For twelve weeks in Fall and twelve weeks in Spring, a cohort of eight artists or teams meet on Tuesdays evenings at the Center at West Park (in residence at St. Paul & St. Andrew UMC) to share their progress with artists in the cohort and the program curators. The goal of these meetings is to provide conscientious feedback for the artists and a flexible structure for sharing work in progress. The residency concludes in two weekends of performances in which the works-in-progress are shared with the public.

OMPF does not provide a building workshop, housing opportunities, and is not an educational institution; it is a process-oriented residency whose primary focus is to create a space for participants to refine their ability to give and receive supportive language. Through the residency, artists discover ways to expand their puppetry practice and strengthen their creative communities beyond the festival.

Meet the Puppeteers

Eli Berman

Eli Berman is a Brooklyn-based vocalist, composer-producer, and sound artist originally from Pittsburgh, PA. A classically trained countertenor and baritone, her music fuses extended vocal techniques and experimental electronics with Ashkenazi cantorial prayer, Yiddish and Appalachian ballads, and choral traditions. She builds and performs with custom “vocal feedback pipes”—amplified PVC and steel tubes that transform the voice into resonant feedback instruments. Eli has performed throughout North America and Europe at venues like Ars Nova, National Sawdust, Watermill Center, and Neues Nationalgalerie. In addition to composing and performing original work, Eli regularly sings as a countertenor at the Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Times Square and St. Thomas Church Fifth Avenue.

 

Zlata Godunova

Zlata Godunova (she/her) is a performer, puppeteer, and designer. Classically trained at the National Academic Theatre of Drama and Musical Comedy in Ukraine, she recently starred in the one-woman show The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe.

She puppeteered in Magic of Light with Yara Arts Group and Tom Lee at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club; Don Quixote Takes New York with Loco7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company at Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, and was part of the International Puppet Slam in 2024.

You can find her in Central Park, where she works as a puppeteer/scenic designer at the Swedish Cottage Marionette Theater.

Joshua Holden

JOSHUA HOLDEN is a self-producing puppeteer, designer, builder, and freelancer for The Jim Henson Company as an Emmy nominated puppet wrangler. Broadway: Water for Elephants. TV: Sesame Street, Helpsters. National Tours: Avenue Q, Peter Pan 360, Avett Brother Band (2024 Tour). He is the creator & host of The Joshua Show which toured for 10 years and currently is living his Vaudeville fantasy performing monthly in Dirty Circus (House of Yes). Joshua is an alumnus of the Walnut Hill School for the Arts, and earned a B.F.A. in Acting from The Chicago College of Performing Arts, Roosevelt University. wowjoshuaholden.com @ohmygoshuajoshua

 

Eve Soffer Liberman

Eve Soffer Liberman wears many hats: artist; illustrator; puppeteer; seamstress; writer; musician— as well as an occasional beret. Her work draws inspiration from folklore and fairy tales, the body, nature, magic, and girlhood. Although trained as a fine artist in drawing, painting, and printmaking, her work often bleeds beyond the boundaries of medium into folk art, fiber art, performance, and video. Born and raised in New York City, she is a graduate of LaGuardia High School and Smith College, and has an MA in Children’s Book Illustration from Goldsmiths, University of London. You can find more of her work at www.eveliberman.com or on her instagram @eveliberman.

Instagram: @eveliberman

 

Diane Matyas

I grew up swimming in the lakes, ponds and gorge streams in Ithaca, New York. I received my MFA and BFA at Cornell University’s College of Art, Architecture, & Planning focused on intaglio and lithography printmaking. In New York City in the 80s - 90s created site-specific public art works and proposals that created mischievous spaces, pergolas, spiral walkways, and plaza inhabited by flora and fauna (monkeys, birds, and lizards). Recent projects include public sculpture and shadow theatre (The Luna Park Elephant Project) and 2023-2025’s deep dive into the animals of New York Harbor (Submerged: Marine Life of NY Harbor) and a collaborative public art proposal (FLYWAY an urban art trail featuring bird imagery)

In addition, I have authored and /illustrated books for children and a lively career at Museums including Exhibition Director and Museum Vice President, working with history, science and art collections to curate over 30 exhibitions. As a Teaching Artist, I have worked with all ages, currently  at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and have served as an adjunct professor of art, teaching drawing fundamentals at Wagner College. My studio/printshop PEANUT GALLERY PRESS is on Staten Island. In 2020, I co-founded Swimmers of Anarchy, a wild-swim community that plies the waters of N.Y. Harbor, adjacent to the Verrazzano Bridge.

Daniel Toretsky

Daniel is an exhibit designer, artist, and licensed architect living in Brooklyn, NY. In 2016 he graduated with a Bachelor of Architecture degree from Cornell University and he recently completed an MFA focused on interactive media at Parsons where he now teaches exhibit design and fabrication. In his art Daniel explores climate futures through speculative installations and ecological myth-making, often informed by his upbringing in the Yiddish arts revival. His recent work confronts the natural history museum's colonial past and uncertain future, blending science fiction, climate grief, and ritual into immersive environments that question how we memorialize and survive a rapidly warming planet. 

 

Michael Vandergard

Vander is a storyteller and visual artist. Starting as a filmmaker and puppeteer, he developed new stories with a distinct visual style with his knowledge of practical effects. In his Brooklyn apartment closet—home to his production company, Closeted Films—he revived forgotten techniques inspired by Max Fleischer, Douglas Trumbull, and Industrial Light & Magic, adapting them for today’s technology and modern performance. Vander is now developing “Light Puppetry,” an inverted form of shadow puppetry, through which he aims to bring comedy, spectacle, and adventure back into the avant-garde.