We made a final trip to College of the Holy Cross last week as part of our Arts Transcending Borders residency.
Holy Cross students and staff members accompanied FST Director of Education Ian Bannon on a field trip to the St. Francis Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Worcester, where Ian conducted a TimeSlips storytelling session for a dozen residents with Alzheimer’s and dementia.
The staff at St. Francis marveled at how two particular St. Francis residents—individuals who rarely speak in group settings—joined in the TimeSlips process and opened up to those around them. After the session, the Holy Cross community members and representatives from St. Francis joined Ian in conversation to explore the benefits of creative aging programs, sharing thoughts on the TimeSlips process and ways to implement its lessons in their own lives and careers.
During FST’s Arts Transcending Borders residency, we participated in:
• two sold-out performances of David Lang’s Pulitzer prize-winning the little match girl passion with the Holy Cross Chamber Singers, each followed by an in-depth conversation with audience members
• a recitation from memory of T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets attended by 130 people
• a bunraku puppetry workshop for Holy Cross students and faculty
• two classroom lectures for courses on Contemporary Asiaand Narratives of Illness
• three TimeSlips storytelling sessions with post-session Q&As
• a pop-up devised theater workshop offered as part of the ENGAGE Summit, fostering dialogue and a process of change in response to a recent hate crime on the Holy Cross campus
• on-going conversations between Arts Transcending Borders and Worcester Public Schools about arts education, the development of a solid relationship between these two organizations, and future in-school residencies with FST artists
It has truly been a blessing to spend so much time collaborating and developing relationships with our partners at Arts Transcending Borders, College of the Holy Cross, the Worcester Poetry Association, and the entire Worcester community.
Here’s wishing you similar fulfillment in whatever you may be pursuing right this very moment. May it blossom into something beautiful!
Happy Blossoming,
John & Ian
Last year around this time, we shared photos of a Santa Claus puppet created for a feature film being produced here in Maine. We’re thrilled to announce that Holly Star has just been released and is now available on iTunes and On Demand!
You can view the trailer on YouTube.
Michael Nickles’ feel-good romantic comedy was a joy to work on and that joy radiates off the screen, providing a much needed break from these stressful times…with puppets!
Sloan returns home for the holidays and gets caught up in a mysterious treasure hunt with her paintball-obsessed best friend, her tango-dancing grandmother and her childhood sweetheart.
If that’s not a recipe for warm fuzzies, we don’t know what is…
This weekend, cozy-up with a cup of cocoa and enjoy the ride with Sloan, Andy, and the rest of the Holly Star gang. Click here to enjoy!
Happy Holidays,
John & Ian
In a brilliant theatrical adaptation with haunting shadow projections, masked dance, and puppetry, Maine-based Figures of Speech Theatre brings contemporary composer David Lang’s the little match girl passion to the stage in collaboration with the Holy Cross Chamber Singers.
Winner of the 2008 Pulitzer Prize in Music, Lang’s exquisite score recasts the H.C. Andersen classic about the suffering and death of a child in the tradition of Bach’s Passion music, elevating her sorrow to a higher plane.
The score will will be performed live by the Holy Cross Chamber Singers under the direction of Allegra Martin. The Chamber Singers is a select auditioned choral ensemble of approximately 16 singers who display the highest level of musical excellence. They present a challenging repertoire ranging from classical part songs and Renaissance motets to contemporary choral music.
Arts Transcending Borders is an initiative designed to enhance the role of the arts in every aspect of the Holy Cross experience by infusing the arts into students’ academic lives and creating new opportunities throughout the curriculum and the community to cross cultural, geographic, and disciplinary boundaries.
Sponsored by Arts Transcending Borders, College of the Holy Cross’ Department of English and Catholic Studies Program, and the Worcester County Poetry Association
John Farrell memorized T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets –all eight hundred and ninety-one lines of it– in 2011 and now recites this poetic masterwork from memory. The recitation, which lasts one hour and twenty minutes without intermission, affords the audience the opportunity to immerse themselves in Eliot’s language for a truly unique, meditative experience.
