La MaMa to Debut Theodora Skipitares' FOOTNOTES with Music by Sxip Shirey

La MaMa will present the world premiere of Skysaver Production's FOOTNOTES, created, designed, and directed by Theodora Skipitares, with music and lyrics by Sxip Shirey, running February 27 - March 15, 2026 in a limited engagement at La MaMa's Ellen Stewart Theatre, located at 66 East 4th Street in New York City. Previews begin February 27 for a March 1 opening.

FOOTNOTES is an immersive multi-media puppetry performance created, designed and directed by Theodora Skipitares. The show takes place in four distinct locations in the Ellen Stewart Theatre and explores the theme of walking... its history, its science, its political power, its poetic and spiritual dimensions. The audience itself travels to several spaces within the theater, each member guided by a small booklet of instructions and stories. As they embark on their journey, the audience encounters a labyrinth, and several "famous" walkers throughout history: Aristotle who taught his lessons while walking, three medieval female pilgrims who walked thousands of miles, Henry Thoreau, Virginia Woolf and Mahatma Gandhi. In one scene, three bipedal animals boast about their superiority over humans. The production features dozens of puppet figures, video, animated film, and live music composed and performed by Sxip Shirey.

Theodora Skipitares says, "I believe that puppets are innocent beings, capable of telling the truth in a powerful way. That's why I have always created puppets to tell important stories about American history, genetics, medicine, incarceration, food and famine, and racism. As I was researching for FOOTNOTES, I was thrilled by Rebecca Solnits' book on the history of walking, WANDERLUST. She writes, 'Walking came from Africa, from evolution and from necessity, and it went everywhere, usually looking for something. The pilgrimage is one of the basic modes of walking, walking in search of something intangible.'

Performers and musicians include Sxip Shirey (composer/lyricist), Anthime Miller (singer/cello), Saudia Young (singer/narrator), and Tommie Moore (narrator).

Puppeteers include Jane Catherine Shaw (lead puppeteer), Victoria Forbes, Eva Lansberry, Nat Marvan, Sasa Yung and Kimori Zinnerman.

The production team includes Sxip Shirey (Composer and Lyricist), Theodora Skipitares with Jan Leslie Harding and Jane Catherine Shaw (Puppetry Design), Theodora Skipitares and Donald Eastman (Set Design), Federico Restrepo (Light Design), Andrea Balis and Sue Heinemann (Dramaturgy), Kay Hines (Video Design), Shraddha Tiwari (Digital Animation), Bill Soules (Assistant Set Design), Jan Leslie Harding, Jane Catherine Shaw and Victoria Forbes (Fabricators), and Karen Oughtred (Production Stage Manager).

Performances are Thursdays - Saturdays at 7pm and Sundays at 2pm. There will be a livestreamed performance on Thursday, March 5 at 7pm. Run time is approximately one hour. Tickets are $35 (adults), and $30 for students and seniors (includes fees). First ten tickets to every performance are $10, limit 2 per person. All ages welcome. While this is a fully-seated production, the audience will move to different locations throughout the theater between scenes. For more info and to purchase tickets visit https://www.lamama.org/footnotes.

Theodora Skipitares (Creator/Designer/Director) is an interdisciplinary artist and theater director who has been creating work for more than four decades, presenting it in the U.S., Europe, Asia and South America. She has created 30 performance works featuring as many as 300 puppet figures. These works are boundary-breaking experiments with puppetry, scale, video and documentary texts. Skipitares infuses her often dark subjects with a trenchant, at times playful, humor. In New York, her visual work has been exhibited at the Whitney Museum, the Museum of the City of New York and 15 Orient Gallery. Her awards include Guggenheim and Fulbright Fellowships, as well as the Henry Hewes Design Award. She is Professor of Art and Design Education at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. She is the Artistic Director of Skysaver Productions, an interdisciplinary theater company. http://theodoraskipitares.com

Sxip Shirey (Composer/Lyricist) is an international composer, producer, sound artist and sonic pioneer. His compositions, performances and curated evenings "Sxip's Hour of Charm" established him as a fixture in New York's underground art scene and internationally. He makes music, sound design and Foley for theater, dance and film. Shirey presented at TED, is a United States Artist Fellow, and has been artist curator and artist in residence at National Sawdust, Brooklyn. He was the composer and music director for the circus arts production LIMBO, produced by Melbourne based Strut N Fret Productions House and London based Underbelly and South Bank Center. Shirey teaches workshops in "Text and Object Oriented Composition" at the Norwegian Theater Academy in Fredrickstad. He is currently creating "The Gauntlet," with Coco Karol at the NYU Abu Dhabi Arts Center.

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.