2015 Theatre Arts Artistic Residency: Robert Smythe

This year's Artistic Residency, sponsored by the Theatre Arts Program with the generous support of Penn Art & Culture grant funding, will feature master puppeteer Robert Smythe, founder of the groundbreaking, internationally renowned Mumpuppet theatre.   Mr. Smythe, a four-time Barrymore Award winner, has performed around the U.S. and the world, including many theaters in the Philadelphia area.  He has won numerous awards and fellowships from many of the country’s most prestigious cultural institutions, including the Guggenheim, the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage, the National Endowment for the Arts, and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.  For two weeks, students in Theatre Arts will work intensively alongside Mr. Smythe, fusing theatrical themes and storytelling techniques with the creation of 3-D performance objects.  This year, the Artistic Residency will also support the work of the Edinburgh Project, an ensemble composed of Penn Theatre Arts students, who will devise an original performance piece to take to the 2015 Edinburg Fringe Festival, using their work with Mr Smythe as “ raw material” for their explorations and performance research.  The Artistic Residency will culminate in a public presentation of an original performance piece, or work-in-progress, performed by Mr. Smythe and the students working with him during his residency,  on Thursday, April 16, 2015.