What we're up to

May 12, 2008
So I got busy, and didn't post to this..... right through the Rights of Spring, "All About the Weather" at the Popcorn and Puppets Festival at Hastings on Hudson, and in Prospect Park. ......... cliffhanger on the permit, but it turned out that the park was just funning with us - I suppose that if you're spending a lot of time in an office, it breaks up the day to have puppeteers running in circles and tearing their hair. Arny Lippin and Theresa Linnihan went in and saved the day! In Boston, we collaborated with Kaos Puppets (aka Mark Pellatier) on a semi-improvised performance of "Spontaneous Celebrations Arises From Primeval Ooze" in the rain - might do it again for the Bike Festival.
Now we're turning our attention to, in New York, the Toy Theater Festival put on by Great Small Works at St. Ann's Warehouse, and the Martian Chronicles, put on by Elizabeth Magrit, at Fordham. In Boston, building for some Revels events, and in Vermont, the Governor's Institute on the Arts Fourth of July parade.
Then, at Lincoln Center Out of Doors, a highly interesting parading performance, (because they have the plaza all torn up) called "Evangeline, Evil, and Dancing in the Street". Check out "Wanna be in a Parade ?" for more info. October 4, 2007
The Summer went well, Fourth of July, and Lincoln Center pageant (The Love and Chaos Theory Life) and now we are getting ready for The Village Halloween Parade, and then First Night. Want to be in a parade? In the meantime, the Second Line Social Aid and Pleasure Society Bass Band is throwing a Brass Band Festival hereabouts, in Somerville, Greater Boston, complete with parade. Should be fun!

April 11, 2007
We have bben trying ot get Prospect Park to fix the roof of the Memeorial Arch (NY Puppet Library) and now they are going to do it... unfortunately that means we will have to get out. Good thinking, puppeteers! Does anybody know of an abandoned warehouse, a neglected church basement, an unusable-for-normal-purposes kind of structure somewhere near Brooklyn, NY? Don't hesitate to mention it.
So now we're gearing up for the Spring and Summer.....
Theresa Linnihan is working with the Czech-American Marionette Theater and at schools all over NY, Sara Peattie is working with Kaos Puppets on Godzilla and big electronic puppets, Arny Lippin is working with 3Bean Children's Theater and on his Tai Chi.
We're rehearsing the Rights of Spring in Boston and New York, to be performed at The Wake Up the Earth Festival in Jamaica Plain, Boston, on May 5, with Kenny Wollesen's band Himalaya, at the Popcorn Festival at Hastings-on-the-Hudson on May 6, and at Prospect Park in Brooklyn on May 19, with a small version at the the Brownstone Bookstore in Brooklyn on May 12. If you are in either NY or Boston and would like to take part, call Theresa Linnihan (for Brooklyn, 718-853-7350) or, for Boston, Mark Pelatier at (857-498-2438).
Then on to the Summer, Library performance schedule where and when to be arranged (see 'roof of the Arch'); Vermont Gov. Insitute of the Arts fourth of July parade in Vermont, Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors festival Aug. 4, and etc.

November 24, 2006
So Halloween is over, went well, Kenny Wollesen and his marching band Himalaya came and played with us, The Sun(s) ("our star, the very best star in the universe") set off actions, the Giant Lizard went around in circles, Kid Lucky did his own thing, now he wants to do parades everywhere......
So now we are gearing up for First Night in Boston. Sara Peattie is doing community workshops all over town. More on that later. The parade theme is different worlds: natural (lizard, insects, green), human (people, people walking dogs, multicolored), wired (new electronic stuff, giant puppets with cameras in their fingers the images appearing in their TV eyes), and mythic (dragons, dragons, dragons)
If you would like to run a section in the parade, get in touch with First Night Boston (617 542-1399) and sign up as a parade captain. They will give you a nifty jacket or vest and a pitiful amount of money, and you will have lots of fun, I promise.

September 16, 2006
Hello, this is Stuart, learning how to begin posting here.

