La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club Presents Mia M.I.A.

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club presents the World Premiere of Midnight Radio Show’s Mia M.I.A., a science fiction fairytale about grief, love, the role of imagination in healing, and the transformative power of embracing the shadows. The show premieres on February 5, 2026 at 7:30pm at La MaMa’s The Club, 74A East 4th Street, NYC. Tickets are $10 for La MaMa Members, $25 for Students/Seniors, and $30 General Admission, and can be purchased at https://ci.ovationtix.com/42/production/1259595. Additionally, the first 10 tickets of each performance are $10 (limit 2 per person).

When grief shatters the world you know, love becomes worth crossing dimensions to reclaim.

“Mia M.I.A. is a science fiction fairytale about grief, love, the role of imagination in healing, and the transformative power of embracing the shadows.”

Written and created by Charlotte Lily Gaspard, Mia M.I.A. is a genre-bending theatre puppet experience that fuses lo-fi space pop, live hip-hop, and hand-cut shadow puppetry into an emotionally charged journey through loss, love, and the impossible. Developed in residency at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club since 2021, the production has been shaped through three Jump Start programs, La MaMa’s renowned puppet works-in-progress series curated by Denise Greber.

After Mia vanishes without explanation, Ella is left to confront the brutal realities of grief and absence. Refusing to accept a world without her beloved, Ella launches into an enchanted, otherworldly dimension—one filled with space travel, unknown forces, and transformative encounters. What unfolds is a breathtaking odyssey where sorrow fractures into wonder, and healing emerges through courage, connection, and creation.

Told through live singing and original music, Mia M.I.A. pulses with energy and intimacy. Legendary griot and hip-hop artist Malik Work delivers electrifying live hip-hop numbers—written and performed for this Midnight Radio production—bringing ancestral storytelling traditions into bold conversation with futuristic soundscapes. The production’s innovative shadow puppetry, hand-cut silhouettes, and striking costume design conjure entire universes onstage, transforming the theatre into a living, breathing cosmos.

At once epic and deeply personal, Mia M.I.A. is a spellbinding exploration of love that refuses to disappear—and a reminder that sometimes, the only way forward is through the impossible.

"This project has been years in the making and is very dear to my heart. I began writing the story in 2021 during my residency in La MaMa's 59th season “Breaking it Open,’” said creator Charlotte Lily Gaspard. “It was during pandemic times, when I also had personal tragedies unfolding at a time when no one could safely gather in person and support networks were in flux. I was fascinated by the idea of identity in the face of disconnection, and how our understanding of ourselves is informed by being in relation to others, and what happens when that is ripped away. I also wanted to explore these difficult themes with whimsy and playfulness, which I consider to be underappreciated superpowers."

Building on the aesthetic of the fantastical, experimental theatre of Midnight Radio Show, Mia M.I.A. embraces the unique interplay between actor and silhouette, embracing shadow puppetry that performs both behind and in front of the shadow screen. The characters wander in and out of paper-cut, fantasy worlds, inviting the audience into an enchanted but simultaneously real, practical, and tangible space.

Midnight Radio Show is a multidisciplinary, sci-fi fairytale theatre collective based out of Brooklyn, NYC. The company creates collaborative works headed up by creative director and “bona fide fairy princess” Charlotte Lily Gaspard, joined by a diverse group of artists, musicians, actors and puppeteers.

Inspired by the creation of science fiction fairytales, afro-futurism, and the love of shadow puppets, Midnight Radio Show experiments with visual art, music, puppetry, and oral traditions of storytelling to create avant garde theatrical commentary on our modern world.

Production Credits

Written & created by Charlotte Lily Gaspard

Directed by Ash Winkfield & Charlotte Lily Gaspard

Music by Nebraska, Doc Frost, Malik Work, Rebecca KellyG

Puppet Design by Charlotte Lily Gaspard

Cast: Rina Dutta, Malik Work, Shabbi Sharifi, Gaby Febland, Zlata Godunova, Nat Marvan and Charlotte Lily Gaspard.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

“Part celestial creature, part sophisticated human” is how Charlotte Lily Gaspard has been described by Faerie Magazine when contemplating the ethereal artist and her work in one of their features. Shadow puppet artist, educator and entertainer, Charlotte’s mission is to activate imaginations and celebrate playfulness wherever she goes.

A “multi-faceted enchantress… the fanciful mastermind behind Midnight Radio Show” {Broadway World}, Charlotte is the founder and artistic director of Midnight Radio Show, a shadow puppet sci-fi fairytale theater company based in Brooklyn. Charlotte and her collective are known for devising innovative avant-garde enchantments, infused with puppets, poetry, music and dance, for the stage and beyond. Along with puppets, Charlotte also creates costumes for theatre & film projects. More here.

