Mainstage Productions
Each year we produce original, company-generated plays for both
families and adults.
Using visual, musical and movement narratives,
in addition to words, HOBT translates complex issues of mind and
society into images that breathe with soul and spirit.
The 2011-12 Mainstage Season ended with the March 2-11 PuppetLab Series. Thanks for supporting HOBT!
Winter Dreams, December 2011 - photos: Bruce Silcox
Recent HOBT Mainstage Productions
2012
PuppetLab: March 9-11: Reed Ellis Aubin: The Pollen Road. A talking plant detoxes and journeys to find roots and a vanishing language, while a farmer loses ground. Check out the video trailer!
PuppetLab: March 9-11: Daniel Polnau: meet me in the heart caves. An imaginative dreamlike visual poem spelunking the forbidden cockles of the heart.
PuppetLab: March 2-4: Mary Parker and Marg Rozycki: Melting. Evangeline and Angela grapple with how the world transforms. They examine questions of stress, sacrifice, relationship to the world at large, and love. The entire show is grounded in the eternal cycle of life and death.
PuppetLab: March 2-4: Matt Larson and Hannah Rivenburgh: Ain't Heard Tell. With themes of the travel of history and transmission of culture, of hardship, resilience and the humor that results, this crude and careful show integrates live traditional music, dance, and storytelling into puppetry. Created in collaboration with Director Masanari Kawahara and fellow performer Rina Rossi.
February 18-26: Z Puppets Rosenschnoz: Monkey Mind Pirates. The world's only puppet rock yoga opera for families in search of calm. The epic tale of a sea captain discovering the secrets to taming the stormy seas of stress.
February 11-12: Blair Thomas: Hard Headed Heart. High art meets low when the words of early 20th Century poets are given voice in this cabaret of wooden puppets, rolling paper scrolls and bass drums. The performances are based on the writings of Federico Garcia Lorca and Wallace Stevens as well as a traditional New Orleans blues song.
February 11: For the Love of Puppets Cabaret. For the Love of Puppets, a cabaret of puppet shows by the Twin Cities puppet community, with food, drinks & live music!
January 20–28: Strombolli's Medicine Show. New and improved! And guaranteed to raise gooseflesh and inflame the senses! This unique variety show is not for the weak-hearted.
January 14: Mild Light: An Evening of Cantastoria. Historical, Lyrical, and Pathetical examples of the ancient and post-modern art of picture-story recitation, presented by Clare Dolan, Chief Operating Philosopher of the Museum of Everyday Life in Vermont.
2011-2010
December, 2011: Winter Dreams - Underneath blankets of snow, the animals slumber all winter - snoring and dreaming under the vast skies. The dreams of winter's secret sleepers, and the music of the wide mysterious skies. Directed by Alison Heimstead
February, 2011: PuppetLab - Featuring new puppet shows from Bart Buch and Blake Love, Soozin Hirschmugl, Angela Olson, Janaki Ranpura
2009
Guest Artist Series 2009:
October 2009: Double Feature: Janaki Ranpura: Lovesick Sea
Play & Bart Buch: Ode to Walt Whitman
January 2009: Z Puppets Rosenschnoz: The
Puggles -
A Platypus Adventure
February 2009: Kurt Hunter: Sock Puppet
Serenade
February 2009: For the Love of Puppets Cabaret