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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 favorite 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 faculties, 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 shows, 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 O’Brien 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 Studio 34, The Open Kitchen Sculpture Garden, Nasty Brutish & Short, and Sandglass Theater, 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 absorbed puppetry in moments of academia and reckless abandon like Bread & Puppet Theatre, The O’Neill National Puppetry Conference, the Chicago International Puppetry Festival Workshops, and the National Puppetry Festival.  But at the heart of any curriculum is their love of grabbing a lunch with peers to share experiences.  As a second generation arts educator they also work to encourage everyone's voices through puppetry and narrative arts workshops, summer camps, and festivals.  They often teach puppetry and toy making in partnership with Spiral Q, Asian Arts Initiative, Fleisher Art Memorial, and Temple University.  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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