IN A WORLD WHERE A FROG LOVES A PIG...
For those who struggle to be accepted, what better place to find acceptance than in a world where a frog can be in love with a pig or where a "whatever" can be treated with respect? For many within the LGBTQ community, finding a way to express themselves and/or become comfortable with their own identities is tough. We strive to find some venue or world where we no longer feel alone. Many of those who identify as LGBTQ have found, while growing up or as adults, puppetry to be an artistic form that allows for the exploration of various identities. Whether this is through
watching The Muppets or
creating a more intimate theatrical production like
Or You Can Kiss Me (Handspring Puppet Company), many within this community have latched onto the art form of puppetry. This documentary, which is already slated to be shown at an international film festival, seeks to understand this relationship between puppetry and the LGBTQ community.
The seeds of this project began a few months ago while talking with some friends who produce a film festival. Initially, this was to be a short documentary that would be featured at the festival, but those seeds have grown to become very large trees. What was initially a relatively local project has blossomed into a global undertaking, which has given us even more need for financial help so that we can do justice to this project.
We have a number of great people, from both within the LGBTQ community as well as its allies, on board already (listed below) and we are continuing to reach out to artists, scholars, and the LGBTQ community in general to help broaden our scope. Some of those already attached to the project include:
- Paul Zaloom
- Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler - Handspring Puppet Theater
- Bill Huber - Huber Marionettes
- Ronnie Burkett - Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes
- David Manley - Up In Arms
- Margaret Auerbach - Spellbound Puppets
- Spencer Stephens
- Dr. Jordan Schildcrout - Purchase College (SUNY)
- Prof. Maria Delgado - Queen Mary University of London
- Steve Abrams
- The People's Puppets of Occupy Wall Street
- Ryan Roe and Joe Hennes - ToughPigs.com
- Noel MacNeal
We have also begun talking to John Tartaglia, who is excited to work with us on this project. We are always looking for more voices to add to this project, so if you are a member of the LGBTQ community and would like to share your thoughts on the role puppetry has played in your life, please send us an email at ManhattanMarionettes@gmail.com
While we will be focusing on contemporary artists and groups, we will also be exploring this relationship's past, via segments devoted to Garcia Lorca and Charles Ludlum. We will also be highlighting the late Muppeteer Richard Hunt and other puppeteers we have lost to AIDS.
This crowdsourcing campaign will help us:
- Travel to interview artists/groups around NYC, the country, and even the world;
- Gain rights to audio and visual material;
- Provide stipends for audio and visual artists (composer, illustrator, etc.);
- And cover submission costs for film festivals.
If we go beyond our goal, we will use those funds to continue developing the Manhattan Marionettes Project and its various video and non-video projects.
We have some great rewards available and hope that people both within and outside of the puppetry/LGBTQ community will help us with our endeavors to deeply explore the relationship between puppetry and the LGBTQ community.