Kevin Augustine
Performer and puppeteer Kevin Augustine received a grant for The People Vs Nature, a new puppet-theater production created by Kevin’s Lone Wolf Tribe. The show involves audience participation to raise empathy about the suffering of animals. As a chimpanzee wastes away in a medical lab, spectators become his jury, deciding whether or not to release him to sanctuary. The chimp, however, balks at being assigned the symbolic status of a presidential turkey—arguing it is unjust to pardon only his life when billions more cry out for their freedom. Kevin writes about what he aims to achieve with The People Vs Nature:
To creatively shine a light on the invisibility of pain and give voice to cries unheard; to offer the opportunity for personal accountability. We will do this through an experiment in collaborative puppetry where audiences assist in bringing to life our puppet cast of animals (chimps, pigs, and a cat). Given the chance to touch the souls of these caged creatures (kept strategically from our daily view), perhaps someone might—for the first time—make different choices tomorrow. In allowing a space for tears, we won’t shy away from breaking hearts, reminding the audience that these mere cloth and foam-rubber puppets represent real-life desperate beings, breathing and blinking beyond the theater walls in need of our intervention.
Kevin has been sculpting his puppet cast for The People VS Nature (including two life-sized chimpanzees) over the past three years and has been writing drafts of the script since 2016. The production will have its world premiere from 7–17 November 2024 at the La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in New York City, as part of its Puppet Theatre Festival. Details of Kevin’s performance are here. You can read an interview with Kevin about The People vs. Nature here.
Puppets have been the preferred tools for some of our grantees working in the performance arts. Last year, Gustavo Sánchez López brought possums closer to the Colombian audience with the show “Doña Zary,” and Benjamin Hunt used shadow puppets to represent the protagonists of Richard Adams’ “The Plague Dogs.” Kevin’s play will be the second time in CAF’s history that apes form the heart of the drama—after Circle X Theater Company‘s 2015 production, “Trevor.”
