Emily Batsford And Concrete Temple Theatre To Present World Premiere Of CUMULO AT MITU580

Emily Batsford and Concrete Temple Theatre will present the World Premiere of CUMULO, a nonverbal puppetry piece by Emily Batsford presented at MITU580 (580 Sackett St Unit A - Ground Fl, Brooklyn, NY 11217), April 15-May 3.

Whimsical and violent, CUMULO is a puppet allegory that examines how we reclaim autonomy when life sends us into freefall. Protagonist Plum plummets through a skyscape of sentient cotton candy clouds and creatures in an immersive journey of embodied self-transformation, supported by a cotton candy set embedded with fans, and a large-scale mobile of floating cloud islands.

Puppeteers will include Emily Batsford (Book of Mountains and Seas with Basil Twist; Song of the North at New Victory), Justin Otaki Perkins (Madama Butterfly at Metropolitan Opera; Becoming Eve at NYTW), Takemi Kitamura (Falling Out at BAM), Camille Cooper (2026 Van Lier Fellow), and Gaby FeBland (The Undercity at Culture Lab LIC).

The design team will feature Puppet Design & Fabrication by Yuliya Tsukerman, Original Music & Sound Design by David Leon, Lighting Design by Allison Costa, and Cloud Machine Design & Fabrication by Joseph Silovsky with Stage Manager Pat Maliwat and Technical Director Ashley Winkfield.

Performances will take place on:

Wednesday, April 15 at 7pm (Preview)

Thursday, April 16 at 7pm (Press Preview)

Friday, April 17 at 8pm (Opening Night)

Saturday, April 18 at 8pm

Sunday, April 19 at 2pm

Sunday, April 19 at 5pm

Wednesday, April 22 at 7pm

Thursday, April 23 at 7pm

Friday, April 24 at 8pm

Saturday, April 25 at 5pm

Saturday, April 25 at 8pm

Sunday, April 26 at 2pm

Sunday, April 26 at 5pm

Monday, April 27 at 7pm (Industry Night)

Wednesday, April 29 at 7pm

Thursday, April 30 at 7pm

Friday, May 1 at 8pm

Saturday, May 2 at 5pm

Saturday, May 2 at 8pm

Sunday, May 3 at 12pm

Sunday, May 3 at 4pm

Tickets ($30) are available for advance purchase at www.cumuloshow.com. The performance will run approximately 50 minutes and is suitable for all ages.

CUMULO was made, in part, with support from Mitu's Artists-At-Home program. CUMULO is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, with the generous support of The Jim Henson Foundation. This project has been partially funded by a grant from The Puppeteers of America Endowment Fund, and was developed during Culture Lab LIC's 2025 Emergence Artist Residency as well as through Puppetry at the Carriage House (PATCH), a partnership between The Jim Henson Foundation and The Green Feather Foundation.

Emily Batsford (Creator/Puppeteer) (they/them) is an NYC-based puppeteer, access consultant, and theater maker. Their artistry prioritizes inclusion & accessibility, and takes inspiration from immersive and physical theater practices, puppetry, and experimental forms. International Puppetry: Book of Mountains and Seas (Basil Twist), Song of the North (Hamid Rahmanian / Two Chairs Productions), PACKRAT (Concrete Temple Theatre), Unfolding (Margarita Blush Productions). New York Puppetry: Song of the North (New Victory), A Divine Echo (Roulette Intermedium), Ernie's Secret Life (Dixon Place), The Eye Which We Do Not Have (HERE Arts Center), FIVE (NYC Children's Theater), Set in Stone (Sara Stern), End of the World (Center at West Park). New York Theater: Stop Motion (Theater for a New City), Touch (w/ Katrina Lenk, 59E59), The Brightness of Heaven (Cherry Lane). Puppet Direction: Inherit the Wind (Clarence Brown, UT Knoxville), Princess & the Frog (Brooklyn New School), Ernie's Secret Life (Concrete Temple Theatre). As a passionate theater deviser, Emily has also participated in countless work-in-progress showings at incubators like PuppetBlok, Object Movement Festival, Concrete BOOM!, LabWorks, The Tank, and the Henson Carriage House. When not performing, Emily is a Teaching Artist for Child's Play NY, Brooklyn Arts Exchange, New York City Children's Theater, and CO_LAB Theater Group. 2025 Emergence Artist Resident at Culture Lab LIC - CUMULO. 2026 NYSCA Support for Artists Grant - CUMULO. 2026 Jim Henson Foundation Production Grant - CUMULO. @efcbatsford

Concrete Temple Theatre (CTT) is an internationally acclaimed devised visual-theatre company. Known for defying conventional boundaries between design and text, CTT creates visually striking works that bring myth and ritual back to the center of dialogue in order to confront the prevailing social issues of our times. Since 2004, Concrete Temple Theatre has presented their work for NYC audiences at such venerable Off-Broadway and avant garde venues as SoHo Playhouse, Barrow Street Theatre, HERE, Dixon Place, and La MaMa. They have been artists-in- residence in NYC at The Flea Theater, Dixon Place, Mabou Mines, St. Ann's Warehouse and chashama. CTT's national tours include The Yard, Bard Summerscape, Detroit Institute of Arts, PS21-Chatham, Amphibian Stage Productions, and Pontine Theatre. The company has toured internationally to London, Sri Lanka, India, Bulgaria, Turkey, Italy, Scotland, South Korea, Mexico, Costa Rica and France. Most recently, CTT premiered PACKRAT: the Quest por la Abundancia, January 2026, Dixon Place, NYC. The original PACKRAT was performed at Taos Center for the Arts, NM, May 2025; Gimcheon International Family Festival, Chuncheon Puppet Theatre, and Gangdong Arts Center, S. Korea August 2025, and Festival mondial des théâtres de marionettes, Charleville-Mézières, France, SEPT 2025.