We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Brendan Schweda a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.
Brendan, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Can you talk to us about a project that’s meant a lot to you?
In 2018, I founded the Puppets Come Home series in the Coney Island neighborhood of Brooklyn, NY. The opportunity to start the series was provided by the permanently unelected mayor of Coney Island, Dick Zigun. In the early 1980s, Zigun, who is also the founder of the famous Coney Island Mermaid Parade, started a non-profit that was meant to showcase, among other things, his weird American plays. After I developed a professional relationship with Zigun, and shared my love for both theatre and community building, he invited me to produce an original show for his Sideshows by the Seashore theater. Up until that time, my artistic background was rooted in traditional theater and music. However, when presented with an opportunity to put on a show in a theater that was home to sideshow, burlesque, magic, and circus… I decided that puppets might be an excellent fit. Unfortunately, I didn’t know any puppeteers. So, in August of 2018, I promptly attended the first International Puppet Fringe Festival in NYC’s Lower East Side. I met a host of exciting puppeteers and put together a line-up for the first (Halloween-themed) Puppets Come Home that October. The show featured a variety of short-form puppet acts in various styles for an adult audience. I had no idea that I had inadvertently presented a puppet slam, and thereafter was introduced to The Puppet Slam Network, spearheaded by Heather Henson’s Green Feather Foundation. The Puppet Slam Network funds about 50 short-form puppet variety shows for adults across North America. The success of Puppets Come Home’s first one-off show, combined with eventual grant funding from The Puppet Slam Network, swung open the door to develop Puppets Come Home as a series. More shows followed in 2019. Then, in 2020, amid the challenges of the pandemic, I moved the series online (like so many artists), and made it a monthly event. My hunger for building an artistic community was heartily nourished when I began to present short-form puppet work from artists across the States and around the globe. Since then, Puppets Come Home has presented work from over 150 puppeteers. I have built out the producorial team to include established NYC puppeteers, such as Tau Bennett and Camille Cooper, and we are touring the series around Manhattan in anticipation of moving into our new home base of Teatro SEA. Things seem to have come full-circle, since Teatro SEA’s artistic director, Dr. Manuel Moran, is also one of the producers of the bi-annual International Puppet Fringe Festival, where my puppet journey began.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
It means the world to me to consistently work with the dynamic artists who make up NYC’s vibrant and inclusive puppetry community. In producing Puppets Come Home, I present the shows that I want to see, which means providing a platform for a wide spectrum of puppetry styles and cultural perspectives. The range of puppetry styles includes string puppets, hand puppets, rod puppets, shadow puppets, mask, object theater, and much more. While there are performers who excel in any given style, as well as expert craftspeople who build (and sometimes perform) beautiful work, I think that the infinite material possibilities of puppets are ultimately a vehicle for the entertaining and powerful stories that artists are able to convey. Behind all of the puppets are people, and I purposefully book performers whose work speaks to our common humanity. Each Puppets Come Home puppet slam is themed, which means that performers have an opportunity to come together, share work, and inspire conversation around a given topic. After producing this series for six years, I am very proud every time an artist whose work I admire approaches me, enthusiastically interested to participate in one of our shows.
Have any books or other resources had a big impact on you?
I have been inspired in no small part by the artistic philosophy of the late puppeteer and filmmaker, Jim Henson. Through interviews and anecdotal accounts of his colleagues, it is clear that Henson built teams where everyone’s ideas and perspectives were valued. It is very gratifying to forge a singular artistic vision, but I think it is much more fun when we build something together as a community of peers with a shared mission.
How can we best help foster a strong, supportive environment for artists and creatives?
In order to foster a thriving creative ecosystem, it is in society’s best interest to provide as many opportunities as possible for artists to share space in live and community-oriented settings.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.puppetscomehome.com
- Instagram: @puppetscomehome