August 15, 2006
So we hit a spell of out-of-control excessive work, and I stopped posting...... sorry. Workshops and a bit of a show in Flushing, Queens, with Flushing Town Hall, the Rites of Spring in Prospect Park and upstate New York, then the Boston Aquarium became interested in a show for the Summer at the same time as the speedy work getting ready for the Fourth of July parade with the Governor's Institute of Vermont and the 'Big City Blues' giant puppet pageant at the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival. So Mark Peletier has been doing four shows a day, five days a week, for the Summer, while Sara Peattie and Alexis Konnoff were working at the Governor's Insitute, and then Sara and Theresa Linnihan and the Brooklyn crew all worked on the Lincoln Center project, while John Bell, Trudi Cohn and the kid did a instant pageant at the Oswego Harborfest in upstate New York. That's what we were up to. People might have liked to have heard at the time instead of afterward. Stuart Bramen is talking about taking over updating, which would be a great improvement.
What we're up to next: Maybe going over to Glover Vt, for Bread and Puppet's 'Geezer Week' with "Moby Dick". January 18, 2006
First Night Boston is over; the weather was good, which is the main point, supposing one is insane enough to do something which depends on the New England weather, which plainly is a large number of people are. It was not too cold, not too warm, just cool enough for some scenic light snow, instead of rain. A fine time was had by all.
Sara Peattie will start doing a few shows (crankie and puppets) with 3 Bean Children's Theater (Kwame Brandt-Pience, story-teller and musician) in Brooklyn in February. Theresa Linnihan is in Minnesota seeing family, back in New York at the end of January. Then we'll start setting up the Rights of Spring (May 7 out on the Hudson, later in Prospect Park, Brooklyn) and maybe doing some kid puppet workshops.
In Boston, Kaos Puppets (Mark Pelatier) is thinking about 'Ed and Fred', and then a 'Rights of Spring' in Boston at the Wake Up the Earth Festival.
If you're in either Boston or NY and are interested in a Spring show, call Sara Peattie (617) 263-2031.
Other than that, at this time of year, it's fixing up the barn, mending the nets, and doing computer and video stuff. More Later.

October 25, 2005
So we had a good Spring and Summer - too busy to post to this page, though...... Two Rites of Spring in Brooklyn and one in Boston, a season of puppet loans and small performances in the Memorial Arch at Grand Army Plaza, The 19th Annual Chromatic Samba Parade, and "In the Matter of Moby Dick" at the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival, among other things. We had a good time.
Now we're on our way to New York for the Halloween Parade in New York. See "Want to be in the Halloween Parade?" on the index page, for pictures of the concept; the Wollesen Street Unit will be joining us, so it should be pretty rowdy. Then working in Boston on the First Night Grand Procession; more on that later.

April 20, 2005
So we're gearing up for the Spring and Summer in both Boston and New York...... We are going to try a real Season in the Arch in Brooklyn, as well as a Rights of Spring in Boston as well as New York.
For the Rights of Spring in Boston, we are working in collaboration with Kaos Puppets, who have traditionally done a pageant at the Wake Up the Earth Festival in Jamaica Plain. It looks to have Love, Giant Veggies, a Mad Scientist, and Belly Dancers. The two rehearsals are Saturdays April 23 and 30, both at 2PM, and the performance is 4ish on May 7, all outside the Stony Brook T station on the Orange Line, in case of rain, meeting at Spontaneous Celebrations near there, at 45 Danforth Street. Do come join in.
The New York season will kick off with a all-inclusive all-volunteer Bird Parade at the Audubon House (formerly the Boathouse) in Prospect Park at @ 1-2 PM on Sunday April 24. Prospect Park stop on the subway, and then look for the maps at the entrance to the Park.
We will perform a first version of the first part (Evolution of All) at the Great Small Works' Spaghetti Dinner at PS 122 on April 26. If you haven't tried the Spaghetti Dinner, they're lots of fun, and good pasta.
The Rights of Spring in Brooklyn, NY will happen, starting with a volunteer parade, 1PM on Saturday May 14th Sunday May 15th, Saturday starting at the Arch (Grand Army Plaza), and Sunday starting at the Meadowport Arch, just inside the park at the Grand Army Plaza. Come parade and be in the show - you can watch it too, if you wish. This weekend will also be the kickoff of the New York Puppet Library lending season.
Then we will attempt to have a show in, at, or near the Arch every Saturday at 1PM, and have the library open 1-4 PM.
Saturdays May 28 -June 25 'The Belle of Amherst' Theresa Linnihan
Saturdays July 2, 9, 16 'Princess Spring Blossom' Soup Productions
Sunday Aug. 14 'In the Matter of Moby Dick' Puppeteers' Cooperative (at the Audubon Center, formerly the Boathouse)
Saturdays in September TBA
Saturdays Oct 1 - Oct 30 'Bass Saxophone' Czech-American Marionette Theatre (additional evening shows Sat. and Sun. at 8 PM)
'In the Matter of Moby Dick' large version will be premiered at the Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival Aug. 13 at 4 PM.
That's an awful lot of good weather to need, wish us luck!

