Special Effects Festival
January 7-10, 2-25
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Artist driven and oriented, Special Effects gathers experimental performance works by practitioners exploring contemporary issues. Drawing on a network of over 8K artists who are part of contemporaryperformance.com, the festival samples the diversity and richness of the discipline of performance and presents an open forum for critical thinking on the issues of the day.
Illuminated Skies – A Night of Puppetry
Curated by Amanda Card
January 9, 2025
7:00pm
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Cumulo
by Emily Batsford
Cumulo follows protagonist Plum as she freefalls through the sky, meeting weather and whimsy along the way. A nonverbal puppet piece that (sky)dives into our accumulation of self, and the experiences that shape us.
Emily Batsford (they/them) is a theater maker and educator living in Brooklyn, NY. Their artistry prioritizes inclusion and accessibility, and includes immersive and physical theater practices, puppetry, & experimental forms.
Emily has an extensive performance history, traveling internationally and across the United States. True to their passion for devising new work, Emily has also participated in countless work-in-progress showings at theatrical incubators across the five boroughs. When not performing, Emily is a Teaching Artist for Child’s Play NY, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, New York City Children’s Theater, and CO/LAB Theater Group.
Where Did You Go, Connie?
by Amanda Card
“Where Did You Go, Connie” is an experimental puppet show blending shadow puppetry, toy theater, and live-feed puppetry. Inspired by musician Connie Converse’s life and disappearance, it explores themes of visibility, invisibility, and self-destruction. Developed at Concrete Temple Theatre’s CONCRETE BOOM: Volume 3 and the 2024-2025 Object Movement Puppetry Residency and Festival.
Amanda Glynn Card (she/they) is a multidisciplinary theatre artist. Her work has appeared at La MaMa, We Wiggle Dolls Puppet Slam, Teatro SEA’s Micro Theater Festival, Dixon Place’s Puppet BloK, Great Small Works’ Toy Theater Festival, Nasty Brutish & Short Puppet Cabaret, Sarah Finn’s Our Bodies Like Dams at Mabou Mines, Bee Hall’s music video Park Song, Maiko Kikuchi and Spencer Lott’s 9000 Paper Balloons, Maiko Kikuchi’s Daydream Tutorial, and Mason Holdings’ Small Acts of Daring Invention. She is a resident artist with the 2024-2025 Object Movement Puppetry Festival. MFA, Sarah Lawrence College.
An excerpt from Shiny One
by Jon Riddleberger
featuring Max Gayford, Nick Lehane, and Joseph Lymous
When Shiny One stumbles upon a dangerous sickness in the forest, they must use their unique light to save the forest and bring the people back to nature. Shiny One is a brand new puppet theater piece currently in development.
Jon is a director, puppeteer, and filmmaker based in NYC. Notable credits include: War Horse, Il Ritorno D’Ulisse (Handspring Puppet Company), Laser Beak Man and Argus (Dead Puppet Society), El Niño (The Met Opera), Fly Away (Derek Fordjour and Nick Lehane), Bill’s 44th, Clifford the Big Red Dog feature film, Moon and Me (The BBC), Hello Tomorrow! (Apple TV+), director of puppetry for demons. among others. Jon is an adjunct teacher at NYU and recently co conceived and directed FRNKNSTN written by Jaclyn Backhaus. You can find out more at: www.jonriddleberger.com
Cast From Heaven
by Jacob Graham
Performed by Jacob Graham and Avemaria Magdalena
Cast From Heaven is a ceremonial reenactment and dramatization of something that may or may not have happened in the deep past. A short, contemplative vignette in the vein of The Wormwood Star.
Jacob Graham is a multidisciplinary artist and the mind behind The Creatures of Yes puppet web series. He recently collaborated with the artist Marina Abramović on Emerald Sea, a live symphonic performance.
Avemaria Magdalena is an actress, performance artist and band member of the east village group The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black. Cast From Heaven is their new theater group as well as the title of this piece.
IDIOT VOID (working title)
by David Commander
Idiot Void (working title) is a work in progress and an initial effort to create a framework in which to amplify the dying scream of all humankind. It is also a musical puppet show.
David Commander writes, directs and performs in his particular style of modern toy and object theater. His work has been presented in NYC, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Portland, and Chicago. As well as his collaborative efforts with Immediate Medium’s Rob Ramirez, Commander is a long time member of the legendary theater company Big Art Group. This work-in-progress launches him into his first solo work in 11 years.
5G Maitreya
by Glenn Potter-Takata
5G Maitreya is a multimedia performance work that looks at parallel notions of the ‘real’ in Buddhist metaphysics and a digital/material divide. Using video projected 3D renderings of Buddhist deities and ritual objects paired with 3D-printed facsimiles, the work brings the digital into the tangible as an analogy for Buddhist distinctions between the consciousness and the material.
Glenn Potter-Takata is a Japanese-American artist based in the Bronx. He utilizes butoh, improvisation, media equipment, and consumer materials to create performances around the body as a historical site in post-internment America. His performance works have been shown in New York City at Mabou Mines, PAGEANT, Center for Performance Research, Movement Research at Judson Church, Grace Exhibition Space, Gibney Dance Center, New Dance Alliance’s Performance Mix, WestFest, and with Pioneers Go Easts, among other places. Nationally, his work has been presented by Cannonball in Philadelphia, and his first solo gallery exhibition opened in January of 2023 at Rogers Studio Gallery in Las Vegas. He has been awarded residencies with Movement Research, Gibney Dance Center (Work Up), CUNY Dance Initiative at Lehman College, and is the recipient of a MAP Fund Award, Bronx Cultural Visions Award, Bronx Dance Fund Award, and a Mabou Mines SUITE/Space Fellowship.