portfolio [praxis]
Residencies:
2008/2009 CEC New Edge Performance Residency for “crane’s promise”:
New Edge Artists Service Program seeks to support emerging performing artists in the development and presentation of new and
adventurous dance and performance work. The program is open to all artists creating performance work including: dancers, musicians, performance poets, puppeteers, theatre, visual, and performance artists. The awards offerrehearsal space, stipends, photo shoots, video documentation, and/or performance opportunities.
An intermingling of traditional folktale with a contemporary immigrant’s story, crane’s promise gently explores the nature of love, promises and betrayal, taking the art of puppetry to a new level. A cast of three actors creates arresting visual images through their skillful manipulation of puppets, masks, objects and space, transporting the viewer through the piece’s largely unspoken narrative. Directed & designed by Martina Plag with chroeography by Jodi Obeid. Performed by Justin Jain, John Jarboe and Geneieve Perrier.
2008 ITE International Turning Exchange:
Research * Exploration * Collaboration
Every year, several artists from around the world come together in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The group includes artists skilled at lathe work, turning wood into objects of beauty. Other participants include scholars and a photojournalist to interpret and document the event.
The event, which began in 1995, is sponsored by the Wood Turning Center, and has a profound international effect on the art and craft of woodturning.
Ms. Plag proposed to turn wood , quite literally, to tell narratives; as in puppetry. She interacted with the artists and conducted movement studies to explore the relationships between artisan and artifact - the created void. After working as an architect for 10 years, Martina was awarded a two-year grant through the TCG (Theatre Communication Group) where she collaborated with theatre artists to construct puppet sets, and then puppets and their wooden mechanisms. Her interest is in the in between – between face and mask, maker and made, puppet and puppeteer, artist and artifact.
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Emma Lake 2006:
