2020
I wrote, built, directed, fundraised and produced a full length puppet play that debuted in March of 2020- just as the covid pandemic shut things down. So we did a video version in lieu of a live audience.
I was a New Hazlett Theater CSA Artist and received generous support from the Heinz Endowments.
“In The Dragon of Polish Hill, puppeteers Dave English and Will Schutze reconstruct the Pittsburgh neighborhood of Polish Hill, fill it with characters, and offer viewers a fantastical story of half-remembered history, culture clashes, and unexpected friendships.”
— David Bernabo, Medium
“That basic tenet–times will change and so do the people and places that exist within them–forms one of the themes running through The Dragon of Polish Hill. The puppet play-turned-puppet film experienced its own radical reimagining as the global coronavirus pandemic shut down a just-getting-started theatrical production and eventually spawned a no one-planned-it-this-way feature-length movie.
The story is very Pittsburgh: it’s got polka, old timers clashing with punk rockers, at least one urban legend, and of course it’s set in perhaps Pittsburgh’s most Pittsburgh of neighborhoods–Polish Hill.”
— Pittsburgh Orbit
