HOME is the story of an elderly woman, the ancient worlds she uncovered in her career as an archaeologist, the home and family she created, and the ways her life connects to the past, present and future of humanity.  It takes the form of an 80-minute hybrid theatre/puppetry/multimedia play for adults, that will have its first New York run at The Tank NYC (312 West 36th Street, New York, NY 10018) between May 30th-June 2nd, 2019.

Production team includes writers/directors/puppetry designers Tanya Khordoc & Barry Weil (Evolve Puppets), associate director/movement coordinator Lake Simons (Lincoln Center’s WAR HORSE), projection designer Jared Mezzocchi (Obie and Lucille Lortel winner, VIETGONE), set designer Tom Lee (SHANK’S MARE), lighting designer Jeanette Oi-Suk Yew (Drama Desk nominee, KPOP), costume designer SL Riffle (Lyric Opera of Chicago), and composer Joel Phillip Friedman (PERSONALS).

 

HOME centers on Alice, who has spent her long life learning about long-dead civilizations from the artifacts they’ve left behind. Late one night, two strange figures in old-fashioned clothing appear in her kitchen. They are, for lack of a better term, guardian angels: an older man (played by Barry) who has watched over Alice’s family for centuries, and is now teaching his younger companion what it means to be human – as well as helping Alice, at the end of her life, to understand her place in the universe. They take her on a journey through time and space, where she sees visions of plastery Pompeiians in their last moments alive, and dinosaurs turning to fossils. But she also gets to remember her sweet, strange courtship with her unconventional husband, their life with their beloved daughter Julia (puppeteered by Tanya), and how Alice used her love of worlds past to show Julia how no one ever really dies -- we just go back to the dust that surrounds everyone and everything.

 

We all put our memories into objects – a deceased loved one’s garment, a beloved childhood stuffed toy, even a house itself. Thus Alice, the angels, and an ensemble of family ancestors (our company of puppeteers) will tell Alice’s story using the contents of her home. The house is in constant motion — photos on the walls become animate; porcelain dolls and plush toys are manipulated by the ensemble; projected “dust” forms moving images, singing in the voices of ancestors; furniture travels around the space, opening, turning and flipping over to reveal dynamic museum-style dioramas. Alice’s home is a living thing, brought to life by multiple styles of puppetry, projections, scenic elements, lighting, music, voice and choreography.  

 

 

 

In 2011, when Home was in its earliest stages, we were awarded a project grant from The Jim Henson Foundation, and mounted a small developmental presentation as part of Jane Henson’s Puppetry at the Carriage House program.  Jane Henson (Jim’s wife and collaborator) was in attendance herself, and was able to give us some amazing feedback on how to re-conceive the piece and move it forward.  Later that year, after a number of rewrites, we tried a second one-night presentation at NYC’s Dixon Place, which taught us a great deal more.

 

We’ve done many other projects over the last few years, but we’ve also always been working on HOME – rewriting the script, doing readings with our company and collecting our incredible group of collaborators, who all feel strongly about this piece and the story it tells.

 

During a writing intensive with puppeteer/playwright Ronnie Burkett (part of the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center’s 2016 National Puppetry Conference), we were able to discover ways to develop a final version of the script that dramatically increased the visual content of the piece, and also streamlined the narrative. The show has finally evolved, beautifully, into the story we always wanted to tell.

 

We are now workshopping puppet sequences with our ensemble of puppeteers, and casting the last few crucial roles. We have never been more prepared to take this journey HOME – but we can’t do it without your help.

 

 

 

EVOLVE PUPPETS (TANYA KHORDOC & BARRY WEIL) (Playwrights/Directors/Puppetry Design) have been fixtures in NYC’s indie theater scene for more than 20 years. Evolve created the world premiere production of former Czech President Vàclav Havel’s play MOTORMORPHOSIS for UTC61’s Havel Festival at the Ohio Theater in 2006, and were visited backstage by President Havel himself. They created puppets and models for UTC61’s adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s CAT’S CRADLE, and served as puppetry designers and associate producers for Theater East’s production of DEVIL AND THE DEEP, a musical co-written by Graham Russell of Air Supply. Evolve has also performed many original works (written, designed and directed by Tanya & Barry) at venues that include HERE, La MaMa, St. Ann’s Warehouse, The Brick, and The Puppeteers of America National Festival. Tanya is the voice and puppeteer of “Phoenix” on the children’s web series ROSIE’S PLACE, and is the creator of the upcoming children’s series MEOW MEOW & FRIENDS.  Barry has created puppetry and masks for many theatre companies in NYC and elsewhere, including Third Rail Projects, UTC61, Foolish Theatre Company, Mantis Dance Company and Sacred Fools in L.A. evolvepuppets.com

