WHO IS POSSIBLY PUPPETS?
Risa Lenore (she/ her)
Berkeley based artist and educator Risa Lenore Anderson Dye is the artistic director, primary puppet and set designer, builder, and storymaker for Possibly Puppets.
For over 20 years, she has been teaching theater, storytelling, creative movement, puppetry and visual arts at elementary schools, preschools and beyond in the San Francisco Bay Area. She holds a BA in anthropology from Beloit College. She attended Jacques LeCoq’s school of international Theatre in Paris, France; the physical theater school and the laboratory of movement studies. She continues to expand her puppet knowledge with courses and by attending conferences and festivals.
Risa started her artistic career as a visual artist and discovered improvisational theater and experimental dance in college. She performed with small dance companies in San Francisco in the early 2000s as dancer, physical actor and storyteller. She is an award-winning costume designer with Theater of Yugen in San Francisco, and continues to use costumery in her work.
Presently, working mostly with found paper, fabric and wood, she playfully combines colors and textures into visually rich puppet theatre. Risa explores the themes of greed, loss, and environmental stewardship in her tales. From 2019-2020, she was an artist in residence at the El Cerrito Recycling Center and built all new puppets and stories. Many of the stories found in the refuse at the recycle center continue to nourish her creations today. Risa believes that through education and exposure puppetry can expand, and more people can access this truly wonderful art form. Since 2013, she has performed original puppet shows hundreds of times for family audiences through the San Francisco Bay Area. As desires for more experimental and boundary-pushing work grew, Possibly Puppets emerged from Jelly Jam Time Puppets, puppet shows designed for early childhood audiences.
​
Richie Rhombus, (they/them)
Richie Rhombus is an artist, visual storyteller, and experience creator. Richie makes art experiences that expand and play with social constructs. Richie's work scales from the personal to the public, from intimate rituals to large-scale adventurous social events. They use social dynamics and human behavior as mediums of play and invention to connect people's bodies to greater ideas. Richie employ drawing, performance, and interactive experiences as a way to communicate stories and actions into social reality.
While Richie's art is best expressed as a temporary relationship with others in free spaces, their work and collaborative art has also been exhibited in MoMA Ps1 NYC, DrawInternational France, Theatre Row Times Sq. NYC, IVAM Contemporary Art Museum of Valencia Spain, Counterpulse Theater San Francisco, and spaces throughout NYC, Los Angeles, Chicago, and The Bay Area.
Check out more of Richie's art here.
Daniel Gill (he/ him)
Born in Johannesburg, South Africa, Daniel Gill is an educational puppeteer, early childhood educator, and teaching artist living in San Francisco. Daniel began his puppet training at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater in Los Angeles. He has also continued his professional development at the Puppet Therapy Diploma Program, the Jim Henson Foundation, the O'Neill Puppetry Conference, and the Puppets in Prague program. Daniel now serves as a teaching artist in inclusive and Autism-focus classrooms in San Francisco. He works with Marsh Youth Theater, StageWrite, and San Francisco Children’s Art Center and is launching his own educational puppetry company called The Puppet Circle. Daniel performs as a puppeteer and a collaborator with Risa Lenore of Possible Puppets.
Other artists are brought on board for performance, consultation and direction for Possibly Puppets projects- carpenters, clowns, choreographers, storytellers, musicians and additional puppeteers as needed.
A Puppet Artist's Statement
To be a puppet artist is to set a visual feast in motion- and to bring life to the life-less. We playfully explore story employing art forms popularized in 19th century Europe; toy theatres, pop-up books and crankies or scrolling backdrops. Though puppetry is largely performative, it is also visual art in motion. For each puppet show, We start with a seed, and then we engage in research, design, craft and building. We explore various mediums and discover new avenues of expression. The puppet characters that emerge from these explorations become beings in their own right, as they have thoughts, wishes, dreams and stories that belong to them. A certain kind of magic happens in the cohesion of all the elements in our visual story making. Add audience co-creation into the story's recipe, and voila!, collective alchemy!
Fundamentally, Possibly Puppets uses color, character, and story to explore themes of greed, loss, and emotional and environmental stewardship. Some of these stories come to life, others simply have a moment in the sun to plant a seed for a larger tale. We are committed to using recycled and transforming discarded materials. The performances have all been created intentionally for the purpose of sharing with the public. If someone just happens by, they catch a song, and a cohesive visual scene- and perhaps this splash adds a bounce to their step- and renders the world slightly better.
Public art is fundamental to Possibly Puppets' vision and dreams, removing art from the confines of galleries and theatres and into parks, libraries and public squares allows all walks of life to enjoy. It exits from behind closed doors and into community spaces. We direct our efforts to providing free performances for audiences by working with libraries, museums, cities and schools or performing in the public parks. We believe art should surround us and envelop us in all its forms. It renders the mundane magical and extends our ideas of what is possible.
Let’s Work Together!
contact risalenore at geeemail dot com!
Get in touch so we can start working together.
