Tag Archives: Here Arts Center

“Pre-cinematic technology takes over the Dorothy B. Williams Theater at HERE for a week of contemporary Cantastoria, cooked up by puppeteers, artists & craftspeople from across the country.  A millennium-old art form is rejuvenated and re-imaged, as performers animate paintings and banners with puppets, sung texts, jokes, songs & stories.

Each unique program features several original shorts on a given theme, and the festival kicks off with a FREE opening celebration, presented by Great Small Works at Pier 1 in Brooklyn Bridge Park.”                                                                     — from a flyer for the show


The festival begins Sunday June 19th with the free show from 4 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at Pier 1 in DUMBO, Brooklyn and featuring: The Dolly Wagglers, Great Small Works, Theater Oobleck, Chinese Theater Works, Possibilitarian Puppet & Mask Theater and Greatest Smallest Band.

The festival continues at HERE, from Wednesday the 22nd through Sunday the 26th with one or more programs per day. Programs cost $20, or two for $30.

For more information, head over to the Banners & Cranks blog.


A set of four hand-printed linocut posters for the event designed by Clare Dolan and Dave Buchen (shown here) are also available for a contribution of $40.  Donations/contributions may be made on the Banners & Cranks blog.

Quick Hit: Gretchen van Lente and puppets!

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Illustration Alum Gretchen van Lente showed up in the NYTimes last month with a write-up about her work with puppets, Kafka, and the Here Arts Center. Here’s a a snippet:

Most of the fun here is in the puppet creations. The bug is a delightful critter concocted from baskets and other odds and ends. A life-size inquisitor (manipulated at times by two puppeteers) has enough body language that you hardly notice his lack of a head. Flexible-necked lamps also come alive, to startling effect.

The puppeteers are fully visible, and the director, Gretchen Van Lente, has a fine time playing with perspective. The humans look like giants. It’s disorienting, and maybe that’s the point.

Read the rest of the write-up here.

Cool work, Gretchen!