DIRECTOR'S NOTE:
The Paper Moon was written and created in the spring of 2020, amid all the fear and uncertainty of those initial months of the pandemic. We first performed Paper Moon in a parking lot in downtown Olympia as a Drive-In puppet show. We used a short-throw FM transmitter to broadcast the show’s audio to audience member’s car radios, so they could sit safely in their cars while giant puppets danced before their windshields. It was both an exciting and stressful time to perform a show, and our last weekend was canceled as COVID cases rose and all Drive-Ins were shut down. Now – two years later – it is finally possible to bring this show inside a theater, and we are so excited to see what magic lights and walls can bring to this story. A big thank you to The Olympia Family Theater for including Paper Moon as a part of their reopening! We hope you enjoy the show.
CAST/CREW:
CAST (name and role):
Donald Palardy III, puppeteer
Luz Gaxiola, puppeteer
Emily McHugh, puppeteer
Dylan Clifthorne, puppeteer
Elizabeth Lord, narration
Marissa Bolaños, narración
CREW
Emily McHugh, co-director, puppet-maker, scenic painter
Donald Palardy III, co-director, puppet-maker, audio-engineer
Jill Carter, co-lighting design
Jupiter Sky Shellman, co-lighting design and sound operator
David Nowitz, scenic engineer, photographer
Aimee Adams – ASL Interpreter
SPECIAL THANKS TO:
Scenic Painters – Paula McHugh, Veta Bakhtina, Ciara Nevada, Rachel Sims, Riley Violet, Eva Leach, Rheanna Murray, Ezra Unterseher, Kristen Bailey, Edwin Warner, Faith Hagenhofer, Kefa Crow, Jade Hartung, Amber Winter, Ashlen Hodge
MUSIC:
Special thanks to Francis Brennan, Orkestar Zirkonium, The Oddjob Ensemble, Bäsk, The GHB Jazz Foundation, and Jesse Partridge, for the music used in this production.
No photography or video recording is allowed during the show.
CAST /CREW BIOS:
Donald Palardy - Co-Director, Puppet-Maker, Audio-Engineer
Donald is an engineer of sound, light, and cardboard. An avid fan of fanciful gaiety, his awkward lankiness has a certain grace suitable for the amusement of the public.
Emily McHugh - Co-Director, Puppet-Maker, Scenic Painter
Emily McHugh is a puppet-maker, paper-cutter, and performer who grew up in Olympia. She began making giant puppets as a studio artist with Paperhand Puppet Intervention in North Carolina, and in 2017, she co-founded String and Shadow Puppet Theater with Donald Palardy. There have been scraps of cardboard and hot glue in her hair ever since.
Luz Gaxiola - Puppeteer
Luz Gaxiola is a clown and accordionist. She clowns with comedy pair Duo Finelli and Clowns Without Borders, and is currently performing music with The String and Shadow Cartoon Orchestra, and with Francis Brennan in Tsunami Piñata. www.tsunamipinata.com
Dylan Clifthorne, Puppeteer
Dylan is a musician and actor that has worked with a variety of community theater projects in Olympia, including Pulp Productions, OFT, and Lord Franzannian’s Vaudeville show. He has been masquerading as various animals, astronauts, and mushrooms with String and Shadow since 2017. He would like to thank The Moonbeams for supporting him in all his creative endeavors.
Elizabeth Lord - Narration
Elizabeth has been telling stories professionally for over 30 years in the South Puget area. Reciting/recording the Paper Moon narration gave her a much needed bright light during the dark days of the pandemic. Previously she has portrayed Dr. Menagerie in the 2021 String and Shadow’s Fauna Fantastique and a CIA agent in The Real Moon Landing. She is the co-creator of StoryOly, teaches theater arts at OFT, and is a member of The Heartsparkle Players.
Marissa Bolaños - Narración
Marissa is a Mexican audiovisual artist, writer, birth worker and birth rights activist who has been living in Olympia since 2015. She has a BFA in Film and Video from the School of Visual Arts in New York City and is passionate about the power of the arts to connect people with each other.
