Shadow Wagon Puppetry: 'The Line'

: Since 2020, a local team of puppeteers, makers, and musicians has been creating narrative shows and performing them out of a 4 x 8-foot mobile “wagon.” In addition to ad-hoc pop up shows, they have performed in the and Bonnaroo Music Festival, and were honored to create an original show for a wedding commission.

They draw inspiration from shadow puppetry artists (Manual Cinema, Nightshade), “crankie,” and cut paper gurus (Katherine Fahey, Kara Walker), public artists in light and projection (Krystof Wodizcko), and immersive, site-specific performance making (Odyssey Works, Kaimera, Bread & Puppet).

Begun during the pandemic as a vehicle to safely share socially distanced art with neighbors, the group continues to create shows in observance of performance-making as gift-giving. They balance a playfully low profile, semi-anonymous authorship while lovingly sharing puppetry with a public audience.

“The Line” is a shadow puppet show about an endless line of people waiting to pass through a door. No one knows what lies beyond it. We see the world through Lisa, a little girl who encounters the line by accident while out looking for a chocolate bar. A clever and mischievous bird acts as her guide, while Gary - a sly opportunist - manipulates the crowd's curiosity for his own gain… What really lies beyond the door?

Puppeteers: Sarah Bastacky, Melody Chang, Josh Pitts, Chelsea Kamm

Musicians: Charlie Murley, Steve Gilliland

Host or Publisher Marigny Opera House