NEW YORK, June 21 -- La MaMa will present a quintet of adult puppet theater productions and a singloe children's attraction, all brimming with international art forms, in "La MaMa Puppet Series 4" from October 14 to November 28, 2010.

The series will open with the newest work by Italy's Dario D'Ambrosi (Teatro Patologico), "Journey into The Mysterious World of Madness," from October 14 thru October 31. There will be two works from Poland, "Chopin--Inspirations" by Bialystok Puppet Theatre October 21 to November 7 and "Broken Nails. A Marlene Dietrich Dialogue" by Wiczy Theatre from November 12 to 21. From Brooklyn comes "Wake Up, You're Dead," directed and designed by Aaron Haskell, October 28 to November 7. The children's puppet theater attraction will be "Folk Tales of Asia and Africa" by Jane Catherine Shaw October 23 to November 7. The festival will conclude with "Nostalgia"by LOCO7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company, directed and designed by Federico Restrepo with music composed by Elizabeth Swados, November 11 to 28. There will be Gallery Exhibit at La MaMa's La Galleria, 6 East First Street, with puppets displayed from artists of the series, from October 21 to Novem ber 7.

The La MaMa Puppet Series is now an annual event. It derives from a festival that La MaMa presented in 2004, which contained multicultural works from USA, India, Poland, Bali, Japan and the Czech Republic. That festival was supported by The Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater and utilized all three of La MaMa's performance theaters. It made the La MaMa community long to revive its traditional place as an entry point for international puppet theater artists.

The series has been supported each year by the Jim Henson Foudation with additional support by Heather Henson and Cheryl Henson.

To encourage audiences to see multiple productions in the festival, La MaMa there will be Festival Passes and incentive pricing available for the Series (to be announced). Tickets can be purchased online at www.lamama.org. The phone number for audience information is (212) 475-7710. La MaMa is located at 74A East Fourth Street, between Second Avenue and Bowery, in the East Village.

"Journey into The Mysterious World of Madness, directed by Dario D'Ambrosi
October 14 thru October 31, First Floor Theatre
Teatro Patologico (Italy)
Set and Object/Puppet design by Aurora Buzzetti
Running time: 60 minutes.

"Journey into The Mysterious World of Madness" is a theatrical analysis of the difficulties all the people who lived a period of emotive crisis encounter in dealing with the everyday life.

With the experience of Dario D'Ambrosi, who for over 30 years has worked with mentally disabled persons, the story is recounted in a dreamy and fantastic way by means of live music and singing, puppets. Great importance is given to physical expression and movement, evolving into a "schizo-dance."

"Chopin--Inspirations" by Bialystok Puppet Theatre
October 21 thru November 7, Ellen Stewart Theatre at The Annex
Conceived by Wojciech Szelachowski
Written by Lesław Piecka, Wojciech Szelachowski
Directed by Lesław Piecka
Set and puppets designed by Joanna Braun
Choreographed by Jolanta Kruszewska
Music by Fryderyk Chopin
Running time: 60 minutes.

"…it is absolutely inconceivable how two genius abilities became united in Chopin's person: that of the greatest melodist and of the most original master of harmony." --Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov

"Chopin--Inspirations" (working title) will be a kind of drama essay that unites music, visual art, and marionette performance. This extremely challenging technique in puppetry requires unusual technical design as well as extraordinary skill in animating the marionette. Fryderyk Chopin compositions will be rendered both by a pianist and a marionette representing the genius composer - a marionette controlled with strings, measuring a couple of dozen centimeters and displaying virtuoso agility and perfection in the hands of its puppeteer - combined with an attempt to find answers to questions on the sources of inspiration determining the work of every artist..

The production is in rehearsal now and will have its world premiere on March 7, 2010 in Bialystok. The Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland commissioned the work as part of the worldwide celebration of The Year of Chopin 2010, commemorating the 200th anniversary of the birth of Poland's greatest composer. The official opening of this year-long celebration took place on January 1 in Zelazowa Wola, Poland, where the artist was born and where his father worked as a tutor for a local aristocratic family.

