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she/they

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My shadow play simmers together everything from cut paper to traditional printmaking, overhead projector, crankie theater, stop motion animation, and cello.  I’m fascinated by how we may look indirectly at an object—through a lens, through a shadow—and know it in a greater truth of itself.  Above all I celebrate metamorphosis and liminal creatures like me.  I like looking through X-ray goggles at the forces of grief, departure and becoming, and I delight in poking at our perceptions of control and otherness.  As I've gradually found shadow theater to be a 'home' for all of my creative faculties, I'm now working on adapting and honoring this spiritual legacy of binding and moving us forward through storytelling within my own performances and contributions.  For me, calling on shadows is a magic of realizing the impossible and of vibrating at a frequency that is universally understandable, which is a magic that I feel is so fertile for growing mutual respect and communication across communities.  While I seek to present original plays and films, I also encourage that my shadows assist others in sharing their own experiences.  For the foreseeable future you can find me collaborating with musicians, dancers, singers, cooks, scientists, you name it.

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Bio

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Maisie O’Brien is a Philadelphia transplant from Dallas, TX and a Chinese-American adoptee.  She has had the pleasure of presenting her shadow play with communities including the National Capital Puppetry Guild, Nasty Brutish & Short, Black Cherry Puppet Theater, The Baltimore Crankie Festival, Asian Arts Initiative, and Studio 34, as well as developing shadows, puppets, sets, and costumes for local and international collaborations with fellow storytellers in film, dance, music, and theater.  Maisie has studied puppetry in moments of academia and reckless abandon like Bread & Puppet Theater, The University of Connecticut, The O’Neill National Puppetry Conference, the Chicago International Puppetry Festival Workshops, and the National Puppetry Festival.  As a second generation arts educator they also work to encourage the people's voices with puppetry and narrative arts workshops, summer camps, and festivals.  This year they look forward to bringing their workshops and performances to more local communities, and helping seed collective liberation in connecting us to more of each other's experiences.

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