Animalia

Hobey Ford (NC)
Recommended for ages 4+
Length of Show: 50 minutes

Show Description:

This beautiful production explores the world of animals through movement, music and visually stunning puppetry. Breaking out of the traditional puppet theater booth, Hobey Ford turns the whole theatre into his performance stage. The performance includes a magnified look at butterfly and frog metamorphosis, the world of birds and a classic undersea ballet of whales, frolicking dolphins and otters. Witness the magic of beautiful, animated, carved foam puppets, each one a work of art. In creating these “Foamies,” Hobey carefully studies each animal’s characteristic movements; he then designs various control mechanisms to make the puppets move in a life-like manner.

Promo Link

Artist/Company Bio:

Winner of puppetry’s highest honor, the UNIMA Citation of Excellence, and a three-time grant recipient from The Jim Henson Foundation, Hobey Ford is internationally recognized for excellence in puppetry performance and craft. Renowned for his intricate shadow puppetry and for inventing the original rod puppets known as the “Foamies,” Ford blends Bunraku, rod puppetry, marionettes, shadow work, and his signature creations into performances that have toured worldwide. Drawing on studies at State University of New York at Purchase and University of North Carolina at Asheville, he designs and constructs all of his Golden Rod Puppets and scenic environments, adapting global folk tales with his distinctive “Golden Rod” storytelling style—complete with original character voices, sound effects, and song. Inspired in part by his upbringing in coastal Connecticut and time spent in a Nevada Native American community, Ford has created works such as Whale Walker and Turtle Island Tales. Celebrated as both an innovator and master storyteller, he also developed the expressive hand puppet “Peepers” and the large-scale foam-carved animal “Foamies,” engineered with specialized control mechanisms to achieve remarkably lifelike movement in both stage and immersive performance settings.

Credits:

Puppets by Hobey Ford
Music By The Paul Winter Consort www.livingmusic.com

Company Website: www.hobeyford.com

https://www.pbs.org/video/hobey-ford-master-puppeteer-u4zazh/