 

TOM LEE (Set Design) began his career at La MaMa Experimental Theater in New York with the encouragement of Ellen Stewart and, later, the St. Ann’s Warehouse Puppet Lab. His original puppet theater work includes SHANK’S MARE (La MaMa, Japan Tour), HOPLITE DIARY (St. Ann’s, La MaMa), PUNCH OF THE DEAD (St. Ann’s Puppet Lab), ODYSSEUS & AJAX (La MaMa) and KO’OLAU (La MaMa/Hawai’i tour). Tom has directed & designed puppetry for GIANTS ARE SMALL with the New York Philharmonic, the Prototype Festival production of THE SCARLET IBIS, and for the National Asian American Theatre Company, among others. tomleeprojects.com

 

JARED MEZZOCCHI (Projection Design) received his MFA in Performance and Interactive Media Arts at Brooklyn College. He is currently on faculty at University of Maryland, College Park, where he leads the projection design track in the MFA Design program. In 2012, he received the prestigious Princess Grace Award, the first projection designer to be honored with this national theater award. In 2017, he received the first Lucille Lortel Award for the category of Outstanding Projection design (VIETGONE, written by Qui Nguyen and directed by May Adrales, at Manhattan Theater Club). Alongside the Lucille Lortel, Jared was also a recipient of a 2017 Obie Award, and 2017 nominee for an Outer Critics Circle Award and a Drama Desk Award. jaredmezzocchi.com

  

LAKE SIMONS (Associate Director/Movement Consultant) is a director, designer, choreographer, puppeteer, builder, painter, and performer. Lake was one of four Americans invited to collaborate with Koryu Nishikawa V of the Kuruma-Ningyo Puppet Theatre in Japan. She has appeared in productions by Christopher Williams, Dan Hurlin, Matt Acheson, Chris Green, Mabou Mines, Patti Bradshaw, and internationally renowned puppeteer Basil Twist’s 20th anniversary run of SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE in NYC. She served as a puppetry associate for the Lincoln Center Broadway production of WAR HORSE, and assistant movement and puppetry director for the national tour.  Lake teaches set design and puppetry at Sarah Lawrence College. lakesimons.com

 

JEANETTE OI-SUK YEW (Lighting Design) designs for theater, dance, opera, musical and music performances and installation. The New York Times described her work as “clever” and “inventive.” Recent: Drama Desk & Lucille Lortel nominee for Woodshed Collective & Jason Kim’s KPOP at Ars Nova, Brooklyn Youth Chorus’ SILENT VOICES at BAM Howard Gilman Opera House, Kamala Sankaram’s THUMBPRINT with LA Opera, Tan Dun’s WATER PASSION with MET Museum,  Aya Ogawa’s LUDIC PROXY (Bel Geddes Design Enhancement award), Torry Bend’s THE PAPER HAT GAME (Drama Desk nomination), Matthew Paul Olmos’ SO GO THE GHOSTS OF MEXICO PART ONE (Best Lighting Design nomination) and Erik Ehn’s commemorative cycle SOULOGRAPHIE: OUR GENOCIDES. Recipient of the NEA/TCG Career Development Program. jeanetteyew.com

 

JOEL PHILLIP FRIEDMAN (Composer). Joel’s music has been heard in venues from Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, Bargemusic, National Sawdust, Joe’s Pub and the 92nd St. Y, to theaters Off-Broadway and the London West End (PERSONALS, which he co-authored), to film festivals (scoring the film RED ICE, featured at SF IndieFest and the Chicago Horror film festivals). Joel has received awards and fellowships from ASCAP, Montalvo Arts Center, the MacDowell Colony, the Society of Composers, the New Music Orchestral Project, John Duffy Composers Institute, and nominations from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Outer Critics Circle and Drama Desk Awards. joelfriedman.com

 

