For eleven weeks in Fall 2023 and eleven weeks in Spring 2024, a cohort of eight puppetry and object theater artists (or pairs or teams of artists) met to share progress on developing new work. The goal of these meetings is to provide conscientious feedback for the artists and a flexible structure for making and sharing work. This is a process-oriented residency, which concludes in a festival, but a primary focus is to create a space for participants to refine their ability to give and receive supportive language, so the artists can strengthen their puppetry practice and community beyond the festival.
The 2024 Object Movement Puppetry Festival took place over two weeks from March 18th through March 30, 2024, in the Center at West Park’s Sanctuary Space. Each week featured a different program of four original short pieces 10 to 20 minutes long.
CWP’s 2023/2024 Object Movement Puppetry Residency & Festival was curated by artists Rowan Magee, Marcella Murray, and Justin Perkins, and featured artists Sienna Aczon, Emmy Brett, Cohlie Brocato, Julia Chien, Duygu Bayar Ekren, Leah Levine, Brenna Ross, and Marina ‘heron’ Tsaplina.
2023/2024 OBJECT MOVEMENT COHORT
SIENNA ACZON is a Filipino-American multi-hyphenate artist based in NYC. Born and raised in Honolulu, she grew up as the only member in her household who didn’t immigrate from the Philippines. She always enjoyed listening to her family’s stories of their hometown and believes this is how she fell in love with the art of storytelling. She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and trained at the British American Drama Academy. Recent credits: “Heart Strings” (Hoku, Atlantic Theater); “Do You Speak?” (Solo Show, 59E59 Theaters); “Healing Shipment” (Puppeteer/Singer, La MaMa). siennaaczon.com @miss.sepa
EMMY BRETT is a writer & performer who lives in Brooklyn. She’s worked at Playhouse Square, Great Lakes Theatre, Beck Center for the Arts, Clinton Area Showboat, Dobama Theatre, and on a boat doing the works of PigPen Theatre Company. She graduated from Baldwin Wallace with a B.M. in music theatre; she also studied rock singing at Det Danske Musikalakademi in Fredericia, Denmark. From 2021-2022 she was a theology fellow at Newbigin House of Studies; she was also (briefly) a student at Union Theological Seminary. She is a minister at Park Slope Methodist and helps run the hunger program at Greenpoint Reformed. Her favorite trees are, at the moment, aspens.
COHLIE BROCATO is a director, director of photography, writer, performer, and occasional author of his own bios. His art focuses on the intersection of hilarity and horror, and the general terror of being alive—a subject best voiced through lips of felt, foam, or whatever is at hand to be made to speak.
Most of his waking hours are committed to Ticking Clock, a creative production house in NYC that he co-founded more than a decade ago.
He is the DP of an Emmy-nominated series, has filmed interviews with two sitting presidents, directed major product launches, is currently under several NDAs, and has had his choice of manicure personally frowned upon by Wendy Williams. A short list of clients he has shot, directed, or written for (or all three!) in no particular order include Sennheiser, L’Oreal, Tito’s Vodka, Mastercard, Patron, Coca-Cola, Essence, Rachael Ray, NBC, Red Bull, New York Comic Con, ESPN, Benjamin Moore, and a whole host of others who have probably consolidated into one mega-corporation by this point. Cohlie loves weaving puppetry into film, and he hopes you’re doing well today.
JULIA CHIEN is a Taiwanese-American filmmaker, animator, and multimedia artist based in Brooklyn. Her work explores the internal, unspoken, the textural, and the gooey. Julia’s films focus on feelings of loneliness and hopeful connection, often using animals as a vehicle to express these ideas. They are emotional character studies she uses to further understand herself.