February 15 at 7:00 PM – Merrill Memorial Library, Yarmouth
April 24 at 7:00 PM – York Public Library
June 7 at 5:30 PM – Farmington Public Library
July 17 at 6:30 PM – Belfast Free Library
July 27 at 7:00 PM – Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library
August 21 at 7:00 PM – Camden Public Library
August 22 at 7:00 PM – Blue Hill Public Library
September 28 & 29 at 7:00 PM – Skidompha Public Library, Damariscotta
This tour of “Four Quartets” has received generous support from private foundations, a Maine Theater Fund Grant from the Maine Community Foundation, and an Arts & Humanities Grant awarded by the Maine Humanities Council and the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Join us for this re-telling of Hans Christian Andersen in this beautiful venue in the Western Maine Foothills.
For more information and tickets, call (207) 743-8452 or you may purchase tickets online.
John Farrell memorized T.S. Eliot’s Four Quartets –all eight hundred and ninety-one lines of it– in 2011 and now recites this poetic masterwork from memory. The performance, which lasts one hour and twenty minutes without intermission, affords the audience the opportunity to immerse themselves in Eliot’s language for a truly unique, meditative experience.
With special guest Carl Dimow, playing the flute interludes he composed for the recitation.
The performance is free and open to all.
FST is currently scheduling additional dates for a performing tour to Maine Libraries in 2018, with dates already scheduled in Waldo, Hancock, York, Lincoln & Cumberland counties. Librarians from around the state received a sneak preview when Farrell recited Little Gidding, one of Eliot’s Four Quartets, at the Annual Maine Librarians Association Conference.
The tour of Four Quartets is generously supported with support from private foundations as well as a Maine Theater Fund Grant from the Maine Community Foundation, in addition to an Arts & Humanities Grant awarded this summer by the Maine Humanities Council and the Maine Arts Commission, an independent state agency supported by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Additional dates are available and we encourage interested libraries to call us at 207-865-6355.
This weekend, we’re joining 7 other puppet artists on stage at Mayo Street Arts’ annual King Friday’s Dungeon Puppet Slam!
FST Ian Bannon will be sharing an early shadow experiment in first-person point-of-view immersion, Are You Here|Here You Are.
This year’s performance is expanded to two performances to accommodate the sell-out crowds. Don’t get left out in the cold!
For more information, visit Mayo Street Art’s Facebook event page.
FST Co-Founders, John and Carol, will demolish your preconceptions about the puppet theater and share their evolution from childhood buddies to international touring artists. Hear their story and experience their unique performance, which melds puppetry with dance, sculpture, poetry, and music in a theatrical form that defies categorization and celebrates the metaphorical power of puppets.
Each fall and spring, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at the University of Southern Maine presents SAGE, a series of Tuesday morning lectures that cover a wide array of topics of current interest. The speakers are recognized experts from the arts, government, non-profit, education, business, and civic communities in Maine.
The Wishcamper Center, Room 102
University of Southern Maine, Portland
$10 admission; $25 OLLI Membership required
We are thrilled to announce that the Maine Arts Commission has awarded FST two grants for the coming year. (We’re also thrilled to announce that they still have enough funding to give grants!)
An Arts and Humanities Grant, issued jointly by the MAC and the Maine Humanities Council, will be used to support a tour of free performances of Four Quartets to libraries in Maine’s mid-coast region in 2018. There is still room for partnering libraries to join this tour. Please contact us if you would like more information.
MAC’s Arts Learning Grant will be used to support a community-wide educational residency in Eastport, Maine this winter in partnership with the Eastport Arts Center. FST artists will spend an intensive week with 7th & 8th grade students, adapting local tales into live shadow plays in the latest iteration of The Art of Memory: Stories from Eastport. During the week, our artists will spend two additional hours with every K-6 student in the district and offer a master class for adults. Stories from Eastport will be performed live for the entire community on Friday!
Please join us in thanking the Maine Arts Commission and Maine Humanities Council for generously supporting our work this season.
