New American Puppetry: Possibility In Action An Afternoon with Master Puppeteer, Emily DeCola

The Friends of the Larchmont Public Library invite you to an afternoon filled with puppets, imagination and possibility. Sunday, November 16 at 4:00, award-winning puppet designer, performer, builder and director Emily DeCola, will bring puppets, show slides on how and where she has worked, and talk about how the use of puppetry has exploded into mainstream theater. The program will take place in the Larchmont Village Center, located directly behind the library. Refreshments will be available beginning at 3:30pm. Space is limited, so come early to get a good seat!

Emily DeCola is a freelance designer, performer and director working with puppetry and masks onstage and in TV and film. Her work is based at The Puppet Kitchen, where she works with Michael Schupbach and Eric Wright to design, to create and animate all kinds of characters. The Puppet Kitchen is a full-service puppet studio - located in a former commercial bakery - in New York City’s East Village. While DeCola is generally based in New York, her puppets have recently taken her to Beijing, China to perform and speak at the International Forum on Puppetry, to Ireland to premiere Lee Breuer’s Prelude to Death in Venice and to Reykjavik, Iceland to perform in the third season of Nickelodeon’s LazyTown. Her many other projects have taken her to nearly every corner of the globe.

DeCola’s theatrical credits include Hamlet (Public Theater - Shakespeare in the Park - May 2008), The Tempest (The Acting Company), Peter & Wendy and A Prelude to Death in Venice (Mabou Mines), Serendib (Ensemble Studio Theater), Hansel and Gretel (Houston Grand Opera, designed by Basil Twist) Pericles and Revengers Tragedy (Red Bull Theater) Carrie (PS 122, co-design with Basil Twist and Eric Wright) The Tempest, A Christmas Carol and 1001 Nights (McCarter Theater), Animal Farm (Synapse Productions, co-design), and HATS! The Musical (Harras Theater, Royal George Theater).

Emily DeCola’s puppets and performances can been seen onscreen in LazyTown (Nickelodeon), Johnny and the Sprites (Disney), Moonfishing (David Michael Friend), Huyghe + Le Corbusier (Pierre Huyghe) and Katalog (Cipher Productions).

She is a mentee of Master Marionnettist Albrecht Roser, and a member of his Meisterklasse, and has studied with Dan Hurlin and The SITI Company, among others. DeCola is a recipient of a Jim Henson Foundation Project Grant, the 2004 UNIMA Grant for International Study in Puppetry, a YES Foundation Fellowship, and a series of studio space grants from Chashama.