The event begins at 6:00 pm with tours of the gulf-front campus, including two open studios being used by artists-in-residence Puppeteer Hobey Ford and Visual Artist Bradley Castellanos. At 7:00 pm, visitors will be guided to the beach in front of retreat for a beach reading by playwright-in-residence Elizabeth Wong. A beautiful sunset by Mother Nature will top off the evening’s festivities. All is free and open to the public.
“What a perfect time of year to enjoy one of our open house and beach reading evenings,” remarked Bruce E. Rodgers, executive director of the Hermitage. “We have two very different artists working in our studios. Elizabeth Wong’s award-winning work has been performed in New York, Chicago and other cities across the country. This will be another memorable night at the Hermitage.”
Hobey Ford is known for excellence in puppetry performance and craft. He is the winner of puppetry's highest honor, the UNIMA Citation of Excellence, and recipient of three Jim Henson Foundation grants. Adapting folk tales from various cultures for many of his performances, he is considered both an innovator in puppetry craft and a master storyteller. He invented two styles of puppetry, the "Peepers” and the "Foamies,” while including puppetry styles from around the world in his work. In conjunction with The Kennedy Center's Partners in Education program, Ford provides teacher workshops in puppetry.
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Castellanos spoke to Ringling College students earlier this week about his unique work that combines photography and painting. His work is shown and collected throughout the world, including NYC, San Francisco, Miami, Denmark and Spain. He has been interviewed and featured in many magazines ranging from ARTnews to the Huffington Post.
Elizabeth Wong earned an MFA from the Tisch School at NYU along with fellow classmates Neil LaBute, Lamar Damon, Ilkka Jarvilaturi and Jennifer Maisel. Her Off-Broadway award-winning play Letters to a Student Revolutionary was the fist play in the country to respond to the Tiananmen Square massacre. Her play China Doll won the David Mark Cohen National Playwriting Award, the Petersen Emerging Playwright Award and the Jane Chambers Award. It was also featured in the first inaugural New American Play Reading Series - Arena Stage, Washington DC.
