Hand-Crafted Dragon Puppet Takes Flight in Forked Web Series Premiering at New York CineFest

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New York, NY — Puppet artistry plays a pivotal role in the new indie web series Forked, making its world premiere at New York CineFest (April 26th at 4:30pm ET) with a three-episode screening that includes a standout fantasy sequence featuring a custom-built dragon puppet, brought to life by two acclaimed artists in the puppetry world: designer/builder Chris Palmieri and puppeteer Nick Lehane.

The series, created by and starring Sarah Goeke and directed by Julia Sears, is an intimate and irreverent story about sobriety, shame, and self-discovery—told through the lens of a woman narrating fantasy erotica from her childhood bedroom. But in one surreal sequence, the story escapes the confines of that room and soars into full fantasy, thanks to the presence of a mesmerizing dragon puppet.

Palmieri, known for his work on Disney’s Winnie the Pooh, Field Station: Dinosaurs, and Snug’s House (NBCUniversal), designed and built the puppet specifically for the Forked sequence. With a career spanning high-profile theatrical productions, national tours, and commercial puppetry design, Palmieri crafted a creature that captures both whimsy and emotional weight.

“We wanted the dragon to feel grounded in the world of fantasy erotica but still emotionally connected to our main character’s inner journey,” said Palmieri. “It had to be sexy, but also sincere.”

To bring the creature to life, the team brought in Nick Lehane, a world-renowned puppeteer celebrated for his original solo puppet piece Chimpanzee, as well as his work with War Horse and Avenue Q. Lehane’s ability to imbue breath and emotion into all his characters made him the ideal performer to embody the symbolic, dreamlike episode in Forked.

“The dragon represents what is underneath the surface,” said director Julia Sears.  “She is enticing, playful, and a little over the top. Nick immediately brought Chris’s creation to life which actualized a magical moment of self acceptance in the series.”

The sequence exemplifies what Forked does best: blending grounded emotional storytelling with surprising, theatrical visuals. The dragon becomes a symbol of desire, escape, and fantasy—an embodiment of the show's central tension between repression and freedom.

Shot over six days in Pittsburgh with a 16-person crew, Forked exemplifies the artistry and inventiveness of independent filmmaking. While three episodes will screen at CineFest—including the fantasy dragon sequence—the full seven-episode season is currently beginning its film festival run.

For puppet enthusiasts, practical effects lovers, and fans of character-driven fantasy, this is a rare chance to see expert hand puppetry featured in a deeply human story.

🎬 World Premiere of Forked
📍 New York CineFest
🗓️ April 26, 2025 @ 4:30pm Block 17 - Shorts
🎟️ Tickets & Info: www.newyorkcinefest.com/tickets

📲 Follow @ForkedWebSeries on Instagram for release updates, festival news, and behind-the-scenes stories from the making of the series.

 

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Announcing the Garland Distinguished Fellowship for Puppetry

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The Hambidge Center in Rabun Gap, Georgia has announced a special Distinguished Fellowship opportunity specifically for a puppeteer! The Garland Distinguished Fellowship for Puppetry is an award given to an outstanding applicant in the field of puppetry. It is a a merit-based award that removes the fees for a two-week residency and provides a $700 stipend as well.

The oldest residency program in the Southeast, Hambidge provides a self-directed program that honors the creative process and trusts individuals to know what they need to cultivate their talent, whether it’s to work and produce, to think, to experiment or to rejuvenate. Residents’ time is their own; there are no workshops, critiques, nor required activities.

Each resident is given their own private studio which provides work and living space with a bathroom and full kitchen. The studios are designed to protect residents’ time, space and solitude.

Deadline for the FALL SESSION (September through December) is April 15, 2025.

For more information and/or to apply, visit the Hambidge Center's website: https://www.hambidge.org/guidelines-apply

Wishing the best of luck to all who apply! 

New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations

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The first presentation of its kind, New African Masquerades offers a rare look into contemporary West African masquerade by contextualizing the works of individual artists within a range of social, economic, and religious practices and examining their networks of viewership and exchange.

