Past Performances: Adult Puppet Shows

From toy theater musicals to puppet slams, MSA’s offering include local and international artists and a variety of puppets.

March 24, 2018 at 7:30pm

I Know a Man … Ashley Bryan

Ashley+with+Puppets

Full film screening with introduction by Filmmaker Richard Kane and artist Rich Entel

2016, 73 min. Filmed by Richard Kane and Robert Shetterly

This documentary explores the life of the 93-year-old creative wonder who skips and jumps in his heart like a child. Ashley served in a World War II all-Black battalion and experienced the racism of a separatist Army and the carnage of D-Day. As a result he has dedicated his life to creating beauty and joy, spreading love and awe through his art. A poet and illustrator of over 50 children’s books, he makes magical puppets and sea glass windows from found objects inspired by his African heritage. Ashley lives on the remote Cranberry Islands here in Maine and has been using art his entire life to celebrate joy, mediate the darkness of war and racism, explore the mysteries of faith, and create loving community. His life story and the art he makes from this wellspring of experience is an inspiration to people of all ages.

April 7, 2018 at 7:30pm

Tophat Productions: Jesus Christ Superstar

Me and the Theater

Tophat Productions’ miniature stage production of the powerful rock-opera, JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR makes a return to Mayo Street Arts.

The Passion of the Christ story, as seen from the eyes of Judas Iscariot. Controversial in its story-telling, with a compelling and powerful rock score, come see this intense rock-opera masterpiece as you have never seen it before!

David Worobec, classically trained opera singer, gives an amazing performance, singing and reciting lines for every character, as well as manipulating the puppets on a meticulously detailed tiny theater stage.

May 4-5, 2018 at 7pm, May 6 at 2pm

Milo the Magnificent

MiloTadaPhotoByAlexGriffin

Milo is an aspiring entertainer and magician. Using Vaudeville-era music and suitcases, Milo unpacks his latest achievements in science and magic which don’t always go as planned. All ages welcome!

Alex & Olmsted (Alex Vernon and Sarah Olmsted Thomas) have been making puppets together since 2010. Alex is a silhouettist and automata engineer and Sarah is a fifth-generation artist and clown. In recent years they have performed at the Kennedy Center, The Puppeteers of America Festival, The Shakespeare Theatre Company, The Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry in Connecticut, and Bread and Puppet in Vermont. Their puppet show “Milo The Magnificent” was accepted into the National Puppet Slam twice and was featured on the front page of the Hartford Courant. They are also proud company members of Happenstance Theater since 2012.

November 10 & 11, 2017 at 7:30pm

KING FRIDAY’S DUNGEON – A PUPPET SLAM!

A wild variety show/cabaret of short puppet acts! Join us for two nights jam packed with astounding, hilarious, edgy and amazing puppetry. Performers include Peaks Island Puppets, Fat Lion Productions, Kat Saunier, Reuben J. Little, Maggie Muth, Inventing Trees, Figures of Speech Theatre, and more.

The King Friday’s Dungeon Puppet Slam happens annually at Mayo Street Arts. The slam is part of the national Puppet Slam Network created by Heather Henson, and curated by local Maine puppeteers.

King Friday, post-monarch, deposed and living in squalor beneath an old vaudeville house hath requestedeth new puppet works and puppet works-in-progress for an impromptu, after-hours, puppet-roadhouse show. Pieces shall be edgy, bawdy, humorous, elegant, or bizarre. Object theater, canastoria, and ventriloquism are likely candidates too. Come romp through the netherrealms of puppet and object theater with King Friday.

Funding made possible in part by the HBH fund.

November 4, 2017 at 7:30pm

Little Shop of Horrors: Tophat Miniature Stage Productions

Seymour & Audrey 2 (LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS)

Horror comedy rock musical “Little Shop of Horrors” gets a miniature twist as David Worobec, a classically trained opera singer, puts on a one-man toy theater performance of this cult classic.

When a timid florist shop worker realizes his venus flytrap can only survive on human blood and flesh, chaos and hilarity ensues in this dark comedy. David Worobec gives an amazing performance, singing and reciting lines for every character, as well as manipulating the puppets on a meticulously detailed tiny theater stage.

