Collaborations
The CONDITIONS by Lucy M. May
It's been my sincerest pleasure to join in the artistic development and performance of Lucy M. May 's The Conditions , an interdisciplinary work of movement and installation that culminated in the piece's premiere exhibitions, performances, and workshops in May and November 2024. In the role of artist/scenographer for this piece, it has been a 4-year-long and wonderful experience working alongside Lucy M May, Ja James Britton Johnson, Franny Chudnoff, Patrick Conan, Amy Macdonald, Jon Cleveland, Camille Huang, Hanako Hoshimi-Caines, and Pax.
"Weaving improvisation, the physicality of emotion, and felt-relationships to land, The Conditions unfurls from Lucy M. May’s uneasy search for a relationship with her homeland in Wolastokuk and the trouble of her settler origins. An exhibit of video, collage, sculpture, sound, and light made in collaboration with Fran Chudnoff, Jon Cleveland, Ja James Britton Johnson, and Maisie O’Brien, accompanies this long-form performance, featuring musicians Patrick Conan and Amy Macdonald, and costuming by Pax. In the intimacy of a contained space, the public is invited to listen, gaze, wander, and sink in—to engage with the substances of attention through our many somatic portals."
EVER SO LONELY / EYES / OCEAN, music video for Little Indian Girl Collective
A shadow puppet music video made in collaboration with animator Amy Lee Ketchum, for Gingger Shankar and Charlotte Qamaniq's acapella cover of Sheila Chandra's 1992 original song by the Monsoons (Sheila Chandra, Steve Coe, Martin Smith). "An ode to Mother Nature through the tale of the Inuit sea goddess, Sedna."
SPIRIT RIDER TOUR, in collaboration wtih Georgia Beatty
Georgia Beatty and I made a beautiful fiddle & shadow show and went on tour in Summer and Fall of 2023! Check out this page for all the details
THE FUTURE IS GENERATIONAL, in partnership with Camden FireWorks
A series of community shadow theater workshops and culminating in a short film created in partnership with Camden FireWorks and residents of the Camden Waterfront South neighborhood highlighting their history of environmental racism, resilience, and success.
MOTHER WATER film pilot, screenplay by Brittany Clemons
Coming soon!
A shadow short film pilot introducing a Reconstruction-era Southern Odyssey, in collaboration with writer and director Brittany Clemons
Learn more about her full project Dr. Buzzard & the Dixieland Terrors.
NATE the KNIFE is MOVING
We announced Nate the Knife's tattoo business move with shadow puppetry flair.
EARTH ACTS
An exploration with the Philly-based musician Michael McMillan replicating geological processes through shadow and sounds created with objects from nature or their man-made trash-counterparts. In July, I invited Michael to collaborate on an open ended sharing of our music and shadows. As we discovered that we were both interested in teasing apart the foraged and the everyday items that surround us (plastic bags, cans, driftwood, scrap paper), we began to synthesize the sounds and imagery of our world. The time and space that I needed to work on this purely personal project are largely in thanks to Grizzly Grizzly 's 319 Artist Residency, and an Illuminate the Arts Grant received from the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy and the Arts and Culture Task Force, and City Council.
TRAUMSEQUENZ / DREAM SEQUENCE
Shadow puppet design, fabrication, performance, and recording for the traumsequenz in Dion Schumann's film True Nature's Child.
SEEING IN / PAREIDOLIA
An invitation to collaborate, a mini imagination-activity shared with all collaborating artists, and for anyone visiting this page.
Music by Michael McMillan. I first learned this exercise in the Advanced Shadow Theater course at the University of Connecticut with shadow puppeteer Annie K. Rollins.