February 22, 2005
First Night Boston went off all right, aside from some wind problems (the Big Balloon got shredded, a couple of horses failed to run); it was supposed to rain but didn't, always a thrilling non-event.
Now we're all hunkered down, waiting for Spring and the Rights of Spring. Theresa Linnihan is trying to set up a performance schedule of one day a week (Saturday) in the Memorial Arch Puppet Library at Prospect Park, Brooklyn, and working with the Czech-American Marionnette Theater. Roberto Rossi is doing a small show for the Spaghetti Dinner at PS 122, and he and the rest of Great Small Works are putting together the Seventh Annual Toy Theater Festival for May and June. For information google "Great Small Works". Sara Peattie is doing some shadow puppets with 3Bean theater in Brooklyn, and working on small shows for when the weather inproves. Melonie Cortier and the Eidolon Ballet she co-directs are giving a Hoe Down on March 12 - in Long Island City, NY - call 212-946-1275 for more information.
Childbearing in the group is proceeding along an oddly orderly path; Amy-Simone Erard just had a boy, and Dassia and Brian Posner mentioned that their (adorable) child should be old enough by next First Night to work on a giant puppet with them, so they should be back in the event.

November 14, 2004
In New York, Theresa Linnihan is working on "The Twelve Birds of Winter" to go up at Audubon House in Prospect Park, as part of our work in the park for the Arc de Triumph. It will have an original score by John Hyde, the one from Beverly.
In Boston, we are getting ready for First Night Boston. The theme of the Grand Procession will be the story of a life.....Green Youth, The Human World, Action (the Fire Dragons), and Contemplation (the stars). We will be working with various community groups to make giant puppets, and will also have (as ever) a large pick-up volunteer contingent. If you want to carry a giant puppet in the parade, come to the Hynes Auditorium in Boston around 4:30 PM Dec. 31. If you want to be in charge of a group, call First Night at (617) 542-1399.

October 22, 2004
We're getting ready for the Halloween parade in New York.... the theme for the parade is "Sweetness" and we're working on "Sugar Sweet and Sugar Eaten"; birds black and white, a sweet flier, illuminated stars, an inflatable 'sugar eaten' and a pile of flathead puppets. We'll be meeting outside the performance space "Here", at Spring Street and Avenue of the Americas, at the Broome st. end of the triangular park there, meeting at 6 to parade at 7. Then First Night in Boston.

August 23, 2004
Well, the Summer is about over, and went well. The New York Puppet Library is up and operating, the Fifth of July parade and puppet-acapella opera at the Governor's Institute on the Arts of Vermont went well, and Godzilla at the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival sneaked in between two hurricanes. Now we're getting ready for the Republican Convention in New York, which looks like it will be a barrel of laughs.

April 15, 2004
Oboy Oboy Oboy....... signed a contract with the Parks Department to make a Giant Puppet Lending Library in the Memorial Arch at Prospect Park - it's like a slightly smaller Arch de Triumph in Paris, and it has all sorts of great spiral staircases inside, too. We're doing a bird parade for the Audubon House in the park on April 25. Then we'll clean the Arch out in the week of May 3, fill it with puppets, then open it up for "You Got to Have Parks" day, May 23, when we'll do the 'Rights of Spring' in the Brooklyn Bridge Park in Dumbo at 3 PMon Saturday the 22, and in Prospect Park, starting at at the Meadowport Arch (near Grand Army Plaza) at 1 PM on Sunday May 23, as well.
Linnihan and most of the New York crew are working on the Czech Marrionette Theatre's Oswald show - no more conspiracy theories, please! Sara Peattie is working on Uncle James' "The Greater Mysteries" somewhat antique pastiche in the Rockefeller Chapel at the University of Chicago, and also on some inflatables.
Then the Erie Ameriamarsala Festival, perhaps, the Detroit Arts Festival, and Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors.

