2020 Board of Directors
Deborah Conathan, Chair
Jolanda Jansen, Co-Chair
John DeNicolo, Treasurer
Susan Murphy, Secretary
Members at Large: Victoria Decker, Robin Goss, Shabazz Jackson, Abby Newton, Josephine Papagni, Peter Varner, Patrick Wadden
Co-Founders & Artistic Directors: Marlena Marallo & Patrick Wadden
Financial Officer: Deborah Conathan
Administration & Project Management: Laura Rock Kopczak
Music Director: Eli Winograd
Associated Musicians: Dean Jones, Juan Basilio Sanchez, Sarah Underhill, Liana Gabel, Madeline Grace, Bill Ylitalo, Joakim Lartey, Dennis Yerry,
Touring Company: Kira deCoudres, Trey Daniels, Anna Haffner, Soyal Smalls, Lauren Smith
Videographers: Kira deCoudres, Bart Friedman & Michael Nelson
Webmaster: David Radovanovic/WhatsTheBigIdea
Contributing Photographers : 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
Arm-of-the-Sea is a member of UNIMA-USA (The American Center of Union Internacionale de la Marionnette), Arts Mid-Hudson and the Saugerties Chamber of Commerce.
 Marlena Marallo and Patrick Wadden are the founders and directors of Arm-of-the-Sea Theater. Their artistic partnership continues to evolve and bear fruit. Marlena sculpts and paints most of the Theater’s vivid imagery. She is also a printmaker and mosaic artist. You can view her work throughout this website and on the Gallery page of Water Tree Studio. Patrick is a playwright and poet. In addition to hammering out scripts, he creates the sets, and directs the productions. Marlena & Patrick homestead together in Saugerties NY. |
Trey Daniels has been performing with Arm-of-the-Sea since the mid 90’s. His credits include roles in The Water Tree, Dreambones & Lighting, Seed Story, Parable of the Great Fish, To Defy the Beast, City that Drinks the Mt Sky, and at least a ten Puppet Suite productions. Trey is a professional masage therapist. He can also build and repair almost anything – which is to say, for a puppet theater, he’s indispensible. |
 Anna Hafner joined the company in 2015. She is a multi-disciplinary living artist in Kingston, NY, and working in the areas of costume, painting, performance art, illustration, lo-fi installation and DIY puppetry. She is a creator of occasional rituals and happenings. Find out more at https://www.annalaurahafner.com/. |
 Soyal Smalls joined Arm-of-the-Sea in 2013 with great enthusiasm for performing another style of social storytelling. Her interest in theater began at the age of ten when she performed with New Day Repertory (Poughkeepsie, NY) in “Our Man from Georgia,” and Athol Fugard’s “Valley Song”. Combining her interests in performance and society, she earned a BS in Sociology with a minor in Theater Arts Performance from SUNY New Paltz. She now holds a Masters in Public Administration from Marist College and oversees AotS’s social media presence. |
Kira deCoudres joined AotS in 2017. She is a digital media and performance artist, and a graduate of Hampshire College. In addition to performing with the company, Kira creates content for AotS’s social media platforms. She works at Hook Arts Media and produces shows at The Ear, a performance art space in Brooklyn. |
 Composer, voice artist, and music director Eli Winograd joined the company in 2015 with the production HOOK, LINE & SINKER. Since then he’s created the sound for four new shows. Eli lives in Kingston, NY with his family and operates the recording studio and production house Lone Pine Road. |
Since 1982 Arm-of-the-Sea has created 45 original productions. Some of these shows we’ve toured far and wide—- from central Kansas to the coast of Maine, from northern Michigan to Virginia tidewater, presenting approximately 2,000 performances. Here are the peformers, musicians, and artists that have helped shape and propel this body of work.
Principal Design Associate: 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.
Musicians include: Thomas Workman (music director 1996-1999), Brian Farmer (music director 1989-1996), Dennis Yerry, Juan Basilio Sanchez, Noah Wadden, Sarah Underhill, Malcom Cecil, Robin Ludwig, Chas Griffiths, Tani Tabal, Zoe B ZaK, Bill “Otto” Ylitalo, Tim Allen, Peter Buettner, Shane Kirsch, Joakim Lartey, Chris Cullo, Joel Schuman, Dan Einbender.
Design & Production Assistants include: Bob Lavaggi, Olga Micińska, ZZoe Rowan, Sean Williams, Leslie Bender, Reid Beilenberg, Titso Markoshasvilli, Maka Markoshasvilli, Steve Thomas, Anna Haffner,
Company members have included: Sam Shippee, Laura Kopczak, Steve Smith, Keenan Cleary, LeeAnne Richards (2010-’15), Carl Welden (1998-2014), Zzoe Rowan (2006 – ’14), Eli McNamara (2009-’12), Cathy Muller 2010-’12), Monika Szrek (2012) , Julie Novak (2007-’09), Dale Gibbons, Jason West, Trey Daniels, Lisa Abbatomarco, Steve Thomas, Colette Lemmon, Marie Daniels, Grian MacGregor, Hannah Mittenberg, Sandy Lamerson, Lillian Hardin, 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.