SL RIFFLE (Costume Design) is a newly Chicago-based theatrical lighting and costume designer with over ten years’ experience in the industry. Her work spans opera, theater, dance and industrials from the classics to new works. For the past 5 years she held the position of Lighting Supervisor at Tribeca Performing Arts Center in Manhattan, and now has the honor of adding a full time ALD position with Lyric Opera of Chicago to her credits. She’s had the privilege of working with such companies as BalletMet Columbus, Chautauqua Opera, North Carolina Dance Theater, Studio Theater D.C., Indiana Repertory Theater, Des Moines Metro Opera and New York City Opera.  slriffledesign.com

 

 

Your donation will support:

ARTIST FEES – We want to do right by our performers, designers, stage manager, composer and production team and make sure they’re compensated for their work.

SET, COSTUMES, PUPPETS & PROPS - Materials and labor for building all the physical elements of the show.

MUSIC RECORDING – To pay for musicians and studio time so Joel’s work can be heard at its best.

MARKETING AND PUBLICITY - To make sure people can see the work you’ve helped us to create.

 

 

 

 

"Charming and fun to watch....The artists take the audience on journeys that are insightful and invigorating as well as enjoyable.  The Most Radiant Beauty is billed as 'an Einsteinian collage in found text.'  Khordoc and Weil have created a toy theater adventure that takes audiences through the words and thoughts of Albert Einstein and other brilliant people (Galileo, Copernicus, Oppenheimer, Newton, and Curie, to name just five).  Stories from the Bible (of creation, Cain and Abel) are interspersed with quotations from these various scientists, who ponder the nature of what's knowable and the awesome responsibilities of dabbling with elements of nature (radium, the atom) that could well destroy the world as we know it...[It's] a stream-of-consciousness stroll through Big Ideas, with puppets, lightboxes, lightbulbs, shadow figures, and more as our guides.  Khordoc and Weil translate their own sense of wonder beautifully, and help us see and hear familiar concepts anew as a result."

-- Martin Denton, nytheater.com

 

 

“Kudos…to Tanya Khordoc and Barry Weil for their brilliant puppet creations.”

-- Sam Affoumado, Theaterlife.com

 

“...there are many moments which are marvelous in their ingenuity. A shining example is the character Cap’n Flint (Skyler Volpe), a talking parrot brought to life through the use of a puppet. With a gorgeous and life-like puppet at her disposal -- designed by puppet masters Tanya Khordoc & Barry Weil, Volpe jaunts across the stage humorously, and is the catalyst for many moments of joy and laughter in the production."

-- Ryan Mikita, Theaterscene.net

 

 

         “Motormorphosis, directed, designed and performed by Tanya Khordoc & Barry Weil, is a funny puppet piece that brings to mind Ionesco’s Rhinoceros...the two puppeteers interpreting all the roles provide the show with style, unity and graceful speed.” 

-- Saviana Stanescu, nytheatre.com

 

 

“…because the show takes place in many different settings, [director Edward] Einhorn was wise to hire Tanya Khordoc and Barry Weil of the Evolve Company. They solved the multiple set problem by building scale models, and then employing a videographer to zero in on each, and project the immensely larger image on the back wall. To quote [Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s character] Bokonon, 'Nice, nice; very nice.'”

-- Theatermania.com

 

“…the scientist’s son Franklin (the solid Barry Weil, who doubles as a puppeteer)…aims a video camera at small-scale models of the story’s settings, images of which appear simultaneously at the back of the stage.”

-- Andy Webster, The New York Times

 

"One of the more creative aspects of the show is how it sets up the various locations. There is a tall rack of shelves sitting upstage on which there are scale models of the locales. A camera on a stick is moved around the models while the picture is projected on a...screen behind the action. These models, designed by Tanya Khordoc and Barry Weil, are very detailed and quite beautiful."

-- Richard Hinojosa, nytheatre.com

 

 

Everyone who donates will have our utmost gratitude, and you'll know that you've helped bring a very heartfelt work of theatre to life. But that’s not all!  In honor of Alice the archaeologist, we’re offering you a series of rewards, each named after a different geological period. Take a look at the right side of the page!

 “HOME, by Tanya Khordoc and Barry Weil” is a sponsored project of Fractured Atlas, a nonprofit arts service organization. Contributions for the charitable purposes of Evolve Puppets will be made payable to Fractured Atlas and are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.