The Bialystok Puppet Theatre production will not simply be a story of the great composer's life. Audiences will be introduced to Chopin's world by a group of Muses, who serve as guides through the world of dreams and sounds produced by his music, and they will also present his artistic friendships, musical inspirations, and life experiences. The show will contain references to Chopin's fascination with Paganini, his friendships and relationships with George Sand, Maria Wodzinska (his fiancée), his longings for the lost "country of his childhood," creative dilemmas, inspirations, artistic visions, moods that range from the poetic to the paranoiac, the feeling of success, and the sense of despair. Apart from Chopin's music performed live by one of Poland's most talented pianists Krzysztof Traskowski, the show features actors, puppets (marionettes), objects, plastic art forms and visual presentations.

"Wake Up, You're Dead" by Brooklyn Art Department
October 28 thru November 7, The Club
Directed and Designed by Aaron Haskell
Running time: 45 minutes.

"Wake Up, You're Dead" creates a mythology about the process that is how one comes into being.

The show begins up in a corner with two boisterous, funny, dancing skeleton puppets controlled by four puppeteers that are hidden underneath. Their job is as narrators and to begin by letting the audience know they may freely move about the space, introduce the myth, ending with how they have found their light, their energy and roll out their balls of light onto the stage, giving their energy to the show.

The Myth starts with The Ancestors, a full body costume puppet. These are Creatures, Gods, Fates, beings that maintain an individuals light, their life in their hands. Every person has one. This piece is very ritualistic in movement and their dance is done in order to create a new ball of light, a new life. Each performer has their own call that they give throughout the entirety of the show, and certain movements also have their own call. At the end of this piece they produce another life and there are now three balls of light on stage and one of these beings presents the new ball to the audience, at the same time a video starts above, a silent short film with original music. A stop-motion character puppet of one these beings, is in the video and it starts to zoom in on the ball.

This short film is about the new life they've created. A little guy who has no idea where he is, where he came from, or what he is supposed to do next. He goes through several surrealistic adventures until he meets another cheerless skeleton sitting alone under a tree on a hilltop. Our little guy has found his light and shared it with the world. A new ball of light is thrown onto the stage and there are now four.

The next process for The Ancestors is to create the skeleton, a metaphor for the base of who we are, what we are made of - the skeletons in our closet. This live piece is of these skeletons, a full body costume puppet of a skeleton that glows under a black light. At the end, a new ball of light is rolled out there are now five.

Next is the making of our physical selves. An aerial piece, this number has three of the performers in aerial hammocks and three others controlling a large amorphous puppet made from torn paper. It first rains over the stage then the paper rises from the floor creating a giant guy that moves and dances around the three to bring them to life, and another ball of light is rolled onto the stage. There are now six balls of light.

The Ancestors main purpose in creating new people is so that they, the people can find their own light, their purpose. Come together to create the ultimate being, one of pure light and energy and balance. Each performer takes one of the balls of light and uses it to light up a different body part of the 12' tall puppet Giant strewn about the room. Coming together to create this enormous being of light, this is the climax, as the performers need to work completely together to make this big guy dance jubilantly around the space and the audience.

"Broken Nails. A Marlene Dietrich Dialogue" by Wiczy Theatre
November 12 thru 21, The Club
Conceived and performed by Anna Skubik
Written and directed by Romuald Wicza-Pokojski
Set designed by Romuald Wicza-Pokojski
Music arranged by Igor Nowicki
Puppet designed by Anna Skubik and Barbara Poczwardowska
Running time: 45 minutes.

Beautiful, determined, intelligent, controversial--Marlene Dietrich was a transcendent symbol of femininity, a lady of strong character and clear mind, a woman with claws. A fascinating figure to both men and women, the phenomenon of Dietrich's personality has also seduced Anna Skubik, a young Polish actress and puppeteer who decided to bring to life this German star by animating her as a life-size doll. "Broken Nails. A Marlene Dietrich Dialogue" portrays Marlene and her maid Gloria (both played by Skubik) in a co-dependent relationship during the star's last days in her Paris apartment.

Ms. Skubik slips back and forth between her roles as meek servant and haughty star with such virtuosity that it is easy to forget there is only one woman on stage. The play is a compelling study of womanhood – from all that is eternal and archetypal about women to the more ephemeral, fragile, and unsustainable qualities. The actress, under the direction of the play's author, Romuald Wicza-Pokojski, is less interested in resurrecting Marlene Dietrich than in showing the legendary star as she deals with her fading beauty and imminent death. Dietrich's reflection on her life leads to her sing songs she never had the chance to perform on stage. The way that gender is treated in the play's construction is significant; the authors of "Broken Nails" wanted to find a unique perspective for exploring what it means to be a woman without making it a feminist manifesto.

