KAYFABE is a puppet wrestling entertainment spectacular!
Table-top puppetry meets pro wrestling meets a rock show; high art meets low art meets Samuel Beckett! This 70-minute frenetic frenzy of puppet wrestling action is an aburdist love letter to professional wrestling through puppetry.
For BOOKING INQUIRIES, tech rider, and press/show packet: please email at joshrice0730@gmail.com
Cast of Kayfabe, January 2024. Pictured (from left) Emma Wiseman, Rowan Magee, Gus Badger (lower left), Josh Rice, and Madeleine Dauer. Portrait by Robert Doyle Photography
KAYFABE Premiered at Dixon Place in NYC May 30-31 and June 6-7, 2024.
Kayfabe by Josh Rice
Created, Directed & Designed by Josh Rice
Performed by Madeleine Dauer, Rowan Magee, Josh Rice, Ash Winkfield & Emma Wiseman
Understudy by Takemi Kitamura
Devised by Madeleine Dauer, Emily Grierson, Takemi Kitamura, Rowan Magee, Andy Manjuck, Rachael Shane, Ash Winkfield, Emma Wiseman & Josh Rice
Original Music by Chad Bradford
Stage Managed by Emily Grierson
Lighting Design by Rob Lariviere
Pizza Pizzes Animation by Jaime Sunwoo
Meatstick Commercial Directed by Damian Wiseman
Puppet Pod Theme by Seth Faergolzia
Additional Puppet Design by Tom Lee, Zachary Sun, Averly Sheltraw, Jacky Kelsey (inspired by Hachiōji Kuruma Ningyō, a hybrid Kuruma-ningyō-style/otome Bunraku-style puppet)
Additional Set/Prop Design by Vinny Mraz & Doug Hollinger
Additional Costume Design by Kathryn Hollinger & Nikki Gray
Graphic Art by Tim Livingston
Photography by Kat Kuo, Richard Termine & Robert Doyle Photography
Trailer for KAYFABE by Josh Rice on YouTube.
This 70-minute frenetic frenzy of the absurd, is non-linear, divided into segments & vignettes (like a televised wrestling program) that connect thematically & stylistically around one puppet character, all building toward the climatic “main event” of Puppetmania. Segments will include puppet wrestling matches, stylized dances by the puppet and puppeteers using the gestural vocabulary of pro wrestling, commercials inspired by early 90’s era wrestling, and promos (monologues), by the puppet, but also by the wrestling ring itself, brought to life by the puppeteers. We also make use of the motif of instant replay using live-feed video and projection.
PWE Artwork by Tim Livingston
Philosopher Roland Barthes wrote, “the function of the wrestler is not to win; it is to go exactly through the motions that are expected of him.”
What is expected of a puppet when the persona of Dr. Kiss, and the tropes and trappings of the professional wrestling world are thrust upon them, as they barrel toward their destiny as the main event of PuppetMania?? Expect the unexpected when form meets function, when reality and fantasy collide, when the lines between real and fake blur—this is KAYFABE.
Photo by Richard Termine
Kayfabe is a puppet entertainment spectacular, epic in dramatic-style, rock-show spectacle, and emotional scale, but is designed in one-third-sized puppet scale (ie. a life-sized wrestling ring is 18 ft wide, the puppet-sized ring will is 6 ft wide).
The piece uses Bunraku-style table-top puppetry, cart puppetry, live-feed projection (instant replay) & object performance, as well as the wrestling tropes of matches, monologues, and music & video.
Kayfabe is the term used in professional wrestling to describe the adherence to not acknowledging the scripted nature of the world of wrestling. In kayfabe, wrestling is a legitimate sporting contest. Vince McMahon, CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment, famously broke kayfabe in 1997 by admitting on-air that wrestling was scripted, and redefined the form as “sports entertainment,” acknowledging the reality of fakery we were in on all along. This Oz-like reveal of the behind-the-scenes mechanizations of the form shattered the fourth wall, yet fans continue to suspend their disbelief because they yearn for the glimpses of reality that creep into the form, blending our perceptions of fiction, fantasy, and the real. This blending of worlds is where wrestling best succeeds, as does puppetry. We map our humanity onto these performing objects to see glimpses of reality within them, animating the inanimate. In the kayfabe of puppetry, these performing objects are alive. This metaphysical approach to wrestling and puppetry is the essence of KAYFABE, examining how the ritual of performance bleeds into reality and how reality bleeds into performance.
Photo by Richard Termine.
Puppet for final dance inspired by Hachiōji Kuruma Ningyō (a hybrid Kuruma-ningyō-style/otome Bunraku-style puppet).
Puppet Design by Tom Lee. Additional assistance from Zachary Sun, Averly Sheltraw (studio assistants) & Jacky Kelsey (costume design).
Photo by Kat Kuo.
Live-feed projection & green screen of backstage interview motif.
Photo by Richard Termine
Kayfabe: how the ritual of performance bleeds into reality and how reality bleeds into performance.
January 2024 rehearsals. Photo by Bob Doyle.