January 7, 2004
The First Night Grand Procession in Boston came off well - the weather was good, which is the main thing, and the gang all turned up..... Arny Lippin, Theresa Linnihan, and Alexis Konnoff came from New York and Arizona and helped with the lead-up, and then on the 30th we all went to see the new 'Lord of the Rings' movie, which had kind of a lot of battles. Loved the Olifants.
Seven community groups worked with the Puppet Co-op part of the parade: Healthy Boston and the South Boston Community Center snarled with the Sea Dragons, NOAH WERE Sea Gods, Mass Families performed Fatheads, with conviction, The Codman Academy, all 83 of them made a City Crowd in one big workshop, the Archdale steppers made birds for the Future section, and the Rennaisance School, with Mr. Provensano, made lovely colorful birds.
Lynn Buckson, a new (to us) puppeteer, made a Floating Dreamer, very nice. It seems she's always wanted to do a 24 hour Gilgamesh: any interest?
Mark Pellatier and Genevive Moore of Kaos Puppets took the front and danced puppets at the Roxy later, Jon Levine struggled with the giant white bird, Jackie Smith turned out with her dragons and gave everyone brunch the next day, Brian and Dassia Posner drove the truck and dealt with the community groups and took photos respectively, Arny Lippin did video, Alexis Konnoff was the Parade Runner, with duct tape, Amy-Simone Erard showed up from Uganda just in time to captain, and Sara Peattie argued with the police.
Now we're thinking about the Spring and Summer: the rededication of the Rockafeller Chapel in Chicago in March, the Rights of Spring, the Fourth of July Parade at the Gov.'s Institute, and the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival - we're thinking Godzilla.
In the meantime, however, we're about to be inspected by the Fire Department.

October 13, 2003
We are working on a parade section for the NY Village Holloween Parade, Halloween Parade heavy on the Howling Coyotes..... If you're interested in participating, show up at Spring Street, Manhatten, at 6PM on Friday October 31, and look for giant coyotes.

September 1, 2003
Um, Ah, ...... suddenly got very busy for a while there.... Let's see...... All that was supposed to happen happened, Williams Foundation (Wizard of Oz, Williams Syndome, people of incredible charm, chatting away, pausing only to all break into song, it was like living for a week inside one of those old musicals...) Erie, very nice, Vermont, the Fourth of July, Sara Peattie working with Alexis Konnoff, who came up with the brilliant and much-admired idea of doing a Bill of Rights Parade (the right to be annoying played by The Mosquitoes).
Then we all worked for three weeks on "King Lear of the Insects" for the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival on Aug. 2. Lincoln Square Neighborhood Center and Rena-Coa Settlement House came through brilliantly as usual. The little ladybugs were especially cute.
Now people are spit up, working on separate jobs. Theresa Linnihan is involved in workshops for "Peter Pan" with the Czech Marionette Theatre, said to involve dancing over the Brooklyn Bridge in her pajamas..... any sightings? Sara Peattie will be at the Detroit Festival of the Arts in a couple of weeks with Phil Walz and his parade making cohorts of the PA Featival of the Arts. We are starting to wonder about Halloween and talk about First Night.

May 19, 2003
The Rights of Spring in Prospect Park are over - a long parade, a short puppet pageant, and a charming show by Michelle Beshaw. Roberto Rossi did the music on his trusty accordian, various kids participated, some planned and some not, and a good time was had by all.
The combined Flying Bridge/Puppet Co-op New York Puppet Library is now in existance, in Red Hook Brooklyn! The space belongs to Jill Ranier of Flying Bridge, and Martha Christy has agreed to be Librarian. Negociations with Prospect Park continue, with the park mentioning the Arch de Triumph at Grand Army Plaza as a possible space.... the idea!
Sara Peattie will be going to Michigan to work with the Williams Foundation camp there, and then to Erie to work with the Ameriamarsala Festival there, then to Vermont for the Fourth of July parade with the Governor's Institute on the Arts there. Theresa Linnihan will be continuing on teaching, and working with the marionette theater, the Back Alley crew in Boston is setting up summer events under the direction of Dassia Posner, who has just had a first child, Sophia, but nevertheless seems happy to keep on keeping on.

