Piehole

2 STORIES THAT END IN SUICIDE

2 Stories uses puppets, animation, and live actors to explore the effect of censorship on identity. Drawing from the work of Cesare Pavese and Sadegh Hedayat, two authors with contemporaneous suicides, along with research on contemporary youth culture in Iran, Piehole’s 2 Stories examines the inadequacy of cultural representations, and the impossibility of emotional expression in a climate of repression. After a workshop at Zora Space in November 2010, and at The Brick Theater in March 2011, as part of the Iranian Theater Festival, this piece culminated in a run at HERE Arts Center as part of their HEREstay program in September 2011. 2 Stories received a Space Grant from Brooklyn Arts Exchange, a grant from the Puppeteers of America, and is sponsored by Artspire, a program of NYFA. 2 Stories was co-directed by Tara Ahmadinejad and Elliot B. Quick and co-created by Piehole. This was the inaugural production of our newest member Alexandra Panzer, and featured the work of Piehole affiliates: Jessie Hopkins, Alexandra Lubensky, Vlada Kaganovskaya, Anna Carhart, Josie Holtzman, Rachael Quimby, Sara Wentworth, Gocha Tsinadze and Ben Cohen. Photos by Emily Friend Roberts.

Casino Scene from 2 Stories that End in Suicide

PYRAMUS & THISBE/A Midsummer Night’s Dream

Piehole collaborated with director James Rutherford on a Columbia Stages production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, at Riverside Church from Jan. 26-29, 2011.  We portrayed the clownish “rude mechanicals,” as well as Titania’s fairy entourage (a scrappy crew made from repurposed metal junk and lighting fixtures).  We also made Titania’s wings (lattices of jointed metal rulers that we puppeteered) and Bottom’s ass-head (a heavily modified toolbelt with moving ears).  Our central contribution was the play within the play, Pyramus & Thisbe, an immersive, dreamlike finale combining puppetry, video projection, and soundscape.  Featuring work by Pieholes Tara Ahmadinejad, Danny Cannizzaro, Allison Laplatney, Alexandra Panzer, Laura Vitale, Jamie Wilber, Alice Winslow, and Jeff Wood, and Piehole-associates Patrick Harrison, Jeremy Pickard, Marte Erkhougen, and Nick Solyom.

Pyramus & Thisbe from A Midsummer Night’s Dream

[The American Museum of] LOVE & GEOGRAPHY

Love & Geography is an interactive performance adaptation of the 1885 play by Bjronstjerne Bjornson. Piehole has created an abandoned roadside museum, where audiences press buttons to activate exhibits featuring characters and scenes from the play, trapped in different geographical biomes. Exhibits employ table top puppetry, video, diorama, live-actors-as-animatronic-robots, an animatronic robot camel head, and toy theater. We performed the show in September 2009 at Vox Populi Gallery as part of Philly Fringe and in October 2009 at HERE Arts Center. The show was adapted/directed by Tara Ahmadinejad, designed by Jeff Wood, and co-developed/produced by Piehole. Featuring the work of Piehole affiliates: Ed Bear, Jonathan Harris, Patrick Harrison, Josie Holtzman, Rachael Richman, and Nick Van Der Kolk.

The museum begins to fall apart—and claim its freedom—in Love & Geography

TENTICLE: A CANTICLE

Tenticle: A Canticle is a collaborative project created as part of Electric Pear’s Synesthesia 2009. We performed it in February 2009 at The Wild Project in the East Village NYC. It was directed by Elliot Quick, with video by Danny Cannizzaro, and performances by Tara Ahmadinejad, Allison LaPlatney, Michelle Oing, Emily Friend Roberts, Anika Schwarzwald, Kathryn Wallem, Jamie Wilber, Alice Winslow, and Jeff Wood. Watch the full piece below. (CLICK HERE to see it in HD.)

TOD & I

Tod & I was first developed at Brown University in the dusky fall of 2005. Based on the original children’s story written and illustrated by Jeff Wood, Tod & I began as a collaboration Jeff and other future Pieholes Tara Ahmadinejad, Allison LaPlatney, Kathryn Wallem, and Alice Winslow.

In the scorching summer of 2008, Piehole further developed Tod & I and performed it at the Brick Theater in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Tod & I 3.0 was performed as part of the Philly Fringe Festival in rain-soaked fall 2008.

Viking funeral scene from Tod & I

Tod & I Trailer

S.H.A.V.E.D.

S.H.A.V.E.D. is a solo show written by Piehole Tara Ahmadinejad. She first developed it at Brown University for SoloFest 2007, with the support of Lowry Marshall, Anne Troup, and the rest of Solo2007, including future Piehole Elliot Quick. In 2008, Tara teamed up with director Willow Norton to further develop the piece, and performed it at HERE Arts Center in Summer 2008. With the support of Pieholes Danny Cannizzaro (video), Laura Vitale (sound), and Jeff Wood (photographs), Tara and Willow next took the show to Philly Fringe 2008.