Julia graduated from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2022 with a BFA in Film/Animation/Video. Her most recent film WO RM has screened at Athens Animfest 2023, Animation Block Party 2023, Sweaty Eyeballs 2023, as well as Ivy Film Festival 2023 where it was awarded “Best U.S. Undergraduate Animation”. Her film MOTHER KNOWS screened at Animation Block Party 2021 as well as Ivy Film Festival 2022 where it won the same award. TO BE A PACIFIC SALMON was her first international film festival selection, screening at Animafest Zagreb in 2022.
Puppets and performance are prevalent in most of Julia’s work, but her time as an artist in residence at this year’s Object Movement Festival will be her first foray into live theater. She will be developing a piece about a clam, herself, and home. https://juliachien.myportfolio.com/ @julias_not_creative on Instagram
DUYGU BAYAR EKREN completed her journalism and political science education in Turkiye before pursuing puppetry training at the National Academy of Theater and Film Arts (NATFIZ) in Bulgaria. Under the guidance of Professor Slavcho Malenov and his academic team, she accomplished an individual program on Contemporary Puppet Theater Practices. During her time there, she created her one-person show "Joy" for adult audiences, which received acclaim at several puppet festivals due to her original concept and puppet design.
Duygu improved her puppet-making skills through a workshop with Natacha Belova in Brussels and created puppets for MM Theater of Sofia. Upon returning to Turkiye, she expanded her knowledge by attending contemporary dance classes, physical theater, clown discipline, and mask theater workshops. She also conducted workshops herself on puppet manipulation techniques and puppet making.
In 2021, Duygu participated in the puppet slam organized by Puppets Come Home/Coney Island USA, showcasing her short puppet animation film adapted from Franz Kafka's "Odradek."
In 2022, she contributed to the adaptation of Anton Chekhov's short story "Misery" to the stage, crafting the puppets and stage design for the production. Duygu has been continuing her research and work in New York City since January 2023.
LEAH LEVINE is a New York-based artist and educator. She creates puppetry that is accessible and immersive, straddling mediums through collaboration, theater, classical fine art training, and poetry. She holds a BA in Psychology and Studio Art from Wesleyan University and is currently teaching fine art portfolio development, puppetry, and set design.
BRENNA ROSS (she/her) is a Brooklyn-based Producer and General Manager with the Green Feather Foundation. Her goal is to create more just, equitable, sustainable, and joyous spaces for audiences and artists alike by facilitating wondrous arts experiences and utilizing creative approaches to traditional management practices.
A lifelong crafter, Brenna first learned to crochet from her aunt in middle school. Inspired by Armenian needle lace doilies made by her great-grandmother, Brenna began experimenting with lacemaking in 2020.
She has previously worked with; The 24 Hour Plays, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, and SPACE on Ryder Farm.
A proud Iowan, Brenna holds degrees in Physics and Theater from Grinnell College and a certificate in Arts and Culture Strategy from the University of Pennsylvania. Learn more at www.BrennaRoss.com
MARINA ‘HERON’ TSAPLINA(she+) is a Russian-born, Lenapehoking (NYC) based interdisciplinary eco-puppetry artist, writer and disability culture activist. She forms participatory poetic enchantments through puppetry performance, performing objects and site-specific installations. In her practice, no person, place or material is disposable. She was awarded the 2024 Nancy Staub Award by UNIMA-USA for her decade of work on puppetry in medicine, disability justice, colonialism and healing and is currently an artist-in-resident at Henry Ford Health. She is on the Eco-Puppetry Committee of the National Capital Puppetry Guild, a group “dedicated to exploring and sharing the concepts and practices of eco-puppetry.” From stage to classroom to forest, her puppetry work has graced the cover of Orion Magazine, the offices of pharmaceutical companies, an ancient endangered forest, Duke Arts, and more. She is a conservatory trained performing artist under master teacher Kari Margolis, the Ernst Busch school of puppetry in Berlin, Germany, Sandglass Puppet Theater and Pochinko clown. Through Object Movement, she is developing one scene of Soils and Spirit: Into That Ruptured Place. She is thrilled to be enmeshed in a loving community of fellow puppetry artists who are equally enchanted with the animacy, poetry, and story-telling power of material object performance. Find her (somewhat reluctantly) on Instagram at @bodypoemspuppetry.