September 2, 2017 at 5:30pm

Bread & Puppet Circus at Fort Allen Park

"Bread & Puppet Circus, July 19, 2015. Photos ©Mark Dannenhauer. 2015." — “Bread & Puppet Circus, July 19, 2015. Photos ©Mark Dannenhauer. 2015.”

Free Show – B&P will pass the hat

Bread & Puppet Theater is an internationally celebrated company that champions a visually rich, street-theater brand of performance art filled with music, dance and slapstick. Its shows are political and spectacular, with huge puppets made of paper maché and cardboard.
http://www.breadandpuppet.org/

Fort Allen Park: This grassy spot with water views features seating areas, a gazebo & many historical monuments. Bring a chair or a blanket, a picnic and the whole family!

Free Sourdough rye bread with garlic aioli will be served to the public and Bread and Puppet’s famous Cheap Art will be for sale after the show.

The Bread and Puppet Circus promotes nothing less than a full-scale insurrection against the ongoing catastrophe that is the current political and economic order. The necessary insurrection is enacted by a washer women’s demolition and composting force, elementary protectors pursuing their protection vocations, and decapitalization decapitations of capitalist monsters, frequently interrupted by unignorable sunrises.

April 26, 2017 at 7pm
Bread & Puppet: Faust 3

Faust 3 Main Image

“FAUST 3 is a show about immigrants, democracy, how to deal with authoritarian powers, the demise of middle-class security, and the possibilities of collective action.” -John Bell, Ballard Institute & Museum of Puppetry

As thematically and formally diverse as Goethe’s Faust 1 and 2, Bread and Puppet’s Faust 3 draws its public through a dreamlike succession of scenes depicting various salient aspects of proletarian experience in our time: from refugee migration, to the ubiquity of the gun; from the hunger that accompanies food product diversity, to the daily experience of factory workers, the rebellion of prisoners, and the adoration of the sun. “Faust 3” himself is played by a small hand-puppet, darting between the hopper and the spout of a giant grain mill. A phalanx of black folding chairs menaces the masses with its resolutions of pity. Lubberland choral dancers hop, wiggle, and whistle, and a purple brass band arrives to jitter levity into the feet of the population.

March 25, 2017 at 7pm

Puppet Cabaret – Peaks Island Puppets, Fat Lion, Janoah Bailin, Bridget McAlonan, Tophat Miniature Stage Productions

Fat Lion Wheel

Local puppeteers and the odd juggler perform skits and shorts, with acts by Peaks Island Puppets, Tophat Miniature Stage Productions, Fat Lion Productions, Janoah Bailin, and Bridget McAlonan.

These short acts include cutout paper wonders, spinning dreamscapes, a modern take on a classic Jewish folk tale, and joking while juggling. Get a taste of local talent and puppetry.

March 17 & 18, 2017 at 7pm

Puppet Cabaret with Shoestring Theater and a Thunder Show

As if you didn’t hear enough from a narcissistic guy; come laugh the winter blues away at Mayo Street Arts. The Shoestring Theater will be presenting their newest puppet production Peter Pan on Friday March 17th & Sat March 18th at 7pm at Mayo Street Arts, along with The Man Who Rode the Thunder – the True Story of a Pilot who Ejected into a Thundercloud and Lived to Tell the Tale – by Blainor McGough, Aleric Nez, Jimmy Doherty.

Don’t expect a sappy story of childhood adventures ,there’s a new world order and Neverland is part of it! Tigerlily ‘s grown into Tiger Mom and if our Governor has his way the Lost Boys will be heading back down the highway, bye-bye Shifty.

Brought to you by the same cast that took us to Wonderland with Alice, this hilarious children’s and adult puppet show ” is huge , really huge. really big trust me – because i said so.”

Shoestring Theater – Peter Pan
Directed by Nance Parker
Cast: Allison Villani, Zach Rohman, Dylan Rohman, Zara Machatine, Sacaira Machatine, Cat Labarre, Brianna Beebe, Nance Parker.

The Man Who Rode the Thunder – the True Story of a Pilot who Ejected into a Thundercloud and Lived to Tell the Tale
by Blainor McGough, Aleric Nez, Jimmy Doherty

Great for all ages!