Join us for a unique event featuring a performance of The Mirrored Pool followed by a moderated discussion. Your attendance and support will directly contribute to the success of the Blackbird Creative Lab and its mission to nurture new talent. The Blackbird Creative Lab is dedicated to supporting emerging artists — fostering creativity and entrepreneurship.
More information on the program:
The Mirrored Pool is a mask and puppetry performance created by puppet master Tom Lee. In a wordless dream space at the edge of a shallow pool of water, Puppeteer and Puppet are presented as evocatively designed characters who switch back and forth between perceived identities as lovers, rivals, and caretakers. The performance is an exploration of virtuosic puppetry and mask performance, but also of the audience’s perceptions and prejudices about character and self.
The piece has its roots in Tom Lee’s two decade long relationship to traditional Japanese puppetry through his teacher Master Koryū Nishikawa V. In traditional Japanese performance, character and gender are strictly prescribed for the audience. However, this is not a traditional performance in either design or performance. It leans into Mr. Lee’s personal investigations about how a viewer “reads” a puppet figure through design, hair, costume and manipulation.
Eighth Blackbird enters into this collaboration from their own deep musical explorations and experiments with puppetry. Lisa Kaplan and Matthew Duvall will help create a soundscape that is manipulated by touch and gesture and channels the materiality of the shallow pool of water and mirrored moon that create the setting for the piece. At some points, each musician will become a puppeteer, mask wearer and conjurer for this deeply experiential performance.
Additional creative staff:
Quinn Chisenhall, lighting
Averly Sheltraw, associate designer and stage manager
Ritchie Schiraldi, assistant technical director
Justin Perkins, outside eye
Kentaro Okuda, technical consultant
The Mirrored Pool is supported by a grant from the MAP Fund.