Jill Carter - Co-Lighting Designer
Jupiter Shellman- Co-Lighting Designer and Sound Operator
This is Jupiter’s fifth show with OFT, and they are so happy to be back! Previous favorites include The Wind in the Willows, Flora & Ulysses, Fishnapped! (OFT), Neighborhood 3: Requisition of Doom, Legally Blonde, and Pirates of Penzance (Olympia High School). Special thanks to their family for always supporting them!
Aimee Adams – ASL Interpreter
Nationally Certified ASL Interpreter, RID, & Music Educator, ’15 Texas State University alum, Aimee Adams blends the two distinct fields of musical conducting and language access of American Sign Language interpreting into a passionate outpouring, beloved by the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and Hearing community. As a CODA, Child of Deaf Adults, Aimee Adams engages in communication access in a wide variety of settings while interpreting, but specializes in the performance arts access: music interpreting, integrative theatrical interpreting, traditional theater interpreting, & the comedic arts. See latest works on Tiktok @AimeeAdams_MusicHands.
David Nowitz – Scenic Engineer
David is happiest tinkering around in his scene shop coming up with imaginative ways to make things. Recent favorite engineering challenges for Olympia Family Theater include building an escalator for Corduroy, making a recycling machine with working wooden gears for Cinder Edna, making an under bed and over bed/jungle gym in The Monster Under the Bed, making a ski slope for A Year with Frog and Toad, and making a bed fall through a ceiling in Mercy Watson to the Rescue. Also, for Open Road Productions, David made an underwater/ overwater transforming touring set for The Incredible Undersea Trial of Joseph P. Lawnboy, and for Ballet Northwest, a candy cane throne.
Friends of Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum ($1000 & up)
Linda & Ronald Moon
David and Jane Nowitz
Elizabeth Gross
Paul D. Shepherd
Judith Moxley
Kimberly-Clark
Diana & Stephen Purvine*
Friends of Frodo & Sam ($200-$999)
Hilarie P. Hauptman*
Samantha Chandler*
Christopher Taylor*
Gayle Magee
Helen Tafejian
Katie Russell
Rye Ives
Andy Gordon*
Carol B. Jenner*
Deane Shellman*
Ethan Moreno*
Kate & Greg Tudor*
Kelly Leonard*
Teri & Todd Peterson
Greg Charles*
Alan Mountjoy-Venning
Beth Dubey
Bonnie & Ken Vandver
Ellen Matheny
John Linderman
Kimberly Duffy
Marcy LaViollette
Margaret Pilaro
Matthew S Ferrel
Melissa L. Young
Michael Stapleton
Friends of Dorothy & Scarecrow ($50-$99)
Andrea A Severson*
Jessica MacLeod & Ryan Black
Kathryn & Steve Wang
Cary Brim-Reid*
Brenda Stuvek*
Jessica Jackson*
Rebecca H Kelly*
Debe K. Edden
Ellie Jackson
Emily Walsh
Sarah Huntington
Friends of Pooh & Piglet (up to $49)
Christina Franklin
Amanda Stevens
Celeste Morgan
Kathleen Butler
Nancy Nole
Noah Rubinstein
Elizabeth Hauser
Hua Fan
Jordanna Averett*
Joslyn Trivett & Rip Heminway
Kate Thompson
Meg Rosenberg
Richelle Perez*
Amy Herring*
Brinn Campaz
Kassidy Anderson
Kristina Alnajjar
Megan Gruver
Jessica Frierson
Kyle Burke
In Kind
Cathy Dahlstrom
Cortney Kelley
ORGANIZATION CREDITS:
OFT Staff
Artistic Director
Lily Raabe
Deputy Director
Mike Taylor
Education Director
Rachel Carlson
Box Office Staff
Tracy Thomas
Scenic Engineer
David Nowitz
Resident Designer
Jill Carter
Company-in-Residence
String & Shadow
Volunteer Bookkeeper
Diana Purvine
OFT Board of Directors
Executive Committee:
Samantha Chandler
Sara Thiessen
Nicole Miller
Heather Antanaitis
Members at Large:
Meghan Goodman
Jonnita Thompson
Ally Upton