Home Page

May 8, 2003
The Rights of Spring in Prospect Park are coming up on Sunday May 18, Parade starting in the Long Meadow at 1PM, performance at 2PM.
We are also starting to talk about King Lear, for the Lincoln Center Our-of-Doors Festival on August 3.

April 4, 2003
Puppet-space news: We are starting to think about the Rights of Spring in Prospect Park in Brooklyn, and when Theresa Linnihan went to talk to the people at the park, they were interested in having a puppet library there, too. Jill Ranier of Flying Bridge has also been interest in starting one in Brooklyn, so both may happen. Our plans for world domination through puppetry are proceeding apace. The one who would have really enjoyed all this empire-building is George Konnoff.
In the meantime, the renovations in Emmanuel Church in Boston are getting to the inspection stage, so we are fully occupied in trying to make the Puppet Library there beautiful (or at least acceptable) in the eyes of the Fire Department.

February 28, 2003
Spring is starting to sprong..... We took the Four Horsemen of the Apocolypse to the anti-war demonstration in New York on the 15; Mr. Magoo-like, managed to accidentally bypass all the points set up by the police to confiscate all things with sticks in them, including puppets. Wandered back to the Public library after the demonstration through midtown, the apocolypse trotting placidly through the shoppers, all very surreal.

February 5, 2003
The Puppet Co-op is working on Winter stuff, doing videos, making plans, cutting up the seed potatoes, mending nets.......... We are making plans for 'The Rights of Spring' in Prospect Park in the Spring, 'King Lear' at Lincoln Center in the Summer, a replay of the little 'Dream of Godzilla' from the Toy Theater Festival.....
More later.

December 8, 2002
First Night, First Night, First Night..... We are working on four signature sections for the Grand Procession. 'The Pleasures of Nature', 'The Pleasures of Technology', '....Dreams' '.......The Circus'; Sara Peattie is doing giant puppet making workshops around Boston, and also a parade's worth of puppets for volunteers to use in the Procession. Jon Levine is reworking his Tightrope Walker, and Mark Pellatier is (in principle) making some robospiders for the Technology section. Arny Lippin will be coming up from New York, and Alexis Konnoff is coming down from Vermont, to help out.
If you want to be in the parade, show up at the Hynes Auditorium at 4 PM December 31, and choose a puppet

September 16, 2002
Sara Peattie is just back from the Detroit Arts Festival, where she worked with Phil Waltz and the Central Pennsylvania Festival of the Arts, doing large and small parades with a truck load of puppets they had brought with them, and doing flag-printing and puppet building demonstrations. Theresa Linnihan is in New York working with the Czech-American Marionette Theater on "Don Juan". At the end of September, Sara, Amy-Simone Erard, and Theresa, will be teaching a giant puppet building workshop in upstate New York with First Night Binghamton.
Then we will work on a section for the Halloween Parade in New York - "At Play in the Gardens of the Night" - Giant flowers, skelton flower dancers, mean shiny bugs, and all. Anybody want to participate? Contact The Halloween Parade.
see: Halloween
Then it's on to First Night.

Home Page

August 12, 2002
"Carmen in New York City" is over; lots of fun - hot though. The puppeteers and kids large and small bounced happily through the show; it was the seniors doing the Electric Slide who brought down the house, though.
Now everybody is taking a deep breath before the Fall.

May 12, 2002
We are in the full throes of the Spring and Summer season. Theresa Linnehan and Jill Ranier of Flying Bridge have been working on a parade section with PS 27 in Red Hook; they will be in the Turf and Surf Parade there on Saturday May 18.
We have all been working on a Rights of Spring in Prospect Park, (NY) to be performed on May 19; parade starting at 1PM at the Carousel, pageant at 1:30 at the Boathouse. Featuring the Great Small Works Band and small shows. Come and see it; better yet, come be in the dragon.
The weekend after, the 25th, a small crew featuring Amy-Simone Erard and Arny Lippin will do a pick-up Rites of Spring at the East River Amphitheater in an event presented by the Subjective Theater Company. Come early and get a starring role. Sara Peattie will be in Putney, VT doing a puppet making workshop at an activists' conference.
Later in the summer, The Back Alley Puppet Theater will do pick-up parades and puppet lending for First Night of Boston (in Boston), Theresa Linnihan will be going to New Orleans for her workshop there again, Sara Peattie and Chuck Meese will be heading to Kentucky for the Appelshop Seedtime Festival Parade, and then Sara Peattie will be going to Erie, PA for a festival giant puppet building workshop and then to Vermont to work on the Fourth of July parade with the Governor's Institute on the Arts of Vermont. Roberto Rossi will continue studying. Study, Roberto, study!
In July we will all roundez-vous in New York to work on Carmen for the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival. If you're in the New York area and you've ever wanted to star in a giant puppet extravaganza of any ilk, this is your chance. Get in touch with Peattie or Linnihan, addresses on the Home Page.


