The Spider Queen wins Best Costumes in this year's Big Easy Awards! This fantastical show featured 17 of my masks, amazing garments by costume designer Hope Bennett, and five puppet characters designed by Kenneth Thompson working in unison to bring a new world to life! The NOLA Project earned two other accolades on The Spider Queen—Best Original Work of Theatre … Continue reading Big Easy Awards
For two Saturdays in March, I traveled to the Lelooska Foundation in Ariel, WA, to learn more about the art of mask carving in the Pacific NW. The Lelooska Foundation is home to one of the chieftainships of the Kwakwaka'wakw tribe. Many tribes in the NW have amazing mask traditions as a part of their … Continue reading NW Coast Masks and the Lelooska Foundation
I've often found that people aren't quite sure what I mean when I say I'm a mask maker. Chris Hatcher of Field Guide Films gives a terrific peek behind the curtains in this video. The Mask Maker from Chris Hatcher on Vimeo. The masks I'm making here are for the production of The Spider Queen by … Continue reading The Mask Maker
Centro Maschere e Strutture Gestuali Earlier this summer, I posted about my study with the Sartori in Abano Terme, a small city of 19,000 near the larger city of Padova. Here are a few photos of the rest of that work! From our initial designs on paper, we sculpted our masks in clay. Then … Continue reading An Italian Summer(y)
Behind the Scenes: The King Stag This show was produced at Lewis and Clark College in Portland, OR, and designed by Professor Michael Olich. I worked as the movement consultant for the actors and as an assistant designer/ builder of various mask and puppet items. Seven months before the show would open, we met to share broad concepts, … Continue reading Hunting for solutions
Owl Over the Moon Opera-matic, a collaborative arts group in Chicago, contacted me this last spring to make a mask for The Moon on the Lagoon, The community performance featured lullabies and the faces people find in the moon. What a cool idea! Part of designing the mask is figuring how it will align with and/or … Continue reading Birds and Bugs
It's taken a few months to organize and upload the photos from my trip to India, but I'm happy to report they are are ready! And good golly, there's a lot of them. So a few options exist. If you want the entire adventure, including all the work on Maya the musical and my subsequent … Continue reading Pictures from India
The Epic Project Inspired by the study of mythology by Joseph Campbell (a favorite of mine too!), as well as theatre creators Ariane Mnouchkine, Jacques Lecoq, Peter Brook, and Complicite, Professor Stephanie Roberts is leading an exciting collaboration between UMKC Theatre and the UMKC Conservatory IMP Ensemble. The working title is The Epic Project. It is a three … Continue reading So. Epic.
Hoping for a Remount in Fall 2015! Over the course of the last three years, I've had the great pleasure to work with Many Hats Collaboration's Jessica Wallenfels and Eric Nordin (and a slew of other talented artists) on the development of an original work of dance theater, The Snowstorm. It's been a great journey, and I … Continue reading Devising mask theater
You may have seen this video circling around: Among its charms are the masks four of the dancers wear. One thing that caught my eye was the texture of the face. It reminded me of Buckminster Fuller, actually, and geodesic domes. Granted, I know only a little little bit about geodesics, but the visual similarity is … Continue reading Triangle Technology