Special Thanks to the Indiegogo Crowdfunding Support From:
Puppetmaniacs: James Alefantis, Bill Heller, and Norm Gayford & Mary Conable
Fans: Sarah Studwell, Derek Crowe, Molly Umble, Liz Eberle, Jesse Edwards, Jon Riddleberger, Sifiso Mabena, Libby Rice, Andrea Krisko, Maggie Jett, Tom Halstead
Superfans: Jill Gould, Megan Loomis, Ryan Fitzsimmons, Dan Carter, Lauren Jost, Maura Umble, Owen Buehler
Fanatic: Jana Zimmerman, Andy Lawrence, John Earle
Marks: Claudia Orenstein, Brian Nathanson, Barret Buehler & Ashley Drew, Franky Kline, Andy Manjuck & Dorothy James, Brendan Reid, Brad Flower, Travis Rice, Tyler 2E Rice, Matty Mlyniec, Brian Reno Rice
Smart Marks: Laura Galgowski & Kevin Murphy,
Donors: Sarah Keeler, Alexandra Nathanson, Kevin Marcks, Rob McDougall, Mary Rice, Ben Rice, Tom Lee, Renee Marie Philippi, Carlo Adinolfi, Bob & Jane Jacobs, Ruth Lichtman, Leah Ogawa, Eileen Wiseman, Leigh Walter, Luke Daly, Kim Stauffer, Ebeth Bojsza
Puppet reaching for the world championship belt.
Photo by Richard Termine.
"In Kayfabe—the juiced-up and joyful collision of director Josh Rice’s obsessions—puppets and pro wrestling turn out to be a match made in some kind of wacko theatrical heaven. The title term is wrestling slang for the suspension of disbelief practiced by the sport’s true devotees, who are honor-bound never to acknowledge its staged performances as anything other than authentic — and, following suit, Rice’s show inducts us into a world of glorious, hilarious, and ultimately deeply moving artifice. We become fans of the “babyface” wrestler Dr. Kiss, a puppet whose “big Leo energy,” fabulous purple get-up, and sick finishing move (the Kiss of Death) are enough to make us forget the fact that he’s just so much wood and wire, manipulated by three top-notch puppeteers, all sporting lucha libre masks and given plenty of their own very funny opportunities to take the spotlight. With Rice as an emcee who knows every crowd-pumping turn of phrase, Dr. Kiss’s bid for stardom is an enthusiasm-fueled lesson in imagination: We learn the vocabularies of puppetry and of wrestling, and we see all the strings — but that doesn’t stop us from hollering along, gasping and booing and longing, through all the fakery, for a real victory. A love letter to a 1990s childhood, a virtuosic bout of object manipulation, and a celebration of the strange magic of performance, Kayfabe has a big, authentic soul inside its little wooden body."
-Sara Holdren, Vulture and New York Magazine
Kayfabe by Josh Rice is the recipient of a 2024 Jim Henson Foundation Production Grant and a 2023 Jim Henson Foundation Workshop Grant.
KAYFABE has been supported by the New York State Council on the Arts Individual Artist Grant (2022) with support from the Office of the Governor and the NYS Legislature
SuperTeers (superstar puppeteers, from left) Madeleine Dauer, Ash Winkfield, Rowan Magee (lower middle), Emma Wiseman.
Photo by Richard Termine
Live-feed action figure commercial, made live during the show.
Photo by Richard Termine
Opening puppetry scene in KAYFABE.
Photo by Richard Termine
Puppet for final dance inspired by Hachiōji Kuruma Ningyō (a hybrid Kuruma-ningyō-style/otome Bunraku-style puppet).
Puppet Design by Tom Lee. Additional assistance from Zachary Sun, Averly Sheltraw (studio assistants) & Jacky Kelsey (costume design).
Photo by Kat Kuo.
Image from the opening dance sequence by the puppeteers. The choreographic score is devised from actual wrestling moves and poses, with the goal of introducing visual vocabulary from the world of wrestling and starting the show with vibrant color, sound, and movement.
Photo by Richard Termine.
Josh Rice as Ring Announcer and Color Commentator throughout the show.
Puppeteer Rowan Magee. At the top of the show, the puppeteers will be bombastically costumed and supported with theme music and montage video projections of them puppeteering, to evoke the over-the-top entrances of pro wrestlers in televised wrestling programming. The goal is to make the puppeteers as seen as possible at the top of the show, as opposed to keeping them hidden or a tertiary focus.
Photo by Kat Kuo.
Promo Art by Kat Kuo
Inspired by Samuel Beckett’s Not I, the ropes of the ring made into mouths, speaking lines from wrestling promos.Puppeteered by Rowan Magee and Emma Wiseman.
Photo by Richard Termine
Order from BLURB for $18
Dr. Kiss logo by Tim Livingston
Dr. Kiss t-shirts, for sale during the show.
Art by Tim Livingston
Puppetmania t-shirts, for sale during the show.
Art by Tim Livingston
Puppet World Order (PWO) and Puppet 3:16 t-shirts, for sale during the show.
Art by Tim Livingston