The Adventures of Charcoal Boy
Created by Elyas Khan, Eric Novak & Sarah Provost
Directed by Sarah Provost
Puppet & Set Design by Eric Novak
Music Composed by Elyas Khan
Puppeteers: Lute Breuer, Ceili Clemens, Sam Hack, Kevin Taylor, Amanda Villalobos
Musicians: Brian Geltner, Elyas Khan, Matt Morandi, Gwen Snyder, Fred Wright
Production Stage Manager: Neelam Vaswani
Lighting Design: James Latzel
Video Design: Arya Shirazzi, Kerthy Fix and Paul Kloss
Performances:
- National Puppetry Festival, St. Paul, MN, 2007
- Here Arts Center, NYC, 2006, (Premier)
- Prelude Festival, Segal Theatre Center, CUNY, NYC, 2006
- Voice 4 Vision Puppet Festival, Theater for the New City, NYC, 2005
- Arts at St. Ann’s Puppet Lab, St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn, 2004 (Workshop Production)
- Mabou Mines Resident Artist Program, ToRoNada Theater, NYC, 2004 (Workshop Production)
Recipient of grants from the Jim Henson Foundation, Meet the Composer, New York State Council on the Arts, and was in residence at the MacDowell Colony.
"Superbly directed...Beautiful puppets... Ethereal rock music... Charcoal Boy is sure to please.” Ryan McWilliams, The Village Voice
“Passion and puppetry strike like the lightning that created the title character..” Richard Hinjosa, nytheatre.com
THE ADVENTURES OF CHARCOAL BOY is a dark, musical journey performed with puppets and live music for an adult audience, where an unlikely hero – a charred stick – becomes a star and incites a revolution! A tree branch is struck by lightning, falls to the ground, and wakes up in a strange world beginning a journey of self-discovery — realizing that one’s predicament can become a useful artistic talent as he learns to draw with his charred feet. While in a junk- yard, CHOPPY and REACHY, a robotic pair of found industrial parts, lead him to the impressario, CATHEAD. His talent is soon exploited and the enigmatic dancer, FLAMEGIRL tries to save him. Haunted by his arboreal past, Charcoal Boy strives to find meaning on his current path. Underneath the surface of this deceptively simple tale themes of exploitation, the environment, mortality and the cycle of life are revealed.