Submitted by Dic Wheeler
(July 11, 2023) — Oddfellows Playhouse Youth Theater in Middletown presents special guest performer Marta Mozelle with her family-friendly, one-woman show Please Ship This Wet Gift on Saturday, July 29, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.
Please Ship This Wet Gift is one clown’s presentation about terrible feelings and provides an opportunity for family audiences to laugh together about feeling bad. The original work uses drawing-without-looking, audience suggestion, audience participation, made-up songs, puppetry, and cardboard sharks to explore dealing with the things in life that are unfair, scary, sad, and just really annoying. The show melds clown theater with puppetry expertise to bring compassion and lightness to the heavy stuff. Recommended for ages 4 and up, and for adults who like really good shows and feelings!
Marta Mozelle-Macrostie is a puppeteer, clown, designer, builder, teacher and vocalist. Performance highlights include: Baby Universe (Wakka Wakka Productions, Studio Theater), Better Out Than In (Banksy’s NYC Residency), La Divina Caricatura (Mabou Mines, PS 122 and La MaMa), Lemony Snicket’s The Composer is Dead (Phantom Limb Company, Berkeley Rep), and Puss in Boots (Moises Kaufman, Gotham Chamber Opera & Blind Summit, New Victory Theater). She was a participant in Sesame Street‘s 2016 & 2014 Training Workshops, and her onscreen credits include: Sesame Street (season 45 assist), Time Machine Guitar, The Warby Trace Show, and commercials for H&M, LG, and the Coca-Cola Company.
Director Hannah Simms is a director and teacher based in Hartford. She is a graduate of the Dell’Arte School of Physical Theatre, the NTI Advanced Directing Semester at the Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, and the Ada Comstock Program at Smith College. Directing credits include: Pegao and Frog Hollow State of Mind (HartBeat Ensemble), To Kill a Mockingbird (Central Connecticut State University), Guenevere (Ivoryton Playhouse), Eurydice (PVPA Charter High School), Julius Caesar and Romeo & Juliet (Hampshire Shakespeare). She has taught clown for ARTFARM, the Greater Hartford Academy of the Arts, and the Children’s Circus of Middletown. Hannah is an ensemble member at HartBeat Ensemble.
Tickets for Please Ship This Wet Gift are $8 for adults, $5 for kids, and $15 for Big-Hearted Oddfellows, and may be purchased at https://oddfellowsplayhouse.ticketleap.com/please-ship-this-wet-gift/
Please Ship This Wet Gift is funded in part by the New England States Touring program of the New England Foundation for the Arts, made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts Regional Touring Program and the six New England state arts agencies. Additional support is provided by the City of Middletown and the Middletown Commission on the Arts.
Oddfellows Playhouse, founded in 1975, is Connecticut’s oldest and largest theater for young people. The Playhouse is located at 128 Washington Street in Middletown. For information about this production and other Playhouse programs, call (860) 347-6143, email info@oddfellows.org, or go to www.oddfellows.org.
