Dear Great Small Works Family,

From all of us to all of you, greetings! Hugs, love and appreciation. There is no doubt that times are fearful and unknowable, and that we are in for some tough rounds. There is a ton of organizing work ahead and we'll put our puppeteer shoulders to the wheel of that effort in all the ways we can. We are trying, as Kelly M. Hayes advises, to not assume maximal outcomes for the new administration. "That’s a form of psychological surrender.” They will stumble, fail and misstep. We will be creative. 

In the spirit of not backing down, Great Small Works is diving full body into the creation of a new full-length show we hope to present in January of 2026. It’s called The Myceliad. It’s a shadow puppet epic that tracks the voyage of an eclectic crew of New York puppeteers (us) thrust out to sea by the crises roiling the country, crafted as a homeopathic horror story in which issues facing us in the real world are introduced in parable form. In our epic, a fantastical Mushroom Oracle conveys to the crew – in the journey’s most perilous moments – the wisdom of listening, of leaning into decades of movement strategy, of mobilizing all of the powers they do have lest they be used against them, and ultimately, learning to live, like fungi, in the middle of a diverse and ever-changing world. Not since Muntergang and Other Cheerful Downfalls have we created such an ambitious, multilayered full evening work.

Great Small Works exists to keep theater at the heart of social life, and to help keep each other alive. So, in further non-capitulation to despair, we are escalating. Most of our funds sustain our studio (see below) and our work on large-scale community based projects (also below). In these strange times we are asking you to do something unusual: please fund us to be performing artists in our own work. Our 2025 campaign to bring you the best medicine we can offer supports three company residencies through the coming year.

Just $25 dollars (or any amount) right now will fuel this work and let us do it in style.

Please donate HERE. [www.greatsmallworks.org/donate]  Or, send a check to Great Small Works at 315 W. 86th St., 4E, NYC, NY 10024. Great Small Works is a 501(c)(3) non-profit and your donations are tax-deductible.

With gratitude,

Jenny, John, Mark, Roberto, Stephen, Trudi

Some highlights of 2024

Spaghetti Dinners:  Great Small Works’ signature cabaret-style, one-time-only events dating back to the mid-1980s, an ancestor of today’s burgeoning “puppet slam” movement continue and are broadcast as hybrid on-site/online events whenever possible. Four Spaghetti Dinners took place this year:

            1) January: ”Solidarity Songs,” our annual year-end/beginning large-scale event at Judson Memorial Church. With a Great Small Works reflection on Solidarity; an underwater ballet composed of giant sea creatures made of seaside garbage by Gregory Corbino; traditional Abéimahani singers singers; Heather Christian’s community choir from Terce ; puppeteers Rowan Magee and Takeme Kitamura, Chinese Theatre Works and Boxcutter Collective; and a world polka dance band led by trumpeter Frank London;

            2) February: the NYC premieres of two Great Small Works Toy Theater productions at Jalopy Theatre – “We Love Trees” by John and Trudi with musicians Marji Gere and Dan Sedgwick, “Ten Sentences: On the Life of Robert Walser” by Mark, and a screening of “Living Objects in Black,” Jacqueline Wade/Women of Color’s film about African American Puppeteers;

            3) April: "What Would Rumi Do?," the 7th iteration of Spaghetti Ramadan co-hosted with curator Arian Nakhaie of Fihi Ma Fihi Worlds that drew its material from the teachings of Persian poet and great thinker Jalaluddin Rumi. Musicians from across the Muslim world performed, and Jenny partnered with Keri Egilmez of the Whirling Imaginarium puppet company on a daytime program which allowed many families with kids to share the meal, participate in the craft tables, and take part in the anti-genocide pageant; 

            4) November: another evening at Jalopy Theatre of shadow puppets, projection and paper movie shows responding to the news of the day.

 Naming the Lost Memorial Project: Company member Jenny Romaine played a leading role in conceiving, designing and organizing the 2024 edition of Naming The Lost Memorials – a yearly city-wide mobilization of communities to create and erect memorial artwork in honor of the thousands lost to the Covid epidemic since 2020. Great Small Works has been a core partner on the project since its inception, together with City Lore, Mano a Mano: Mexican Culture Without Borders, Green-Wood Cemetery and the New-York Historical Society, exhibited in outdoor public spaces such as the perimeter fence of Green-Wood cemetery in Brooklyn and St. Mark’s Church in the Bowery, to invite collective reflection on the enormity of the pandemic. This year’s memorial, “A Big Slow Majestic Covid Memorial of Murmurs and Testimonials,” was on view at Green-Wood Cemetary from May 3-June 3.

Touring:-

“Three Cookbooks in the Garden,” a magic act (in Yiddish) created by Jenny about the arrival of eggplant to the cuisines of co-vivencia medieval Islamic Spain, continues to tour to communities and festivals, speaking across traditions where "divide and conquer" is used to keep us demobilized, alienated and depressed.

“We Love Trees” was performed for seniors, students and residents at a series of public housing and senior residential centers in Somerville, MA.

“Ten Sentences: On the Life of Robert Walser” premiered at the 2024 Casteliers Festival in Montreal.

Building Stories Studio: Great Small Works continues to anchor Building Stories, LLC, the multi-use creative space anchored by an interracial, intergenerational crew of arts practitioners - film makers, puppeteers, graphic designers, and radical visual artists and technicians providing support to grassroots organizing. Over the past year, the studio has been used by hundreds of cultural workers and activists in this serious moment of increased movement need. We have ongoing pride that the infrastructure we have fought for and nourished since the 1980s can enable so many to hold and build the energies they need to fight and win!

From our collaborators: “Building Stories is a space to make things which can be visible in the street and claim power.”

(sigh of relief) “There is a space set up with all the tools and materials you need, an infrastructure of hosts who can make sure you can find the key, and/or welcome you in?”

Please donate here: www.greatsmallworks.org/donate

From Top: Naming the Lost Memorial Project, photo: Erik McGregor;  We Love Trees; What Would Rumi Do?, Spaghetti Ramadan 2024, photo: Erik McGregor;  Ten Sentences: On the Life of Robert Walser