Murphi is currently doing an artist residency in Bunker Projects in Pittsburgh. While here she is creating In a Town by the Forest on The Shore, the miniature set for the obscure silent film The Clown was Stung by Wasps. She is also making hand puppets. A lot of hand puppets.
Her show opens September 1, 2017, 7-10pm. 5106 Penn Ave, Pittsburgh PA.
Mr. Wicketts lived in a very small house on Butternut Lane. He also didn't have any teeth.
Here's another bedtime story for your dreamland pleasures.
Since all I really want to do is babysit, I've started a series of bedtime stories (for both you and your children). The first one is about a squirrel.
Ma heard there was going to be some serious speed dating down at the KFC.
Clay, acrylic, digital collage.
Re-visiting old friends, or, the two-headed pug and the tapeworm.
Mixed media digital collage
After a wildly successful run at Charleston’s Piccolo Spoleto Festival, and a sold out production in San Antonio, Miniature Curiosa presents it’s latest puppet spectacle, Moon City, at Studio@620. Critics raved at Charleston City Paper, calling it “…one of Piccolo Spoleto's most daring and inventive shows in years”, and promising “you’ll spend an entire hour in wide-eyed wonder”. Of Miniature Curiosa they said “It’s like Tim Burton befriended Tom Waits as a child and taught him to make home movies with dolls and play sets.”
Moon City follows one man’s relentless efforts to build a fantasyland inside of a swamp. The fast-paced marvel promises moonlit puppets, live projection technology, original animation, and of course, an entire amusement park in less than ten-feet of space.
March 24 and 25.
7 pm.
Studio@620, 620 1st Ave S, Saint Petersburg FL
A collaboration between The Magik Theatre and multimedia puppet troupe Miniature Curiosa, this production features Red Riding Hood like you've never seen her before. Thirteen and not so little anymore, Red must venture into the forest to deliver a sugar free birthday cake to her ailing grandmother. But, with her wavering imagination and a hungry wolf on the prowl, it seems unlikely that she'll live to see another detention hall. This fast-paced puppet spectacle is best for ages 7 and up.
Red runs from October 9-November 8. Tickets here.
In just 2 weeks Moon City will open up at PURE Theatre as part of the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina. The newest iteration of the spectacle brings a whole new set, brand new puppets, and more paper cuts than ever before. Here's Al Bennet, an alligator with one healthy pair of champers and an appetite for dreams. One of these days I'll get alligator head puppets out of my system, but that purge doesn't seem to be coming anytime soon.
We're throwing open the gates to Moon City for three performances at Piccolo Spoleto in Charleston, SC.
Come see us May 29th at 8pm, May 30th at 2pm, or May 31st at 7 pm. Each performance will be at PURE Theatre (477 King Street). Tickets are $15 and can be purchased here.
The chimpanzee holds a sweatshirt and my heart implodes. Her face nuzzles the grey cotton with such care it seems only natural that she should wear clothes, until she sticks her head through the armhole and ruins the illusion. The hood flaps limply on her shoulder; all the visitors clap regardless, loudly applauding her attempts at failed anthropomorphism. She picks a twig out of her armpit and my broken heart suddenly burns with a searing anger. She is not cute. She is a furry imbecile. She is wearing my sweatshirt.
I dropped the bananas the first time I saw his tight bottom squeezed into those khaki pants. I was the primary operator of the blender at the zoo’s smoothie hut. He was the new zookeeper. I loved him without ever hearing his voice, and when we kissed behind the African Elephants my only thought was forever. I forgot to breathe when he slipped the sweatshirt over my head, his chapped lips making their way down my sternum. Our forever lasted two weeks. He hasn’t called. He gave my sweatshirt to her.
The chimp swings it over her head in triumph, clearly mocking me. As the crowd chirps with delight, I realize she’s staring at me. I shut my eyes. I am not crazy. When I open them, I see she has lifted her thick finger in the air, pointing it at me. She grunts. Our eyes lock. I grunt back. She beats her hands on her chest, the shirt gyrating with wild energy. I beat my hands on my chest right back, slowly first, then so hard it hurts. I scream. She screams right back. We are free. He didn’t call. I step onto the railing. I close my eyes. She can keep the sweatshirt. I jump into my wilderness.
I am mid-staring contest in the candy aisle. She’s a nun. I’m seven. Her habit’s black. My eyes are blue. I found her dissecting a roll of Lifesavers. She was looking for the green ones. She didn’t tell me this, but I could tell because whenever she found a green saver, she popped it in her mouth, sucking hard, but never biting. My mom says biting candy is the quickest way to make your teeth fall clean out of your head. When the nun was done with all those not green candies she shoved them right back into the shiny paper tube all sticky and crooked-like, and put them back on the shelf like nothing had ever happened. They looked sad that way, but there was nothing to say.
There are three green Lifesavers inside her mouth right this minute. She squints, but she doesn’t blink, instead she just makes a sound like slurping and spitting at the same time. Today, I got a 75 on my social studies test. But I haven’t told anybody that.
This nun is different than the nuns at school. They dress like old ladies. This nun looks like the nun from a book. She’s almost too real. I’m not Catholic, but my mom thought it would be better if I went to Catholic school because it’s private and not everyone could go there. One time everybody got to go to confession and I just got to spend the whole time praying that one day I would sin and be able to tell somebody about it.
Crunch. The nun breaks the Lifesavers with her teeth but she keeps looking at me. My hands are wrapped so tight around a bag of Rolos that I can feel the chocolate ooze in the plastic. If I blink now I will lose and then I will die — she swallows and blinks. Yes. I squeeze my eyes shut until I see yellow fuzz and count to ten. I open them, and she’s gone. I am holding the opened packet of Lifesavers.
“What are you doing?” My mom asks, breaking the quiet of the aisle. “Nothing,” I say, slipping the roll into my pocket. The only things in her cart are iceburg lettuce and boxed macaroni.
Later, when we’re at the Y for swimming lessons, my mom asks me why I keep messing with my coat pocket and I show her the Lifesaver roll. She slaps me. I don’t say a word as we drive back to the grocery store. My mom stays in the car.
I go up to the only open register. I look at the cashier. And he looks at me. He blinks. I blink. He blinks again.
“I’m sorry,” I tell him, and I mean it more than anything I’ve ever meant before. “I’m just sorry,” I tell him again as I drop the Lifesavers on the conveyer belt. “There aren’t any green ones left.”
Tuesday night: Tapeworm
This is just one of the sculptures I made for Miniature Curiosa's Toy Theater Parlor. These will be on display until April 18th.
An Excruciatingly Ordinary Toy Theater Show has four weekends left. Get your tickets here.
George Washington: Toddler. Because even presidents wore diapers.
Visitors will find an unusual something tucked inside the bright blue warehouse of 1906 S. Flores starting May 20th. Zach and I have been converting our studio into a Toy Theater Parlor where we will serve up popcorn, paletas, and puppets from March 20th to April 18th. Zach's new solo show An Excrutiatingly Ordinary Toy Theater Show will make its San Antonio debut inside the space. My clay sculptures will also be cozied up along the walls.
Here's an article about the space.