Logoand^ BerlinWallphoto:^Davey^ T.^ S
teinman,^ courtesyofParadox^ Teatrowhen mexican puppeteer
Sofía Padilla met Davey T.
Steinman, a performance artist
who hails from Minnesota,
while volunteering at Ver-
mont’s celebrated Bread and
Puppet Theater in 2015, they
were right in the thick of it,
Padilla says, “stomping on clay
and doing papier mâché for a
10-foot-long puppet hand.”
Perhaps they didn’t realize it
then – with glue on their hands
and clay on their feet – but that
initial collaboration would soon
blossom into a romantic part-
nership and the formation of
their own touring puppet the-
ater, Paradox Teatro.
Run by Padilla, 35, who also
tours with Bread and Puppet
Theater, and Steinman, 31, who
freelances in video projection
and design, Paradox is a bilin-
gual company that strives to
overcome language and cultural
barriers using music, puppets,
and technology. The couple
splits time between the US and
Mexico, writing, directing, and
performing shows together that
address the physical, cultural,
and political borders dividing
the two nations they call home.
As an international company,
Paradox takes full advantage of
puppetry’s portability. As soon
as it was formed in 2017, the duo
took the show on the road. “We
christened our company that
summer by touring Europe
with a suitcase-sized travel per-
formance,” says Padilla. The
pair also has a nimble mindset
when it comes to language.On Our Radar
Paradox Teatro
“Combining puppetry with video
projection and live music allows
us to layer ideas without relying
on words,” Steinman says.
The couple takes this idea
to heart when it comes to per-
forming across borders. This
summer, they’re working on
Migraciones, a production for
which they received a Jim
Henson Foundation grant ear-
lier this year (an especially fit-
ting honor in light of Padilla’s
stint as the assistant director of
Monstruos Supersanos, a Sesame
Street spin-off, in Mexico City
for the 2016 season). They’ve
em barked on six international
working trips, and their recent
US tour took them to New
York’s Puppet Fringe Festival,
the Contemporary Arts Center
in Cincinnati, and the Open Eye
Figure Theatre in Minneapolis.
The story of Migraciones is
inspired by the duo’s shared
fear of increasingly harsh US-
Mexico border restrictions
and the potential loss of a
future together, Padilla says.
“We needed to talk in our show
about it, bringing more aware-
ness to the subject, and also in
honor of all the people whose
needs push them to migrate far
away from their homes forever.”
The resulting production is
told from the point of view of a
world-weary, life-sized puppet
carrying a camera. During the
performance, Padilla sketches
photographs of the puppet’s
journey – desert scenes with
people, trucks, animals, plants,
and, finally, the construction
of a wall – in baking soda atop
a light box; the images are pro-
jected onto a screen.
Padilla designs and builds
all of Paradox’s puppets, whileabove:
Padilla animates a
puppet who sketches
“photographs” of his
journey along the
US-Mexico border in
Paradox Teatro’s new-
est show, Migraciones.
The live drawings, done
in baking soda on a light
table, are projected for
the audience.Paradox Teatro’s artis-
tic co-directors Davey
T. Steinman (below)
and Sofía Padilla (bot-
tom) in performance.
The couple combines
technology with pup-
petry to illustrate stories
that cross cultural and
language barriers.Logo for Suitcase
Migrations designed
by Steinman.
10 american craft aug/sept 19A timely survey of shows, views, people, and work