Ash Winkfield (xe/xem/xyr/they) is a multidisciplinary artist working primarily in theater and the puppetry arts. Winkfield specializes in new and devised work presented in New York City, and has toured domestically and internationally with Basil Twist (Rite of Spring, Book of Mountains and Seas), The Walk with Little Amal, Shake on the Lake (Mxbeth, Henry V), and Josh Rice Productions (Kayfabe). Most recently, Winkfield was a featured vocalist in Yaa Samar Dance Theater’s French tour of Gathering in 2025. Their directorial debut, The Harlem Doll Palace, is included as part of the Chicago International Puppetry Theater Festival. Ash is currently based in New York City. Visit ashleywinkfield.com or check out their Instagram @ashleyk.music.

Malik Work, the NYC based actor-teacher-playwright-poet is a founding member of the

groundbreaking jazz/hip hop conglomerate: The Real Live Show. Malik is accomplished in diverse facets of writing and performance. He has written and starred in a one man show entitled Verses At Work, for which he was nominated for Best Solo Performance at the AUDELCO Awards. He also wrote, starred in, and executive produced a film version of Verses @ Work that won the International Spotlight Award at the Los Angeles Brazilian Film Festival.He’s composed and performed poetry for Webby Award winning project People Not Property, an historic preservation and educational website for Historic Hudson Valley. He is a faculty

member and alumnus of the National Theater Institute, and a teaching artist for the Public Theater, Playwrights Horizons, and the Folger Shakespeare Library. Follow him: @malikwork on IG, and @malikworks on Twitter,www.malikwork.com, and www.versesatwork.net.

Deeply rooted in purpose, Jessie “DJ Nebraska” Davis is an artist, educator, and cultural ambassador dedicated to using art as a tool for community building and sustainable development. Davis shares her message via her genre bending original music, elevating vibrations on dancefloors, and inter-continental artistic exchange.

Rebecca KellyG (she/her) is a sonic architect, using the power of sound to challenge conditioned beliefs, encourage accountability, and nurture self-compassion for our collective liberation. Her signature event, Ceremony, combines vocal harmonies and rhythmic beats in a transformative blend of workshop and performance that has been held in spaces such as La MaMa Galleria, The Clemente, and Flux Factory. Her vocal soundscapes, available on streaming platforms, provide the soundtrack to personal growth and collective empowerment. In addition to her artistry, Rebecca is also a dedicated equity consultant, working with organizations such as HERE Arts Center, Ensemble Studio Theater, and The Whitney Museum of American Art. Connect with her atwww.rebeccakellyg.com or on Instagram as @rebeccakelly_g.

Doc Frost aka Leigh-Antony Rucker Floyd, better known as L.A. has had a varied career in the industry as a writer, actor, composer, and musician. Over the years L.A. has been a key figure in both pre and post production for the New York New Media Association, Third World Newsreel, BRIC arts, INIVA, and Penup! Writers Collective. L.A. has dedicated his life to creativity, growth, and discovery. L.A. believes "An exploration of art should be as limitless as the depths of your imagination". L.A. has a reputation for breaking barriers and working with the brightest talent from the vanguard to the darkest corners of the underground.

About La MaMa

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club is dedicated to the artist and all aspects of the theatre. La MaMa's 64th Season, LA MAMA NOW, focuses on creating solidarity and building community, exploring ways to build connections for cross-sector coalition and invite artists, activists, organizers and community members into the creative process.

La MaMa has been honored with 30+ Obie Awards, dozens of Drama Desk, Bessie Awards, Villager Awards, the 2018 Regional Theatre Tony Award, and most recently a 2023 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Special Citation. We are a creative home to artists and resident companies from around the world, many of whom have made lasting contributions to the arts, including Blue Man Group, Bette Midler, Ping Chong, Jackie Curtis, Robert De Niro, André De Shields, Adrienne Kennedy, Cole Escola, Bridget Everett, Harvey Fierstein, Diane Lane, Charles Ludlam, Tom Eyen, Spiderwoman Theater, Tadeusz Kantor, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Meredith Monk, David and Amy Sedaris, Stephanie Hsu, Julie Taymor, Kazuo Ohno, Tom O'Horgan, Andrei Serban, Liz Swados, and Andy Warhol. La MaMa's vision of nurturing new artists and new work from all nations, cultures, races and identities remains as strong today as it was when Ellen Stewart first opened the doors in 1961.

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Host or Publisher Lilli Stein