 Are you a college activities director, arts presenter, or student activist & looking for something out-of-the-ordinary for your next event or performance series?
Arm-of-the-Sea Theater fuses visual poetry with live music in contemporary works of mask & puppet theatre. These lavish, large-scale productions draw from history, science, politics and current events to illuminate the links between humans and the life-support processes of the planet.
For college audiences Arm-of-the-Sea offers a heady blend of cutting-edge puppetry & age-old pageantry ranging from outdoor spectacles to intimate black-box performances. Our work has been featured at college performing arts centers, campus Earthday events, social justice conferences and peace forums. In addition to performances, we conduct workshops, master classes, and processional events. Artist Residencies, conducted in conjunction with drama departments, involve students rehearsing and performing a complete production.
Campus Appearances:
Campus
appearances have included: University of Dayton, Dayton, OH • Cornell University, Ithaca, NY • Hobart & Wm Smith Colleges, Geneva, NY • Castleton State College, Castleton, VT • Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY • Williams College, Williamstown, MA, • Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY • St. Peter's College, Jersey City, NJ • Univ. of Indiana, Bloomington, IN • Bard College, Annandale, NY • Long Island University, Brookvale, NY • State U. of NY @ New Paltz, New Paltz, NY • University of Wisconsin @ Marathon, Wausau, WI • State U. of NY @ Purchase, Purchase, NY • St. Mary's University, Winona, MN • Ramapo College, Mahwah, NJ.
Our Touring Repertoire for Colleges:
 To Fuel the Fire
- A free-wheeling allegory about the ecological costs of energy
This tragic comedy features primordial masks and kinetic puppet figures, vivid paintings, whimsical props and live music.
With the Universe as backdrop, the action leapfrogs through events in earth's evolutionary history, from inventive one-celled microbes to modern hominid inventors. The story follows an Egyptian immigrant couple, Isis and Osiris, who run a Soup-of-the-Day shop on the Gulf Coast. From their ancient rounds of planting, harvesting, cooking and composting, Isis and Osiris feed... more
"To Fuel the Fire" will appeal to audiences of many ages and walks of life.
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 Turtle Island Medicine Show
- Giant Puppets, Masks & Live Music in a Contemporary Fable and Cautionary Tale
Turtle Island Medicine Show is a contemporary fable and cautionary tale inspired by both the Lenape Indian origin story and by current reports from climate studies. Created by Arm-of-the-Sea directors Marlena Marallo & Patrick Wadden, the show features whimsical kinetic sculptures, richly painted paper mache masks and puppet figures that range in size from 12 inches to the 16 foot tall Tree of Life. Composer & music director Dean Jones' inventive score loops together gongs, hoop drum, jaw harp... more
Appropriate for young audiences (ages 6 & up) and Family Audiences.
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 La Cosecha / The Harvest
- The story of an immigrant farm worker. In Spanish and English.
Cesar is a young man from Central America who travels north looking for work. When he can't pay the Coyote who has smuggled him across the U.S. border, Cesar becomes tangled in a web of difficulties and must struggle for his dignity and his very survival. Luckily, he possesses several surprising gifts. This poignant drama features Nueva Cancion music from Latin America together with the vivid mask & puppet characters that are Arm of the Sea's signature style.
The production is 60 minutes in... more
Grades 5-12, Colleges and adult audiences.
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 To Defy the Beast
- Our own version of Greek tragedy. Inspired by Barbara Ehrenreich's book "Blood Rites."
A curse is upon the people. The blind prophet is called to exorcise the curse and save the community. But that means confronting the predator and refusing him the sacrificial blood.
This spectacle is a potent fusion of theatrical image and brass band roots music. It unfolds like an ancient Greek tragedy populated by a mélange of larger-than-life size mask characters... goats, warriors, tigers, hunters, mothers & sons... and, alternately, by lyrical shadow puppet scenes.
Inspired by Barbara... more
Grades 6-12, colleges and adult audiences.
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