Bring the world of Shakespeare to life through bold, high-energy puppetry in this hands-on workshop with SHAKE Theatre of New York.
Led by Co-Founder and Producing Artistic Director Josh Rice—a two-time Jim Henson Foundation Award recipient and founder of the New York State Puppet Festival—participants will design and build their own puppets and develop the skills to animate them with movement, voice, and character.
Focusing on key moments from Hamlet, including the Ghost scenes and the play-within-a-play, this interactive session invites participants to experiment with puppetry techniques, physical performance, and stagecraft in a fast-paced, collaborative environment.
Designed for participants ready to build on performance skills, as well as those new to puppetry and Shakespeare, this workshop offers an engaging introduction to SHAKE Theatre’s inventive and playful approach to classical work.
This workshop is recommended for teens and adults.
Josh Rice is a multidisciplinary theatre artist specializing in puppetry & improvisation. He makes work that is at once playful, absurd, and tragic, incorporating simple performer-driven spectacle, puppetry, live music, improvisation, and audience interaction.
Most recently Josh created, designed, and directed Kayfabe, a puppet wrestling entertainment spectacular, which was awarded two Jim Henson Foundation Grants, and was featured on NPR’s All Things Considered.
He is the Co-Founder & Producing Artistic Director of SHAKE and the New York State Puppet Festival, a rural-based professional theatre in his hometown of Perry, NY. SHAKE credits: Co-Director of Songs & Sweet Airs, Charles the Wrestler in As You Like It, Richard in Richard III, Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet, Puck in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and Director/Designer of the puppet-infused adaptation of A Christmas Carol.
Puppetry Performance Credits: Kayfabe (Las Vegas Theatre Company, Chicago Puppet Festival, Dixon Place, NYC) Chimpanzee by Nick Lehane (Flipside Festival, Singapore); Akutugawa with Tom Lee & Koryu Nishikawa V (Japan Society NYC, Chicago Puppet Festival, U.S. Tour, Japan Tour); Dan Hurlin’s Demolishing Everything with Amazing Speed (Bard SummerScape, Holland Festival); Shank’s Mare by Tom Lee & Koryu Nishikawa V (NYSPF, Paris, Chicago Int’t Puppet Festival 2019, La MaMa, Japan tour, Hawaii tour, U.S. tour); Petrushka with the NY Philharmonic Orchestra (The Barbican) The Scarlet Ibis (Prototype, HERE Arts); and Janie Geiser’s Reptile Under the Flowers (St. Ann’s Warehouse).
From 2004-2012, Josh was a company member of the AMFA (formerly the Arkansas Arts Center) Children’s Theatre, performing hundreds of shows in Little Rock and across the state of Arkansas. He is the co-founder of Improv Little Rock, and of the teen improv comedy troupe, Armadillo Rodeo. He is full-time Faculty at the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science at Stony Brook University.
Josh Rice is a multidisciplinary theatre artist specializing in puppetry & improvisation. He makes work that is at once playful, absurd, and tragic, incorporating simple performer-driven spectacle, puppetry, live music, improvisation, and audience interaction.
