Don Cristobal, Billy-Club Man
2009 Swing Space Resident, Building 110: LMCC’s Arts Center At Governors Island
Don Cristobal, Billy-Club Man is a new puppet opera exploring the life of the Spanish Punch, as he appears in Federico García Lorca's puppet plays and as he is imagined offstage. Ranging from bawdy, violent puppet farces to surreal poetry, Lorca's lesser-known puppet plays express his unique view that Don Cristobal has a life offstage, in which his traditionally violent role gives way to his complicated potential for goodness. Puppeteer Erin Orr and composer Rima Fand take inspiration from Lorca's lovingly irreverent approach, by combining existing plays with newly imagined visual and musical scenarios. Through hand, shadow, and bunraku style puppetry, as well as live action and original music, the piece explores the violent appetites within Cristobal and within us all.
In the Swing Space, the grantees will develop an excerpt that will be shown January 14th and 15th in the Culturemart Festival at HERE Art Center. They will also use the space for exploratory work on a new scene with the cast and director Jill Samuels. Don Cristobal, Billy-Club Man is being developed through the HERE Artist in Residence Program and Dream Music Puppetry Program. This piece has also received developmental support from the Puppet Lab at St Ann's Warehouse and is funded in part by the Jim Henson Foundation, and Cheryl Henson.