April 4th - August 10th, 2025 • NOMA (New Orleans Museum of Art)

Apply for the 2025 National Puppetry Conference

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Calling all puppet artists: Our friends at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center in Waterford, CT, are now accepting applications for the 2025 National Puppetry Conference! Apply now to grow your skills and develop exciting new works of puppet theater. This year’s renowned instructors include Alice Laloy, Noel MacNeal, Maiko Kikuchi, Chamindika Wanduragala, Liz Hara, Jim Kroupa, Kurt Hunter, Alice Gottschalk and more! Applications will be accepted until February 6, 2025, at 11:59pm PST.

Learn More: https://www.theoneill.org/pup

Apply Now: https://theoneill.submittable.com/submit.

Call for Papers - Theatralia: Journal of Theatre Studies

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Theatralia: Journal of Theatre Studies is inviting you to submit your proposals for the upcoming spring issue of 2026. 

Issue topic: Puppetry with(out) Classics

Issue Editors: Kateřina Dolenská (DAMU, Prague, Czech Republic, Editor-in-chief of Loutkář [Puppeteer]) and Gabriella Reuss (PPCU Budapest, Hungary, and KU Ružomberok, Slovakia)

We invite research articles (4,000‒7,000 words) that explore the tradition, theory, practice, and even the avoidance of adapting classical works to the puppet stage. Suggested topics include, but are not limited to:

  • the simplified classics – the repertoire and dramaturgy of the travelling puppeteers and their role in popularizing and disseminating classical plots and narratives

  • performances of classical drama that aim to elevate, emancipate and/or legitimize puppetry as a theatrical form equal in artistic power to actors’ theatre

  • the performance of classical texts with the meaningful co-presence and interplay between the puppet and the visible puppeteer, adding layers to the interpretation

  • references/allusions/traces of classical texts in puppet productions that play with the distance, the emergence of visuality, and give room for an increased role of object theatre and technology

  • reasons, examples and tendencies of avoiding performing classical /canonized dramatic texts

For the Events, Archive, and Review sections, we welcome contributions (1,000‒1,500 words) that highlight recent puppetry-related publications, festivals, conferences, performances, or report on projects/workshops/trainings or materials and techniques that should be preserved, or brought to focus, within the context of contemporary theatre studies.

Important dates

 Proposal/abstract submission deadline: 15 April 2025 – Decision: 25 April 2025

Manuscript submission deadline for peer-reviewed sections (Yorick, Spectrum): 25 July, 2025

Manuscript submission deadline for non-reviewed sections (Reviews, Archive, Events): 30 November 2025

Issue publication: Spring 2026

 

All issue-related enquiries as well as submissions should be sent to the issue editors: theatralia@phil.muni.cz.

General guidelines for submission, formal requirements, article template and citation style are available at the section for authors on the Theatralia website. 

Theatralia is a peer reviewed journal of theatre and performance history and theory, issued by Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, and indexed in SCOPUS, EBSCO and ERIH Plus and listed in the Ulrich’s web Global Serials Directory.

Resources for LA Theater Artists in Need from the NEA

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News for the Field from the National Endowment for the Arts

Our thoughts are with our colleagues affected by the devastating wildfires in the southern California region. I’ve been in touch personally with many of you, and one thing that has resonated with me is that your first thoughts were not for your organizations, or your current productions, but for your immediate communities. It says something powerful about who we are as theater people that in moments like these, we turn first to those around us who need help, before focusing on our own needs. In that spirit, we at the NEA are focused on how we can help YOU; your theaters, your community of artists, and you as individuals weathering a crisis. We also know that the arts are a vital piece of the recovery, and a much needed resource for communities in the healing process of any mass tragic event, so the health of your organizations will be vital to these efforts. As a starting point, we’ve compiled a list of resources that we hope will prove helpful to you in this moment. Please let us know what else we can do to help, and know that we are here for you.

- Greg
Greg Reiner
Theater & Musical Theater Director

NEA award recipients in the affected areas of LA County: if you have questions about your award, including potential changes to your approved project, please contact the Grants Office by email at grants@arts.gov or phone at 202-682-5403.

