The Devised Puppetry Project
a devised project
The Devised Puppetry Project explores the power of puppetry to create an emotional connection between an audience and a variety of inanimate objects. Ranging from adorable to devastating, The Devised Puppetry Project takes the audience on a journey that will make them wonder "how did we end up here?" Be prepared to get swept away by a show made (almost) entirely out of newspaper and packing tape!
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Puppeteers: Katie Emory, Gareth Marsh, Marco Rivera,
Jodi Wofford, Emory Royston, and Ian Runge.
Stage Manager: Scottie Nevil
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Producer: Nada Jawad
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Originally presented at UCLA Theatrefest in 2015
- an undergraduate festival of new work - The Devised Puppetry Project was later invited to join the Pacific Resident Theatre's 2016 Season.
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The Following year, the newly formed company: The Devised Puppet Players, was invited to join artists from across the nation for the National Puppet Festival at Skirball Cultural Center in Los Angeles.
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In 2018, the company joined Brian Henson for an NBC special that celebrated the Los Angeles Puppetry Scene, and recorded a portion of the show - The Little Man Sequence - at the Jim Henson Studios in Hollywood.
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In 2019, the Devised Puppet Players joined the Los Angeles Guild of Puppetry where they continue to devise and perform new work - with a particular interest for shadow work and a continued curiosity for only using found objects and lots (lots!) of tape.
Above are images from the 2015 Theatrefest Performance.
Below are images from the 2016 show at Pacific Resident Theatre (PRT). They feature more complex structures out of newspaper and found objects, and a turn to shadow puppetry
that investigates Grotowski's concept of "negative space"
Below are images from two sequences - The Conductor (hand puppets) and The Little Man (Bunraku) -
presented at the National Puppet Festival at Skirball Cultural Center.
These two pieces were also chosen by NBC in highlighting the Los Angeles Puppetry Scene.
The Devised Puppet Players joined the Los Angeles Guild of Puppetry in 2019 and have continued to develop work building on their shared interest for found objects and the emotional connections we establish with them.
The company believes in puppetry as the medium to investigate our most primal instincts for community, pursuits for familiarity, and understandings for what generates fear. They believe in discovery through the act of play and seek to reshape the way we look at the ordinary, from our trash to our shadows.
