Professional Experience

Co-Founder and Artistic Director Wise Fool Puppet Intervention 1989-present
A community puppet building project dedicated to community, celebration and change.

Producer PuppetLOVE! Festival of Radical Puppetry 1997-98, 2000-present
Curation, promotion and production work for a three day festival of performances, workshops etc.

California Arts Council Artist-in-Residence Prescott Circus Troupe 1997-present
Developed curriculum and taught stiltwalking to at-risk youth as part of an in-depth clowning and circus skills program. Overall work with Prescott Clowns since 1990.

Director and Designer Lawrence Hall of Science, Science Discovery Theater 2001-02
Lead designer for Tarnival! An anti-tobacco street theater project funded by California Tobacco Control through the Arts.

Freelance Workshop Leader 1986-present
Work with adults and children at dozens of organizations

Curator/Instigator Inter-Active Sculpture Garden San Francisco 1995-1997, 1999
Visual Arts component to the San Francisco International Street Theatre Festival

Visual Arts Director 848 Community Artspace San Francisco 1994-1995
Liaison to visual artists, program development, curation and selection of work to be exhibited

Adjunct Professor
New College of California San Francisco Winter 1995Developed and taught semester course entitled Processional Performance
Prescott College Prescott AZ 1993Developed and taught block course entitled Theatre, Politics and Social Change

Artist and Workshop Leader 1000 Faces Project Oakland 1991-92
Community maskmaking workshops and artists commissions of Oakland celebrities culminating in a public exhibition at Festival at the Lake, a multi-cultural arts fair.

Resident Artist and Workshop Leader In the Heart of the Beast Mask and Puppet Theatre Minneapolis, MN 1989-91
A grassroots puppet theatre which creates an annual MayDay parade and celebration.

Resident Artist and Performer Geese Theatre Company Spofford, NH 1988
The only national touring company which works exclusively in prisons and penitentiaries.

Founding Member The Moon Has Fat Thighs San Francisco 1985-1989
A women's performance collective which weaves mask, dance and music to create image-based theatre works.

Performer and Set Design Contraband San Francisco 1986, 1989
A rowdy dance group which creates works in both indoor and outdoor environments.

Selected Original Performances

Wise Fool Puppet Intervention
Variations on Laundry, short work, Somarts Theatre 2003
Inside Every Bird, short work, Cellspace 2002
The Story of Stories created for In the Street 1998, Santa Fe, NM & San Francisco, CA 1999
Circo de Manos created to tour throughout rural Chiapas 1997
From My Window: A Folkhistory of the Tenderloin created for In the Street Theatre Festival 1996
Stone Soup created for the San Francisco In The Street Theatre Festival 1995
Touch/Prayer Cycle 1-Dolores Park 1993; Cycle 2-Dolores Park, Lakeside Park 1994
Babel Fillmore District of San Francisco 1993
Rise Up, Stand Up, Wake Up Created for the San Francisco Chasky Dolores Park 1992
Es Werde Geld! (Let There Be Money)! Berlin, Germany 1992
Circle/Procession International Circle Festival; Kostelec, Czechoslovakia 1992
Feast of Fools: A Banquet in Five Acts 1992, 1993, 1994, 1995
Gigajoules San Francisco Parks 1991

Other
Tarnival! created through the California Tobacco Control Through the Arts Grant LHS 2001
Me First! Short work in collaboration with Whitney Combs and Sam Bower, Cellspace 2000
The Gift Solo work created for In the Street 1998, Dance Mission Theatre, San Francisco 1999
The Blue Family, a processional performance created in collaboration with Keith Hennessey 1995
Hysteria: Tales of the Wandering Womb Julien Theatre 1989
The Moon Has Fat Thighs The Blue House Studio 1987
Everything Pauses in the Light Mariposa Studio 1986

Selected Exhibitions

Group Shows
848 10 Year Retrospective 848 Community Space 2004
Retro/spective 848 Community Space 2002
Fahrenheit 451 San Francisco Arts Commission Gallery 1997
4th Annual Juried Luggage Show The Luggage Store 1996
Puppet and Dolls Collision Gallery 1995
Inter-Active Sculpture Garden In the Street Theatre Festival 1995-1997, 1999
Mission Sole Collision Gallery 1995
Le Petit Mort: Altars on Sex and Death (instigator) 848 Community Space 1994
Book: Handmade and Limited Edition Books by Women (instigator) 848 Community Space 1994
Mask Intersection for the Arts, juried exhibit 1991
1000 Faces Festival at the Lake 1991, 1992
Earth Alive! Upaya Gallery 1990
Womyn's Work, a Celebration Studio #4 1989

Solo Shows
New Work Red Dora’s Bearded Lady Cafe 1996
Fool's Tools 848 Community Space, 1992
Masks New College of California, 1990
Masks Quan Yin Healing Arts Center, 1989

Exhibitions with Wise Fool
Contemporary Puppetry Art Works Downtown, San Rafael 2003
Puppet Extravaganza! San Francisco State Gallery 1999
509 Cultural Center Market Street Annex 1996
Into the White Collision Gallery 1995
New Performance Gallery 1994
Gateway to Yesterday, Gateway to Tomorrow Puppeteers of America Convention, SFSU 1993
San Francisco Fillmore Center 1993
Rooms for the Dead Mission Cultural Center 1990.1991,1992

Awards and Commissions
San Francisco Bay Guardian "Best of the Bay" 1998
Wise Fool Puppet Intervention, "Best Public Puppeteers"

Cultural Equity Grant, San Francisco Arts Commission
For the creation of From My Window: A Folkhistory of the Tenderloin Wise Fool Puppet 1996-97

San Francisco Focus Arts Achievement Award 1996
As part of the 848 Community Space directors team

San Francisco Arts Commission Arts in Transit Program
The Blue Family, in collaboration with Keith Hennessey 1995
The Extraordinary Ordinaire, Wise Fool Puppet in collaboration with Iris Landsberg 1992

Winner, Overall Visual Design 1992 Dance Bay Area Isadora Duncan Awards
Altars to the Ancestors Day of the Dead Candlelight Procession

1st Place Overall Visual Presentation San Francisco Carnaval 1992
Wise Fool Puppet Intervention The Fire Within

3rd Place Overall Visual Presentation San Francisco Carnaval 1991
Wise Fool Puppet Intervention The Dance of the Elements

Film and Video
The Fire Circus 1997 Lise Swenson Videographer & Post-Production
Video Project of Wise Fool Production of the same name

The Blue Family 1996 Lise Swenson Videographer + Post Production
Documentary of 5 hour processional public sculpture performance

Women on Fire 1995 Alexis Vaughn, Videographer
Documentary about women and fire

Strips of Cloth and Paper 1994 Director Tamsin Orion
Documentary about the Wise Fool performance Touch/Prayer

Music video for the group Primus, Colossal Pictures, 1993
Performer with Wise Fool puppets

Babel 1992 Martin Matzinger, Videographer and Post-Production
Documentation of the Wise Fool performance by the same name

Supreme Concrete Jungle 1990 Laura Plotkin. Director
Performer, Costume + Make-up design/construction