Disaster and Emergency Preparedness Resources

Arts Grants and Financial Assistance

The following grants and financial assistance resources may be helpful to theater artists and organizations in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas. 

Arts Emergency Disaster Response Lists

The following complied emergency disaster response resource lists may be helpful to theater artists and organizations in Los Angeles and the surrounding areas. 

Please contact the organizations/ agencies listed directly for additional assistance or questions. The National Endowment for the Arts does not endorse one specific organization/ agency. The resources for artists in LA County is expanding, so the lists shared may not be comprehensive. 

NEA Arts & Disaster Resource Page 

The NEA recently launched a resource page on disaster readiness, response, and recovery for the arts and culture sector. Resources include case studies, state-specific networks, and preparedness tools. Please consider this as a resource and guide should it be needed.

View More

Gratitude

Thank you to the arts service organizations and performing arts unions who compiled and shared resources for this newsletter.

  • Actor’s Equity Association

  • Grantmakers in the Arts

  • International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE)

  • Literary Managers and Dramaturgs of the Americas (LMDA)

  • New York Foundation for the Arts

  • Opera America

  • Stage Directors and Choreographers Society and Foundation

  • Theater for Young Audiences / USA / ASSITEJ

  • Union Internationale de la Marionnette (UNIMA)

  • United States Institute for Theater Technology (USITT)

Contact Us

Theater & Musical Theater Director
Greg Reiner: reinerg@arts.gov

Assistant Grants Management Specialist
Natalie Donovan: donovann@arts.gov

General Inquiries
theaterandmusicaltheater@arts.gov

Theater & Musical Theater Specialist
Ouida Maedel: maedelo@arts.gov
(organizations A-L)

Theater & Musical Theater Specialist
Ian-Julian Williams: williamsi@arts.gov
(organizations M-Z)

Grants Management Program Specialist
Tracey Alperstein: alpersteint@arts.gov
(Musical Theater)

Don't miss the Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium at the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival!

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As part of the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, the Ellen Van Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium brings together practicing Festival artists with scholars to consider the intersection of puppetry with other disciplines and ideas.

The Symposium is free and will be available to stream through Howlround!

Location: Studebaker Theater at the Fine Arts Building 410 S. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL, United States

Full Lineup:

January 18 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium Panel 1 – The Puppet that Brings Us Together: Thoughts on Intercultural Puppetry Arts

This event centers on the experiences of the following artists: Peter Balkwill (Old Trout Puppet Workshop, Canadian Academy of Masks and Puppetry, University of Calgary, Canada), Ty Defoe (writer, actor, interdisciplinary artist, Ojibwe + Oneida Nations), Teng Teng Lam + Kevin Chio (Rolling Puppet Alternative Theater, Macau), and Dr. Paulette Richards. Moderated by Gabrielle Houle (University of Lethbridge, Canada).

January 19 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium Panel 2 – Humans and Objects

In this panel Pam Arciero (Aanika’s Elephants), Julian Crouch (Birdheart), Choiti Ghosh (Maati Katha), and Gildwen Peronno (I Killed the Monster) extend this reflection by commenting on how their shows interrogate humans’ roles in a variety of ecosystems. Moderated by Dr. Paulette Richards.

January 25 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium Panel 3 – Notes on Sounds and Words

In this panel Craig Leo (Life and Times of Michael K), Yael Rasooly (The House by the Lake, Edith and Me), Paula Riquelme (Organismo), and Anthony Michael Stokes (The Scarecrow), respond to the question: What do sounds and words contribute to the emotional journey of each story? Moderated by Dr. Paulette Richards.

January 26 10:00 am - 12:00 pm

Volkenburg Puppetry Symposium Panel 4 – The Image Aspect of the Puppet

In this panel Alex Bird (Concerned Others), Giulia De Canio (Untold), Plexus Polaire (Dracula), and Josh Rice (Kayfabe) will address the question of how the puppet as kinetic object and the puppet as visual image work together. Moderated by Dassia N. Posner.