March 7, 2002
The Purim Show was really wonderful, Thersa Linnihan directing, Stuart and Nancy Bramen dancing placidly around the hordes of overexcited kids (and adults) with noisemakers.
Sara Peattie and Jill Rainier of Flying Bridge with Melissa Creighton and Arny Lippin did an improvised crazed shadow puppet show with Kid Lucky and his Urban Acapella group at North Six, and we liked it so well that we are planning to do a short version at Great Small Works' Spaghetti Dinner on March 26, at PS 122, New York.
We are now planning to do a Rights of Spring on Staten Island in cooperation with the Alice Austen House Museum and the local schools (and with an open workshop at Snug Harbor) in April as well as the Rights in Prospect Park (NY) on May 19.

February 5, 2002
Work on the Rights of Spring and the summer pageant are staggering along, as is work on the Purim Play.
Roberto Rossi is back from *Being Italian*. Theresa Linnihan moved house. Sara Peattie went up to Brattleboro to talk to the Strolling of the Heifers procession, amble, and event - should be fun. The City of Albany as decided to Go Fish... Many fish. We will be working with Kid Lucky and his a capella group for an improvised shadow puppet show on February 22. It will make an exciting change.

Home Page

January 10, 2002
First Night was cold but well-attended. We did a Triumph of the Arts in several parts parade; Jon Levine hadn't decided if he was building a large puppet or a small house, but after he remade his tightrope walker in the last 20 minutes, after the parade had actually started, it worked quite nicely, and was one of the most popular puppets, at least among the spectators. The Light Flowers, flowers with flashlights and battery-operated christmas lights inside them, were also well-liked.
Theresa Linnihan is working on the Purim Play (see scripts) with the help of Sara Peattie and Emily. The highlights this year are shadow puppets, riding horses, and George Konnoff as the character who fixes it all. Roberto Rossi is in Italy. Dassia Posner, of Luna Puppet Theater, is working on school - learning and teaching.
We are putting together the Summer. Workshops in Albany, Erie, and Binghamton,NY are booked so far, and it looks as if we will be doing the GIA and the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival pageant again - 'Carmen' this year.

November 12, 2001
The Halloween Parade went well; the crowd loved the 20' molten metal queen tipping over, especially when she got entangled with a street light, and looked as if she were tipping over for real, and then she bounced right up - big crowd-pleaser. The Haunted House at the Flying Bridge went well, too, even though it was a new concept.
Now Sara Peattie is working on the First Night Grand Procession in Boston; workshops on Monday-Friday and building all the rest of the time.
She will also be working with Sarah Cunningham at the Alice Austin Museum in Staten Island on a memorial White Bird parade, to take place on Sunday, November 18.

October 14, 2001

At present Guiliani continues to announce that all is well, and what's the big deal about a few cases of anthrax, soooo......

We are working on a section for the Halloween Parade in New York..... the forest and its' mysterious inhabitants protecting the Secret at the Center of the Earth, a 20' molten metal dancing lady attended by molten silver dancers made by the students at Rena-Coa Settlement House. Also various dancing trees, golden fire birds, etc. We're going to try having the Lady tipped over by some evil magician at various points in the parade and have the crowd revive her. If you want to volunteer for it, get in touch with the Halloween Parade.
Theresa is receiving medical treatment and should be fine, so Roberto Rossi and Deborah Feldman are working with Rena-Coa. Sara Peattie is building for Halloween and also for First Night in Boston. Alexis Konnoff, George's son, is helping with the parade on site, and also with the Flying Bridge Haunted House in Brooklyn.
The News of the Week faction will be performing 'Romeo and Juliet and the Economists' a short and also small puppet show at the Great Small Works' Spaghetti Dinner at PS 122 on Oct. 23.
In Boston, the Back Alley Puppet Theater and the Puppet Free Library have been going calmly about their business all Summer. Back Alley did a number of parades, some volunteer pick-up events, and scrambled to cover the library loans, also a few nightclub jobs.
We will be working in Boston on both the community and volunteer pick-up sections of the First Night Grand Procession starting in November. We're doing it at a Triumph of the Arts Parade - Triumph of the Arts through Contemplation (forest, browns, etc.), Triumph of the Arts through Inspiration (air, stars, blues, shiny), through Celebration (patterns, bright colors, clowns), and through Forward Motion (dragons).

