HERE Arts Center Reveals Additional Artists For Puppetopia 2025
Events will run from May 19 to June 1.
By: Chloe Rabinowitz Apr. 17, 2025
HERE's Dream Music Puppetry revealed that KT Shivak's Rhynoceron and Lake Simons' Variations On (the) Water will join the lineup for Puppetopia 2025, a two week puppetry state of mind with new work curated by HERE co-founder Barbara Busackino and Dream Music Artistic Director and star Alum Basil Twist. Rhynoceron and Variations On (the) Water will join the previously announced World Premiere of The Harlem Doll Palace, written by Alva Rogers (Artistic Director of Alva Puppet Theater; Topsy-Turvy at BAM), directed by Ash Winkfield (NYC, Toronto & US Tour of The Walk with Little Amal; Rite of Spring and Sister's Follies with Basil Twist).
From Harlem dolls to rhino legends, Puppetopia 2025 will bring powerful puppetry to life in the Mainstage and DOT at HERE Arts Center, May 19-June 1. Tickets (First 10 tickets for $10; $90 Puppet Pass; $35 General Admission) are available for advance purchase at A full slate of pre- and post-show activities will be announced in the coming weeks.
"These three original works, all created by women, collectively touch on themes of disappearance, peril, extinction, and survival, and are viewed through intimate and intergenerational perspectives," said Puppetopia curators Barbara Busackino and Basil Twist. "Effigies, Heroes, and Mythical creatures alike are brought to life elegantly through puppetry."
Rhynoceron
Created by KT Shivak
From Chicago to NYC-Shivak's life-sized rhino puppet transforms before your eyes in a tale of beauty, extinction, and obsession. The world premiere of a puppetry show that traces the true events surrounding the arrival of a one-horned rhinoceros to Renaissance Europe, sparking an obsession that continued for hundreds of years. Through acts of hunting and collecting, Shivak's life size rhino puppet transforms in front of our eyes from a natural inspiring wonder to an object of human greed. Shivak and Company hail from Chicago where this show was created with support from The Chicago International Puppetry Festival and High Concept Labs, this show mark's their New York Debut. Wed May 21, Thu May 22 & Fri May 23 at 8:30pm, Sat May 24 at 4pm & 8:30pm & Sun May 25 at 4pm; Runtime: 60 minutes
Variations On (the) Water
Created by Lake Simons
Join Lake Simons in a poetic solo puppet performance that invites the audience to imagine and co-create a story. Variations On (the) Water, a solo rendering of the larger work, Raft Project (My Shapes Are In Turmoil). A lyrical embodiment of the sea exploring its movement, vastness, poetry, and ability to saturate, flow, carry, drown, and nourish. Weaving puppetry, objects, dance, clown, and music. A full length wordless puppet theatre work by Lake Simons and John Dyer. Thu May 29 & Fri May 30 at 8:30pm, Sat May 31 at 4pm & 8:30pm & Sun June 1 at 4pm; Runtime: 45 minutes
HERE's Dream Music Puppetry Program, under the artistic direction of Basil Twist, with producing direction from HERE co-founder Barbara Busackino, is one of few programs in the country to grow and commission contemporary adult puppet works, particularly works that feature live music as a collaborative element. Dream Music seeks to secure the future of puppetry by providing increased development and performance opportunities to puppet artists, and by collaborating with artists from other disciplines to develop new puppetry techniques. In addition, Dream Music brings to New York the most excellent of international puppetry, reflecting on Twist's roots at the École Supérieure Nationale des Arts de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mezieres, France. Dream Music was inaugurated with the premiere of Basil Twist's OBIE-award winning Symphonie Fantastique in 1998 and the opening of the Dorothy B. Williams Theatre, an intimate space created specifically for intimate puppetry. HERE's Dream Music is also proud to house the Griff Williams Puppetry Collection. The 6 antique marionettes of Harry James, Griff Williams, Cab Calloway, Arturo Toscannini, Ted Lewis and Paul Whiteman were all performed with The Griff Williams Orchestra in the 1930s & 40s throughout America's big band era. They have a permanent home outside the Dorothy B. Williams Theatre at HERE.
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