think of for a Shakespeare Production?" The piece will be performed at the VPR Celebration on April 30th on Zoom.

Resident Spotlight: Sarina Pedroza and Ailin Ruiz of Lormiga Títeres. We are very excited to have Mexico represented in...
04/25/2022

Resident Spotlight: Sarina Pedroza and Ailin Ruiz of Lormiga Títeres. We are very excited to have Mexico represented in Season 4 of VPR and we can't believe it has taken so long to meet Ailin and Sarina of Lormiga Títeres!

Lormiga Títeres, in its tenth year, was founded by Sarina Pedroza & Ailin Ruiz. It is a puppet theater company based in the desert of Sonora in Mexico that aims "For Full and Happy Childhood" though all kind of projects that can enrich their audience and fulfill their commitments. They are curators of the Puppet Slam Mexico from the official Puppet Slam Network. They are always looking to approach new audiences and create new bridges between puppeteers around the globe and to enrich the puppetry scenario with exchanges, workshops, festivals and more! Their work has been seen in Romania, Colombia, Argentina, Perú, Venezuela, Guatemala, Brazil, Canada, México and USA.

Are you afraid of the dark? So is René, a 8 year old girl who believes there's something around. Mom knows that there's nothing to be afraid of. 'Rene and The Secret Mission' is presented by Lormiga Títeres in paper puppet technique format for online audiences. The show will be presenting at the VPR Celebration on April 30.

Resident Spotlight: Cath Whippey. Cath Whippey is a visual artist based in Whitby, Yorkshire, with many years living in ...
04/25/2022

Resident Spotlight: Cath Whippey. Cath Whippey is a visual artist based in Whitby, Yorkshire, with many years living in Glasgow, Scotland. Her artwork touches upon puppetry, mask and live interactive performance, and is inspired by creating magical and fascinating moments, often drawing upon folk themes. Her work has been experienced in outdoor locations, through artist in residency projects, at festivals and at museums and art galleries. Cath makes her puppets and masks for her pieces, the making process itself further developing and inspiring her ideas. Her studies include Curious School of Puppetry, and with John Roberts of ‘Puppetcraft’, Bronia Evers Visual Storyteller, and Judith Hope Puppetmaker.

In her first season of VPR, Cath has been working on new puppet designs and working on a suitcase-style portable theater to use in live performance over Zoom. She will be presenting a work in progress, 'I believe in bugs. (In praise of the poem by Ivor Cutler)' at the VPR Season 4 Celebration on April 30.

Resident Spotlight: Nadia Parisi. Sicilian artist and puppeteer Nadia Parisi returns to VPR from a residency in France. ...
04/25/2022

Resident Spotlight: Nadia Parisi. Sicilian artist and puppeteer Nadia Parisi returns to VPR from a residency in France. Along with partner Alessandro Prestipino, she has been developing work to perform for small groups of children inside of a travel vehicle (caravan) outfitted as a small theater.

They will present 'Duria Antiquior' a visual story about the pioneering developments of Mary Anning in the field of paleontology. The show will explore the human characteristics of instinct, intuition and curiosity and how they lead us to pursuing our passions.

Resident Spotlight: Fine Fröhlich and Transit-Theater-Berlin. We are excited to have Transit back for another season of ...
04/25/2022

Resident Spotlight: Fine Fröhlich and Transit-Theater-Berlin. We are excited to have Transit back for another season of VPR. The Berlin-based company produces various performances for children and adults. Transit has participated in Puppet theatre festivals in Germany, Italy, Denmark, Kenya and Uganda.

Hand-cranked, scrolling narrative drawings, known as crankies, have long been popular in puppetry. Transit uses this technique brilliantly in their new piece, Sonnet XCVIII. The show, dedicated to all refugees, is is a reflection on Shakespeare's Sonnet 98. The piece will be screened at the VPR Season 4 Celebration.

Resident Spotlight: Elyse Jacobs. We're very happy to have Elyse Jacobs back for another season of VPR! She has worked a...
04/25/2022

Resident Spotlight: Elyse Jacobs. We're very happy to have Elyse Jacobs back for another season of VPR! She has worked and performed with puppets and children of all sizes since 1974. Big feelings and social justice form the foundation of her work.

Elyse has been working on a new piece this season. 'Rhia's Story: When Brown Cat is excluded from playing with her friends, White Kittens have a decision to make.' The show will be performed live at the VPR Season 4 culminating celebration on April 30.

Address

Pittsburgh, PA

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Virtual Puppetry Residency posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Establishment

Send a message to Virtual Puppetry Residency:

Shortcuts

Share

Category