Manual Cinema
Tuesday, February 5 thru Saturday, February 9, 2019
Tuesday, March 19 thru Saturday, March 23, 2019
Blending techniques from animation and film, and performing with thrilling original music, Chicago-based collective Manual Cinema reimagines the art of puppetry through “a brilliant mix of hi-fi and lo-fi” (The Times of London). Visually stunning and technically inspired, the company has won an Emmy Award and a growing reputation as a theatrical innovator.
Manual Cinema launches its 2019 Duke Performances residency with two February performances of Ada/Ava, a lovelorn ghost story and partial homage to the films of Alfred Hitchcock, which took top honors at 2013’s National Puppet Festival. The company returns in late March with No Blue Memories: The Life of Gwendolyn Brooks, a work that explores the political awakening and poetic legacy of Gwendolyn Brooks, the pioneering literary titan who, in 1950, became the first African-American to win the Pulitzer Prize. In the days leading up to these performances, company members will engage with Duke students across a variety of disciplines, including the mainstage production class of Duke Theater Studies professor, puppet artist, and set designer Torry Bend.
The Manual Cinema residency is made possible, in part, with support from the Mary Duke Biddle Foundation.
