HERE Presents Nick Lehane's Puppet Play CHIMPANZEE

To endow animals with human emotion has long been a scientific taboo. But if we do not, we risk missing something fundamental, about animals and us. Frans de Waal, primatologist and ethologist

 

HERE (Kristin Marting, Artistic Director) continues its 2018 2019 season with the world premiere of Chimpanzee, the first evening-length work by actor and puppeteer Nick Lehane. In this non-verbal puppet play based on true events, bleak reality bleeds to vivid memory as an aging, isolated chimpanzee pieces together fragments of memories from her childhood in a human family.

 

Chimpanzee was inspired by the stranger-than-fiction stories of chimpanzees raised in human homes. These cross-fostering experiments tested the effects of raising chimpanzees as human children, specifically language acquisition. When the chimpanzees matured, or when funding dried up, some cross-fostered chimps went on to live as test subjects in a very different area of scientific research: pathogen studies performed in biomedical facilities.

 

Chimpanzee was developed through workshops at The Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, The Jim Henson Carriage House, and Puppet BloK at Dixon Place. Lehane's other puppet work has also shown at The Puppet Lab at St. Ann's Warehouse, Special Effects Festival at The Wild Project, and Pillsbury House Theatre in Minneapolis. Select puppet performance credits include Robin Frohardt's The Pigeoning (HERE/international tour), The Islamic Solidarity Games Opening Ceremony (Baku, Azerbaijan), Doug Fitch's Petrushka (Barbican Centre/New York Philharmonic) and El retablo de maese Pedro (Bard SummerScape), The Old Man and the Old Moon (PigPen Theatre Co.), Little Red Fish (Puppet Kitchen/New York City Children's Theater), Pip's Island, James Ortiz's The Little Mermaid and Lore (Amazon). Lehane studied at the Moscow Art Theatre School and holds a BFA from the Carnegie Mellon School of Drama.

 

The cast of Chimpanzee includes Rowan Magee, Andy Manjuck, and Emma Wiseman. The creative team includes Marika Kent (lighting design), Kate Marvin (sound design), and Mariah Plante (stage manager).

 

Twelve performances of Chimpanzee will take place March 7 17 with performances Tuesday Saturday at 7pm, Saturday Sunday at 2pm. Critics are welcome as of March 7, which will also serve as the official opening. From March 12 17, the performance will run as part of a double-header Puppet Pairing with Plexis Polare's Ashes. Tickets for each show are priced at $15 $45, or $40 for both, and can be purchased by visiting here.org or by calling 212-647-0202. In person sales at the box office after 5pm only on performance days and two hours prior to curtain for matinees. For Group Sales, contact tickets@here.org.

 

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