2023/2024 OBJECT MOVEMENT CURATORS
ROWAN MAGEE is a puppeteer, designer, and educator living in Flatbush, Brooklyn. He has performed on international tours with Phantom Limb Company, Robin Frohardt, Nick Lehane, and Dan Hurlin, in New York for Chris Green, Lake Simons, and Spencer Lott, and on Broadway in Angels in America and Life of Pi. In 2019, Rowan operated the titular reference puppet for the film Clifford the Big Red Dog. He has designed and built puppets and props for Alva Rogers, MCC Theater, Bard Summerscape, Trusty Sidekick, The Dalton School, St Mark's School, and Lincoln Center Education. He’s currently developing new work with Emma Wiseman, Sachiyo Takahashi, and Josh Rice, and will make his Met Opera debut in El Niño this April.
MARCELLA MURRAY is a New York-based theater artist from Augusta, Georgia. She is a playwright, performer, collaborator, and puppeteer. Murray’s work is heavily inspired by the observed ways in which people tend to segregate and reconnect. Her work tends to focus on themes of identity within a community and forward momentum in the face of trauma. Performances include The Slow Room, a piece directed by Annie Dorsen at Performance Space New York; a workshop of Ocean Filibuster which was co-created by the team Pearl D’Amour (Lisa D’Amour and Katie Pearl) with composer Sxip Shirey at Abrons Arts Center; I Don’t Want to Interrupt You Guys which was created in collaboration with Leonie Bell and Hyung Seok Jeon during RAP at Mabou Mines ; New Mony created by Maria Camia; and Shoot Don’t Talk at St. Ann’s Warehouse/Puppet Lab created by Andrew Murdock. Along with David Neumann, she recently co-created Distances Smaller Than This Are Not Confirmed (Obie Special Citation for Creation and Performance) which opened at Abrons Arts Center, co-produced by Chocolate Factory, in January of 2020.
JUSTIN PERKINS is a puppet artist and performer. Recent puppet performance includes Madama Butterfly at Met Opera (cover), and Hansel and Gretel at Michigan Opera Theater (principal). He has appeared in works by Ping Chong+Company (Alaxsxa|Alaska, LaMama, US tour), Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew (And Here We Are, National Sawdust), Tom Lee (Shank’s Mare, LaMama, US tour), Lake Simons, Patti Bradshaw, Puppet Cinema, Unitards, imnotlost and more. In 2019, his puppet installation DIANAMAS was developed at Puppet Lab at St Ann's Warehouse. Justin's forthcoming work Unicorn Afterlife is supported by the Jim Henson Foundation and developed through residencies at the Jim Henson Legacy Carriage House and Center at West Park, premieres May 2021 at Dixon Place. He is also the Program Director at New Country Day Camp in Staten Island. http://www.justinaperkins.com
2023/2024 OBJECT MOVEMENT PRODUCTION TEAM
JIM FREEMAN – Resident Builder and Technical Advisor Jim Freeman is a builder, filmmaker and actor based in Brooklyn. He has recently made 3D printed heads and hands for Puppetworks, electronic effects and metalwork for Theodora Skipitaris and Tianding He, and carpentry for Loco 7 and Maiko Kikuchi, among many others. Over the past three years, Jim has has the pleasure of working with Tristan Allen to bring Tin Iso and the Dawn to life. You can see Jim’s films Risen, Flight Therapy, Sea Glass and Delicious on www.eurekajim.org.
Jim has been honored to assist the cohort of the Object Movement Puppet Festival, and is looking forward to collaborating with all these wonderful artists in the future.
INSTITUTIONAL SUPPORT
Object Movement Puppetry Festival is made possible by the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Jim Henson Foundation, and the Puppet Slam Network.
