Westbeth Gallery: PENNY JONES: The Journey of an Artist Through Time: October 12 – 27, 2013

A retrospective of master puppeteer, Penny Jones, with puppets and staging from the 1950’s to the present.

On view from October 12-­‐27, 2013
Westbeth Gallery 155 Bank Street, enter through courtyard. b/w West and Washington Streets
Gallery Hours: Wednesday through Sunday 1pm – 6pm

Puppets and Stages-­‐ A retrospective : The Journey of an Artist Through Time is the first comprehensive exhibit of the puppets and stages created by master puppeteer Penny Jones covering her 60 year career in puppetry. The show presents puppets in a variety of styles and materials, as well as some of the unique stages built to perform the over 40 puppet plays the collection is drawn from. Ms Jones has written puppet shows for adults, children and both. The puppets range from her first marionette to the hand and rod puppets she is most usually associated with. Commercially commissioned work for advertising and theatrical companies will also be represented. A broad range of styles and media are also evident. From small and cuddly to large and majestic, from abstract found objects and detritus-­‐inspired pieces to historically stylized two dimensional works. All the puppets have been used in performance and the unique stages designed and built to the needs and styles of each show are also represented in the exhibit for dramatic
context.

Penny Jones was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After attending Antioch College, she moved to New York City and began performing with the Parks Department Marionette Troupe. In the 1970’s she founded her own puppet company and has been performing in Greenwich Village continuously ever since. Penny Jones & Co. Puppets specializes in shows for the very youngest audiences. Classic Tales and Fables mixed with original stories have been carefully crafted to cultivate a lifelong connection to live theater. Penny’s Early Childhood Puppet Theatre was described by New York Magazine as “Very simple, and perfect as an introduction to
theatre.” Extensive work in schools led to the crafting of many educational shows and programs. Ms Jones’s career has also included shows for adults with themes reflecting her interests in feminism and conservancy. Her work with orchestras including the Brooklyn Symphony are musically inspired and intertwined. The varied collection of puppets and stages in this exhibition are inherently narrative, yet clearly works of art in their own right. Through all the years and productions, Ms Jones’ artistic craft, vision and line are recognizable. Her work is about finding a way to overcome dangers and obstacles, usually with education or friendly advice, and the world is a better place for all at the end of the show.

BIO

PENNY JONES & CO. PUPPETS has been a mainstay of children’s theater in New York since the 1970’s. The company specializes in informal puppet shows for children aged three to eight, and puppet ballets with live music for audiences of adults, children or both. The company performs in collaboration with chamber ensembles and orchestras. The repertory includes adaptations of classical works as well as original stories and scores. In schools, the company has performed hundreds of times, and Penny has a wide variety of programs from puppet pageants with a cast and crew of 30 to 90 school children, to workshops for small classes, and Penny’s “One on One” – interweaving puppetry, storytelling, movement and arts.

The company has performed on television, in the Henson International Puppet Festival at the Public Theatre, with the Brooklyn Philharmonic at BAM, City Center, Avery Fischer Hall, museums including The Museum of the City of New York, The Children’s Museum of New York, the American Museum of Natural History, Emilin, Wave Hill, and at venues from Macy’s to Barnes & Noble, with the New Jersey Symphony, at Greenwich House Music School, the Washington Square Music Festival, the Music Barge, Casa de España and many, many, more…

Penny Jones is the Director of Penny Jones & Co. Puppets, and The Early Childhood Puppet Theatre, a non- profit, 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization, and has worked for Suzari Marionettes, The NY Park Department Marionettes, Pickwick Puppets, Dozari Marionettes, Bil Baird, and Sesame Street. Penny has also served as the president of the Puppetry Guild of Greater New York.

Penny Jones is the author of over 28 produced puppet shows, from miniature classroom tabletop to large auditorium, and of numerous articles on puppetry in various publications. She has performed and taught in the US and Europe. She has exhibited her puppets at National and Regional Puppet Festivals where she has also performed shows and presented workshops in puppet making.

