Arm-of-the-Sea is an arts ensemble that fuses visual storytelling with live music in large-scale works of mask and puppet theater. Founded in 1982 by Marlena Marallo and Patrick Wadden, the company’s hybrid performance style channels the evocative power of the arts as a force for joy, insight, and community uplift. Their low-tech devices of theatrical enchantment illuminate relations between humans and the life-support networks of this blue-ocean planet.

Under the direction of Marallo & Wadden, the 2025 creative team includes musicians Maclain Maier and Joe Davis, and performers Joanna Grabiarz, Douglas Keller, Dee Dee Maucher, Nick Panken, Rakel Stammer, Soyal Smalls and MJ Smythe.

Arm-of-the-Sea tours to cultural centers, festivals, and community venues throughout New York and adjacent states. The organization is transforming the ruins of a 19th century papermill into a waterfront cultural park - The Tidewater Center - in Saugerties, NY.

Recent recognitions include:

2024 Hudson River Watershed Alliance Wave-Makers Award, 2018 Ulster County Executive's Arts Award for Arts Organization, 2016 Environmental Champions Award from the US Environmental Protection Agency, 2014 Excellence in Arts Award from Mill Street Loft, 2014 Distinguished Environmental Achievement Award from Mohonk Consultations. Marallo & Wadden were 2013 Artists-in-Residence at SUNY Ulster (Stone Ridge, NY), and 2014 Artists-in-Residence at the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies (Millbrook, NY).

ABOUT THE COMPANY

TOURING COMPANY

  • Maclain Maier

    Music Director

  • Helen Houghton

    Musician

  • Joe Davis

    Musician

  • Trey Daniels

    Puppeteer

  • Soyal Smalls

    Puppeteer

  • Rakel Stammer

    Rakel Stammer

    Puppeteer

  • Nick Panken

    Nick Panken

    Puppeteer

  • MJ Smythe

    Puppeteer

  • Dee Dee Maucher

    Puppeteer

  • Douglas Keller

    Puppeteer

  • Joanna Grabiarz

    Puppeteer

The Founders

Marlena Marallo and Patrick Wadden are the backbone of Arm-of-the-Sea’s creative team,

Patrick is a playwright, performer and poet. He creates the sets, directs the productions, books the performance season.

Marlena sculpts and paints most of the vivid imagery . In addition, she is a printmaker and mosaic artist creating interpretations of local ecology and history. Her colors, textures and imagery make the one-of-a-kind look that is uniquely Arm-of-the-Sea.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2026

  • Eli Winograd

    CHAIR

  • Jolanda Jansen

    CO-CHAIR

  • Susan Murphy

    SECRETARY

  • Josephine Papagni

    TREASURER & FOUNDING BOARD MEMBER

  • Deborah Conathan

    FINANCIAL OFFICER

  • Victorio Decker

    BOARD MEMBER

  • Shabazz Jackson

    FOUNDING BOARD MEMBER

  • Shelley Wyant

    BOARD MEMBER

  • Peter Varner

    BOARD MEMBER

  • Eliza Blum

    BOARD MEMBER

  • Zach Redmond

    BOARD MEMBER

  • Maclain Maier (2024-current), Helen Houghton (2024), Eli Winograd (music director 2015-2024), Dean Jones (Music Director 1999-2014), Thomas Workman (music director 1996-1999), Brian Farmer (music director 1989-1996), Juan Basilio Sanchez, Sarah Underhill, Joakim Lartey, Dennis Yerry, Noah Wadden, Malcom Cecil, Robin Ludwig, Chas Griffiths, Tani Tabal, Zoe B ZaK, Bill “Otto” Ylitalo, Tim Allen, Peter Buettner, Shane Kirsch, Chris Cullo, Joel Schuman, Dan Einbender, Ella Ray Kondrat, Katie Kondrat, Quince Marcum, Laura Crimmins

  • Photo: Dee Dee Maucher, Morgan Almquist, Margaret Fox, Anna Landewe, L Ryan Smith, Bart Friedman, Phil Kamrass, Jim Peppler, Michael Nelson, Rachel Saltzman, Roy Gumpel, Fionn Reilly, Fred DeVan, Sam Brook, Elijah Vanaver, Dave Gordon, Sienna Wildfield, Stephen Ruttan, Tania Barricklo

    Video: Matthew Fass, Kira deCoudres, Bart Friedman & Michael Nelson

  • Kira DeCoudres, LRyan Smith, Anna Laura Hafner, Sam Shippee, Trey Daniels, Laura Kopczak, Steve Smith, Keenan Cleary, LeeAnne Richards, Carl Welden, Zzoe Rowan, Eli McNamara, Cathy Muller, Monika Szrek, Julie Novak, Dale Gibbons, Jason West, Trey Daniels, Lisa Abbatomarco, Steve Thomas, Colette Lemmon, Marie Daniels, Grian MacGregor, Hannah Mittenberg, Sandy Lamerson, Lillian Harden, Vanessa Norton, Sean Williams, Sophie Kravitz, Kevin Taylor, Nick Jones, Kevin Downing, Amy Kotel, Adam Green, Travis Jeffery, Josh Gordon, Mina Hansen, Eva Berger, Titso Markoshasvilli, Gavin Hoesch, Debra Noble, Lucinda Knaus, Joel Schuman, Lynn Duval, Lynne Gilson, Bob Lavaggi, Melissa Ortquist, Pat Humphrey, Joe Ferris, Adelinda Hyde, Claudia Rose, Karen Hinderstein, Raven Hone.

  • Principal Assistant Designer: Jean Whelan - Costume designer and artist extraordinaire. Jean’s skills and sensibilities have helped shape characters and scenic elements in numerous productions including: The Water Tree, Dreambones & Lightning, Feast of Life, Rip Van Winkle on the River of Time, City that Drink the Mountain Sky, At the Turning of the Tide, and the 2014 Esopus Creek Puppet Suite.

    Design & Production Assistants: Bob Lavaggi, Rae Stang, Olga Micińska, Zoe Rowan, Sean Williams, Leslie Bender, Reid Beilenberg, Titso Markoshasvilli, Maka Markoshasvilli, Steve Thomas, Anna Laura Hafner, Sam Shippee, MJ Smythe

Staff

Tidewater Logistics Coordinator

Jared Reinmuth

Caroline Crumpacker

Grant Consultant

Patrick Landewe

Hudson River Educator

Adam Pumilio

Hudson River Educator
 
Director of Marketing & Webmaster

A.L. Hafner