NY Times theater critic Ben Brantley has designated Duke Theater Studies faculty member Torry Bend’s mixed-media puppet show The Paper Hat Game as a NYT Critics’ Pick, calling it “enchanting” and “an unexpected mitzvah that shakes the urban blinders off our eyes and forces us to see the uncanny beauty and terror of where we live.” http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/27/theater/review-urban-nightmares-as-puppets-in-the-paper-hat-game.html
Bend, a set designer, puppet artist and associate professor of the practice, wrote and directed this toy-theater production based on the true story of Scotty Iseri, the Paper Hat Guy of Chicago. The Paper Hat Game premiered here at Duke in 2011, featuring live puppetry overlayed by dreamlike video design by Raquel Salvatella de Prada, another Duke faculty member. Duke Theater Studies alumna Alex Young worked that first incarnation as one of the five puppeteers and re-joined the team in New York this summer. The piece has been seen around the country, including a stop at Durham’s Manbites Dog Theater, and is now off off Broadway at the 3LD Art & Technology Center, running through July 17.
http://www.3ldnyc.org/what-s-happening.html
Theater Studies