The Emerging Artist Projects provide a unique opportunity for outstanding previous participants of O’Neill Puppetry Conference to return and create extended puppet productions. These “Emerging Artists” work with the talented performers from the Flock Theater Company of New London, CT and are mentored by the renowned artistic staff of the conference. Each project culminates with 2 public performances at the conclusion of the conference.
This year we are proud to welcome Stefano Brancato & Michael Busch, Carole Simms D'Agostino, Janice Grimaldi, Lynne Cohen , and Kat Pleviak. |
Stefano Brancato & Michael Bush
Icarus |
| “Icarus” is a collaborative MFA Puppet Arts production created by Stefano Brancato and Michael Bush to be presented at the University of Connecticut’s Studio Mobius Theater in late spring 2009. A full stage production, Icarus incorporates both live actors and puppets to portray our story. Puppet elements will be of a primarily environmental nature. We are not manipulating the world of the puppet; we are manipulating the world of the human, thus manipulating everything on stage. Water, fire, earth, and air, will all be at our disposal. Shadows will be utilized; hybrids of mask and costume, and some characters will have puppet representations as well. |
| Stefano Brancato - Stefano Brancato is an M.F.A. candidate at the University of Connecticut’s Puppet Arts Program. In 2001 Stefano received a B.FA. in Acting from Marymount Manhattan College. During his years at Marymount he co-created Company MUDD, an experimental theatre troupe, with Elizabeth Swados at La Mama etc. While with company MUDD Stefano went on to design and co-create 4 productions, The Golem, Subliminable Strategery, The Violence Project Workshop, and The Violence Project. While in New York Stefano also accumulated many acting credits, some of his favorites have been Podgers, Lord Saville’s Crime; Flute, A Midsummer’s Night Dream; Sergy, Platnov, Platnov, Platnov; Ricky, Fragments of Ricky the Super Hero and Jack Kerouac, Ti Jean Blues. |
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| He did several walk-ons in the last season of Sex and the City and sang in a back up choir for Mark Anthony at Madison Square Garden’s Jingle Ball. Stefano has performed at Raw Space, Symphony Space, Feed the Herd and the National Black Theatre, all in New York. Stefano’s design credits include puppets for Tales for Children and Shirtwaist both featured at the New York City Fringe Festival. Stefano has also worked as Assistant Designer with Cass Daley Designs, focusing on event design, planning and interiors. Recent clients have been Scalimandre Fabric, Adleson Galleries, Amy Tan, The Pilot School, Dupont and the Hudson River Museum. He has been commissioned as lead designer on several projects. Stefano has been awarded The Starr Scholarship, The National Italian American Scholarship, and The Zachs’ Scholarship. Stefano’s co-created production “Icarus” is scheduled to open in the Spring of 2009 at Connecticut Repertory Theatre. |
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Michael Bush - Michael Bush is an MFA candidate in the Puppet Arts program at the University of Connecticut. A graduate of the College for Creative Studies in Detroit, Michigan, with a BFA in Crafts, his sculptures and art dolls have been seen in multiple galleries, including Western Michigan University, Detroit’s Artist Market, and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., as well as Contemporary Doll Collector Magazine, and Scholastic Art Magazine. Michael was puppet technical director for Mary Nagler’s “Little Things,” and shadow/prop designer for Bonnie Remsberg and Richard Termine’s “Scarves.” Both projects were work shopped at last year’s O’Neill conference. His puppets star in a commercial currently nominated for a regional Emmy award, advertising ABC News 12 in Flint, Michigan. Michael is co-creator of Icarus, a newly announced production on the Connecticut Repertory Theater’s schedule, spring 2009. |
Carole Simms D'Agostino
Excess Baggage |
| Excess Baggage is a table top puppetry piece that reveals the secret life of Obsessive Compulsive Hoarding. A woman is living in extreme clutter that she must remove or risk losing her home. We might see a bit of ourselves as we learn about her daily struggles with the most mundane of decisions. How much do you value your possessions? What memories lie in your most treasured collections? One man’s trash is another man’s treasure and may ultimately bring one woman’s demise. |
