“Shadowing Tradition”: Innovations in Chinese Puppetry casts a new light on traditional Chinese shadow puppetry with a performance of “Tiger Tales” by Chinese Theatre Works and “So Close and Yet So Far” by Double Image Theater.

Reduced Rate: $10
Sustaining Rate: $20

TIGER TALES (Written by Kuang-Yu Fong, Stephen Kaplin and Ron Sopyla; Directed by Kuang-Yu Fong  and Stephen Kaplin) draws on China’s two-thousand-year history of shadow puppetry. Featuring an artful blend of Eastern and Western, ancient and contemporary techniques it is a show that excites audiences of all ages and has been widely acclaimed and performed worldwide – winning awards at the First International Shadow Play Festival in Tangshan, China and at Shanghai International Puppet Festival. Based on popular Chinese folktales and literature, the story deals humorously with issues of power and survival of the small and powerless in the modern jungle, in which the proverb, “working for the emperor is as dangerous as working for the tiger” still holds true.  Tiger Tales is performed with live narration in English accompanied by traditional Chinese music. 

Chinese Theatre Works has won the highest honor in U.S. puppetry, a Citation of Excellence from UNIMA-USA. The company has also been featured at festivals and conferences across the world. Co-Artistic Director Stephen Kaplin notably designed shadow puppets for Julie Taymor’s The Lion King. Executive and Co-Artistic Director Kuang-Yu Fong is a graduate of the Chinese Culture University in Taiwan majoring in Chinese Opera. Together as CTW’s founders, they have produced highly acclaimed original productions and toured and taught all over the US, Asia and Europe.

SO CLOSE & YET SO FAR (Concept by Spica Wobbe; Performed by Spica Wobbe/ Margot Fitzismmons; Designed by  Spica Wobbe; Music by  Yukio Tsuji) is a non-verbal poetic toy theater piece with shadows and light that draws a story about a girl who was searching for a star that looked so close and yet….so far.  By using the art form of Toy Theater and mixing with shadow, light and music, it expresses the feelings deep in our hearts. 

Double Image Theater Lab, founded by Spica Wobbe and Margot Fitzsimmons, creates cross-cultural productions spanning across many art forms, such as; poetry, multimedia, music, dance and puppetry.

Spica is a puppetry artist originally from Taiwan. She has worked and studied with master puppeteers Albrecht Roser,  Norbert Goetz (Germany), Damiet van Dalsum (Holland), Suratno S. Kar (Indonesia), Peter Schumann  and Ralph Lee (U.S.). Her work has been seen worldwide. Now based in NYC, she works as a puppetry artist and teaching artist and earned her M.A. in Educational Theater from New York University.

Margot is a puppetry artist whose work has been seen in Holland, Israel, Taiwan and Austria.  She studied with master puppeteers Ralph Lee, Landis Smith (U.S.), Diego Guzman (Spain) and Norbert Goetz (Germany) and works as a teaching artist for The New Victory Theatre, American Place Theatre, and Acting Manitou Theatre Camp. Margot has taught various subjects using active learning methods. Some of her favorite locations have been Virginia working with migrant workers and their families and Uganda where she worked with Invisible Children Teacher Exchange working with youth and teachers.