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they/them

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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.  Celebrating metamorphosis and liminal creatures like me is some of my best comfort food.  I feel called to compost our truncated ends, (both roots and stems) into new narratives of departure and becoming.  I’m fascinated by how shadows illuminate our prejudices to begin our process of learning/unlearning.  As I've gradually found shadow theater to be a home for all of my creative hats, I'm now working on adapting and honoring this spiritual legacy of shadow work within my own performances and my contributions.  For me, calling on shadows is a magic of realizing the unbelievable, all while vibrating at a frequency that is universally specific, which is a magic that I feel is so fertile for growing better futures together.  While I enjoy presenting original work, 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, herbalists, cooks...

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Maisie Goodnight is a Lenapehoking (Philadelphia) transplant from Arkikosa (Dallas, TX) and a Chinese-American adoptee.  They have had the joy of casting their shadows in recent communities including the Philly Puppet Slams at Studio 34, the Open Kitchen Sculpture Garden, Nasty Brutish & Short, and Sandglass Theater, as well as developing shadows, puppets, and sets for local and international collaborations with fellow storytellers in film, dance, music, and theater.  Maisie has absorbed puppetry in moments of academia and reckless abandon like Bread & Puppet Theatre and the Chicago International Puppetry Festival Workshops, but to be honest they really just enjoy any opportunity to have lunch with new and old peers.  As a second generation arts educator they also work to encourage everyone's voices through puppetry and narrative arts workshops, summer camps, and festivals.  Rumor has it that they'll teach puppetry and toy making pop-ups in the wind and rain, and have recently taught in partnership with Spiral Q, Asian Arts Initiative, Fleisher Art Memorial, and Haverford College.  Their teaching practice focuses on disrupting our day to day with play and self expression, and calling us in to our intersections to feed our collective liberation.

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