| Carole Simms D'Agostino - Carole has been performing and building puppets for over 15 years. She began puppetry through commedia, moved on to stop-motion animation, marionettes, hand and rod puppets, shadows and most recently table top puppetry skills. She also performs on the PBS show SeeMore’s Playhouse as Barb the Porcupine, incidental characters, and served as the show’s Puppet Wrangler in Season 2. She has attended the O’Neill Conference several times working with artists like Ron Binion, Phillip Huber, Wendy Morton, Larry Reed, Nikki Tilroe, and Jim and Margo Rose. Some of her personal productions have been featured at regional puppet slams including the Voice4Vision slam in NYC in 2007. Carole has her BFA from the University of Connecticut and currently lives in rural New Jersey. |
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Janice Grimaldi
Hoffmann's Tavern Tales |
| Hoffmann entertains his friends by sharing a tale about Kleinzach, a tiny fellow with clicking knees and a noisy neck. Next he tells the story of Olympia, a mechanical doll who sings and dances when wound up. Hoffmann, blind to the doll's true nature, falls in love with her. But in the end she is destroyed by a mad scientist, angry at her inventor for tricking him out of payment for the doll's eyes. (Based on writings of the nineteenth century French poet, E.T.A. Hoffmann.) |
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Janice Grimaldi - Formerly a math professor, Janice was inspired by puppet operas in Europe. She began building and performing puppets at University of Connecticut's Summer String Academy in 2003. She has directed three student puppet opera productions since then at American International College, using marionettes and other types of puppets she has built. In 2005 she studied with Albrecht Roser in Buoch. For the past three summers she has studied marionette manipulation and construction with Jim Rose and Phillip Huber at the O'Neill Puppetry Conference, performing short pieces, including "The Tipsy Arietta". |
Lynne Cohen
Tell Tale Heart |
A man struggles with fear, desperation, power, guilt and perception. |
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| Lynne Cohen - Lynne Cohen is an actress based in NYC- she has played roles ranging from Ophelia in "Hamlet" to Mouth in Samuel Beckett's "Not I..." to Guinevere in "Camelot". She is about to enter her 3rd. year as an MFA candidate in the University of Connecticut's Puppet Arts Department. She is responsible for "Nightmare" as a a part of last year's emerging artist strand of the O'Neill Puppetry Conference. Other puppet films she has created include "Moth" (with video anarchy), "Punch and Judy" and the trailer for the upcoming "The Tell Tale Heart". |
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Kat Pleviak
Snow Day |
| When Rose woke up expecting a snow day and saw no snow it left only one question. Where did all the white go? Now it is up to her and her imaginary friend Violet to search the world over for the missing white. Together, thanks to an active imagination, these two will travel from the furthest depths of the sea, all the way to outer space in hopes of bringing back the snow. With the help of Captain Quakers, Chatter the meerkat, the Man in the Moon, and a crazy bunch of eccentric characters they will discover the dastardly villain responsible for stealing the white and learn what it takes to be a true hero and friend. Snow Day combines live actors with a variety of different puppet styles to show the important difference between fantasy and reality in a magical and entertaining way. This is a family show suitable for all audiences. |
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| Kat Pleviak - Kat is a prop and puppet designer from Chicago who currently resides in Honolulu. She is in the process of attaining her Masters of Fine Arts from the University of Hawaii in Youth Theatre and Puppetry. While attending UH She has designed puppets for productions of “James and the Giant Peach”, “Kraken-KA”, and “Rumplestiltskin”. She is thrilled to have the opportunity to workshop her latest script “Snow Day” this summer at the O'Neill. "Snow Day" will open December 4-7 2008 at the University of Hawaii and serve as her MFA Thesis and the debut production of her Chicago based puppet company Sea Beast Puppet Productions. |
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