Anna Skubik is a one-woman tour de force in this show, both animating the puppet of Dietrich and creating her own character. After a few scenes the audiences sees that the dynamic between Dietrich the star and Gloria the maid is disturbed by the suggestion of a romantic relationship. They are contrasted in terms of images as well: that of the "ideal women" as opposed to that of a lost and confused, but hugely imaginative teenager looking for a role model.

The puppeteer is always in close, intimate contact with the puppet, and in one scene she integrates with it, so that the singing Marlene has the doll's upper body and Anna Skubik's legs. Ms. Skubik gives Dietrich a deep, slightly hoarse voice, while Gloria's voice is more shy and girlish. The dynamic of the dialogues, the rapid shifting of views and opinions, the transition from highly emotional acts to peace and tranquility, as well as Dietrich's diverse costumes and singing draws the audiences and gives it no choice but to fully immerse itself in the theatrical fiction.

"Folktales of Asia and Africa," created by Jane Catherine Shaw (Children's Puppet Theater)
October 23 & 24, October 30 & 31 and November 6 & 7, Ellen Stewart Theatre at The Annex
Saturdays and Sundays at Noon
Running time: 45 minutes

While she is making bread, the hostess discovers that she has guests. As they all wait for the dough to rise she tells them three stories using kitchen utensils to play the characters, in the style of found object puppetry.

Audiences love to see egg beaters hop into cloth napkins to become Japanese sisters dressed in kimonos, or watch as a flour sifter becomes an old man, with a cookie cutter for a pet rabbit. Among the many notable characters are wooden salt and pepper shakers as sisters in The Dragon with Five Heads from Zimbabwe, 4 steak knives that become the wise man in the Japanese tale The Lantern and The Fan, and an unusual doughnut maker becomes the moon goddess disguised as an old women in The Old Man and the Moon from Burma.

This one woman show was created, designed, and performed by Jane Catherine Shaw nearly twenty years ago and has been an audience favorite wherever she has performed it. Children and adults delight in the imaginative use of everyday objects to portray the characters in the three stories. Folktales of Asia and Africa brings puppetry to its essence, in which common objects of daily use assume fantastic character through the artistry of puppetry and the puppeteer.

"Nostalgia" by LOCO7 Dance Puppet Theatre Company
November 11 thru November 28, First Floor Theatre
Directed and Designed by Federico Restrepo
Music Composed by Elizabeth Swados
Running time: 60 minutes.

Federico Restrepo is Founder and Director of LOCO7, a dance/puppet theatre company that is creating a new work called "Nostalgia." The premise of "Nostalgia" is based on love and its expression between lovers, within families, through devotional practices, and in the arts of different cultures around the world. "Nostalgia" is a multi-disciplinary theatrical work that will present vivid images and stories of love through the use of spoken word, large marionettes, masks, body-puppets, dance, live music, unique lighting design, and video. Creative inspiration for the multi-segmented work will come from selected historical texts and mythical events, as well as visual metaphors about love. Historical texts that may inspire the work include the writings of Buddha, images of Venus, Cupid, Chalchiuhtlicue, and Oshun, and poems of Neruda, Shakespeare, and Rumi. "Nostalgia" will be composed of multiple short stories within an overarching sixty minute work that will reflect the full spectrum of feelings of love, from ultimate joy to depth of sorrow. "Nostalgia" is being written and developed by Federico Restrepo and Denise Greber. It will be designed, choreographed, and directed by Restrepo, with music composed by Elizabeth Swados.

The inspiration for structuring the work with multiple segments, each reflecting a different emotion and vision about love, will be based on Roland Barthe's book A Lover's Discourse: Fragments. Barthe's book about the unrequited lover's search for signs by which to show and receive love includes chapters such as "In the Loving Calm of Your Arms," "Jealousy," and "In Praise of Tears." These Fragments and others will serve as inspirations for Swados' original music and Restrepo's writing and direction. "Nostalgia" will be performed by seven puppeteers/dancers from Colombia, Japan, Italy and the United States and will be accompanied by two live musicians.

"Nostalgia" will represent the universality of the emotion of love which is felt by all peoples in all countries. It will be a multi-disciplinary work that will be performed by a cast of multi-cultural, multi-ethnic, and multi-generational performers to strengthen its theatrical impact.

Gallery Exhibit at La Galleria, 6 East First Street.
Puppets displayed from artists from Festival - October 21 – November 7, 2010

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