DRAMA OF WORKS
TOURING SHOWS
These pieces were created with touring in mind. They have smaller casts and minimal sets/technical requirements. Email us for booking details!
And check out the kids' shows as well...
Appropriate for ages 10 and up
Premiered: May 2015 at the Waterfront Barge and Museum, Brooklyn
Photo by Richard Termine
Grand Guignol Theater for Children*
Devised by the company
Directed and designed by Gretchen Van Lente
Music by James Walton
Narration by John Ardolino
Costumes by Taylor Harrison
Performed by: Amy Carrigan, Kevin P. Hale, Gretchen Van Lente, and
Scott Weber
Drama of Works presents an educational evening of theater for children (*NOT really for children). In between beautiful, innovative, large-scale shadow puppet renditions of literature by Edgar Allan Poe they use a toy theater cemetery stage and inventive, comedic table top puppets to warn children of the dangers of misbehaving.
"I LOVED this show! I would have come again, if I'd been able. I have never seen so many puppetry techniques presented so skillfully by one troupe. The show was funny, bloody, and full of delights and surprises!"
- audience member
"If you have any idea about what New York theater is, you're wrong. It's this!"
- audience member
Blood Red Roses
Devised by the company
Directed by Gretchen Van Lente
Music direction by Amy Carrigan
Costumes by Emily Blumenaur
Publicity by Emily Owens
Puppeteered by: Joseph Garner, Emily Hartford, Gretchen Van Lente,
Scott Weber and Meghan Williams
This Henson-award winning piece tells the tale of six extraordinary female pirates from history. Why did these women choose this path? With shadows surrounding you, stylized acting and re-worked sea shanties, Blood Red Roses will teach you about these ladies and leave you wanting more...
"The show is a bit dark, a bit silly, and delightfully novel in its presentation... Blood Red Roses is a treat of a show and an inspiring use of puppetry in a truly unique space. Get there. " - nytheatre.com
Appropriate for ages 10 and up
Premiered: May 2015 at the Waterfront Barge and Museum, Brooklyn
Photo by JK Musser
Appropriate for ages 8 and up
Premiered: October 2007 at Abrons Arts Center
Photo by Nik Palmer
Sleepy Hollow
Original music composed by Vivian Fung
Directed by Gretchen Van Lente
Puppets designed by James Walton
Paul Han, tenor; Meredith Lustig, soprano; Sean Riley, violin;
Jonah Thomas, cello; Stephanie Wu, piano; Amy Carrigan, foley
Puppeteered by: too many over the years to list, please email for info...
(we have performed this with 3-7 puppeteers)
A Henson award-winning shadow puppet theater piece telling the classic Irving Tale. A giant quilted screen covers the entire stage and all forms of shadow puppetry are employed to create this unique piece of theater.
“Sleepy Hollow is elegant and effective, incorporating projected passages from Irving’s text and occasional snippets of dialogue. The line of the projected figures effectively evokes nineteenth- century America even as the variety of techniques employed by Van Lente and her puppeteers marks the production as decidedly contemporary..” –Performing Arts Journal
WARHOLtm
Devised by the company
Directed by Gretchen Van Lente
WARHOL puppet by David Michael Friend
Other puppets by Christine Licata and Gretchen Van Lente
Sound design: Jill DuBoff
Lighting design: Alison Brummer
Starring: Lindsay Abromaitis-Smith, Serra Hirsch,
Amy Carrigan and John Ardolino
(also performed by James Walton, Meghan Williams, Tatiana Pavela)
A piece based on the controversial, and much-misunderstood life and death of Andy Warhol. Surreally told with one puppet, found objects and actor clones, Andy unpacks his life, but only after he's secured the copyright.
“Andy was quoted as saying, ‘Why should I be original?’
Well, luckily the folks at Drama of Works don’t hold to the same belief…Everything from the pace to the props and setting are consistently imaginative and simple…it is what it is and doesn’t care what we think of it. As a piece of art, it does its job not pretending that we need it but rather acting as if it is something that the creators just wanted to give us. I’ll take it. Thanks.”
— nytheatre.com
Appropriate for ages 16 and up
Premiered: April 2005 at P.S. 122
Appropriate for ages 8 and up
Premiered, updated version: 2007 at HERE Arts Center
Original: 2004 at the NY Fringe Festival
Photo by B. Walker Sampson
curiouser & curiouser
by Gretchen Van Lente (text by Charles Dodgson and Alice Lidell)
Directed by Gretchen Van Lente
Original music composed by Jonathan Portera
Puppets by Gretchen Van Lente (with David Michael Friend)
Lighting design: Jeanette Yew
Set design: Gretchen Van Lente, Laura Phillips and Meghan Wiliams
Costume design: Vita Mechachonis
Starring: Amy Carrigan, Adam Sullivan, Ben Sulzbach, Meghan Williams
and Talaura Harms
(also performed by Molly Kohl, David Michael Friend, Peter Yagecic, Ryan Ganimian,
Julia Balestracci, Wendy Graham, Spencer Lafrenz, Deborah Beshaw, John Ardolino)
Text from Wonderland, the Looking Glass, Dodgson's diaries and Alice Liddel's diaries and letters are weaved together to create a magical world that wonders where reality ends and fiction begins.
“Drama of Works does an excellent job focusing on their subjects, whether those subjects be real people or characters or puppets, they find the core and bring it out. This show brought out some innocence in me. It'll do the same for a part of everyone." — nytheatre.com