Home Page

September 18, 2001

George Konnoff is dead.
George Konnoff

He died at home, with his son Alexis, Theresa Linnihan, and myself, Sara Peattie, with him. We are all heartbroken.
A few days later Theresa, trying to pick up the pieces of her life, went to a meeting which happened to be next to the World Trade Center. She was trampled in the melee, and later suffered some heart problems which were probably stress-related.
So far, our current projects, a Hotelworkers Union demonstration in Las Vegas, and the Halloween Parade in New York, still seem to be happening, although the future now is anybody's guess..... but whatever it is, we'll try to meet it with art and perhaps with giant puppets.

June 12, 2001

George Konnoff is seriously ill.

The Lincoln Center pageant has been canceled. Sara Peattie will be going to Vermont for the Governor's Institute Fourth of July Parade and Dennis Murphy's "A Perfect Day" Cantata, (Chuck Meese also attending) and then joining Teresa Linnehan and George in New York again. In Boston, Dassia Posner will be leading pick-up parades at Fanuel Hall for three days on Memorial Day weekend.
The Rights of Spring was wonderful. So was the parade in Whitesburg, Kentucky.

April 11, 2001

We are preparing for Easter at Emmanuel Church in Boston, for a parade at a school in Red Hook in Brooklyn on May 12, and for a Rights of Spring on May 20, also in Brooklyn. Anybody want to take part?
Then George Konnoff and Sara Peattie are taking off to Kentucky (Whitesburg) and will be joined there by Chuck Meese, to do a parade making workshop for Appalshop there at the end of June.
Then it's starting work on the Governor's Institute on the Arts parade, and after that, the Lincoln Center Out-of-Doors Festival pageant - we're talking about doing 'Carmen' - then non-opera version.

Home Page

February 4, 2001

The Puppet Co-op is generally laying low, keeping quiet, doing small and enjoyable jobs, and keeping out of the cold.
George Konnoff is working on a Purim Spiel with a crazed congregation of hundreds on Long Island. Teresa Linnihan is also in New York, doing puppet making (giant and marrionette) in the schools with Artsconnection. Roberto Rossi is bemoaning his bad back.
In Boston, Sara Peattie is working with the Rennaisance School, who are creating a pageant with The Revels. Also in Boston, Dassia Posner is writing her dissertation, on puppetry in the Russian club scene around the twenties, I think (?). Amy Erard has started putting together her own giant puppet dancing gigs.
We will be doing the Giant Puppet Pageant at Lincoln Center again this year, so we're starting to brood about that, also about doing a primitive staged/parade version of the great Dennis Murphy's "A Perfect Day" at the Governor's Institute on the Arts of Vermont.

January 4, 2001

We've just finished First Night celebrations - George Konnoff in Brooklyn, which got hammered with snow, but survived. In Boston, Sara Peattie, Theresa Linnihan, Dassia and Brian Posner, Alicia Gerstein, Amy Erard, Arney Lippin of the Puppet Co-op and the Back Alley Puppet Theater crew: Jackie Smith, and Jon Levin and various known and anonymous puppet captains and volunteers.

Boston was having its twenty-fifth anniversary, and that is a long time; our meeting with the volunteers who create and run the parade only comes once a year, but it's still an amazingly intense and long-lived relationship with people we don't even know. How do these things happen?

Now George is setting up to do Purim on Long Island, maybe some printing of banners as well as puppets, and we in the Boston group are putting our feet up for a while, doing some building of puppets, and some renovating of the workshop and the Puppet Library.

Home Page