Her puppets in medieval fresco design for Thomas Dunn’s Festival Orchestra’s rendition of Master Peter’s
Puppet Show performed at Philharmonic Hall, Lincoln Center.
Her Cloisters Renaissance Festival workshop for apprentices and journeymen produced Lady Godiva on a horse, and assorted gargoyles.

For Earth Day the American Museum of Natural History featured her comic giant model of the Museum, constructed from 17 cardboardboxes, with 3 dimensional comic miniatures of dinosaurs, whales, totempoles etc. in appropriate wings.

Barnes and Noble featured her 12 foot wide pop-up book stage, along with the store’s latest selection of pop-up books in two of its windows for the Christmas season. Penny was invited to double the size and length of this 15 minute pop-up book puppet show for inclusion in the Henson International Festival, where it was one of only four children’s shows featured. This larger version remains one of the most popular shows in the company repertory.

For her original puppet show, La Donna Del Mare, using local children in the town of Castel di Tusa, in
Sicily, she received the Medalia d’Oro.

Commercially Ms. Jones puppets were commissioned by David Hockney for the Metropolitan Opera’s Parade, and by Carol Channing for a record cover of Peter and the Wolf. She was also commissioned to create a Dynamo detergent puppet and two rivals for a T.V. commercial; two puppets for a Nestles documentary on the history of chocolate; wooden figures for magazine ads about Pepperidge Farm; a Santa to grace a Christmas catalog cover for Harrison Productions; four cover designs for American Judaism Magazine; and a set of Punch and Judy puppets for the CBS soap, “the Doctors”

In Schools, Penny has used her puppetry expertise to foster Early Childhood Language Literacy in a variety of ways:
—-for ESL and bi lingual groups Penny has created an assortment of puppet theatre stimulants to learning;
An engaging original puppet show performed by ESL third graders with rhyming lines to facilitate script learning by participants; Small class workshops using original or classic stories easy to empathize with about separating and reuniting with loved ones and traveling in unfamiliar places, followed up with craft work to foster self esteem; Large, theme centered puppet musical pageants enriching the curriculums of the several classes performing and making puppets, as well as their audiences. One such pageant was the dramatization of an official school board educational manual on Puerto Rican culture which included songs, dances, stories, history, and geography. Two others, the puppet plays Perez and Martinez, and The Story of Ferdinand were based on Hispanic literature and reflected the cultural heritage of the children.
Penny’s nursery rhymes with props are very popular as classroom participation activities by preschoolers.

Her pretend TV station brings out a variety of talents in children. In this pretend TV workshop, the
‘station’ is an empty picture frame attached to a bookcase and manned by the children with simple puppets, original stories, news flashes, math and science games, and kid created advertising. An entire year’s curriculum can be covered feeding information into this frame with the fun of performing and the creativity of making up programs to fit.
—For a Special Ed class she designed a pantomime especially tailored to utilize the limited body movements those children were capable of. They crumpled paper and then stuffed it into a giant muslin bag thus filling out the form of Abiyoyo, the giant in the story. They then pantomimed the narrated story. One child in a motorized wheel chair with a paper sun strapped to it was able to push-button across the stage thus moving the sun at the appointed time. Totally into her part, she arrived at school wearing sunglasses.

-With her Shoebox and Tabletop Shows, Ms Jones has created a three part program for preschool through second grade designed to hold their attention, help them focus, maintain interest, respond with creative thinking, and remember. First, she presents a puppet show or reads a story, often including the children making crowd noises or sound effects. Then she leads a brief craft activity workshop to recreate some part of the story. Next, the children, with her help, retell the story using the artifacts they have just made. In this way they listen, respond, reflect while creating their artifacts, and then practice their language skills by repeating in their own words what they have just experienced. Finally they have their talisman artifacts to take home to remind them of the experience.

Penny has given teacher training workshops in puppet pageant making, pop-up book making, plastic bottle and polyfoam puppet head making, shadow puppet making with stationary and Sobo glue, the using of the pretend TV format as a tool for exercising communication skills, the using of recycled materials.

further info: www.pennyspuppets.org