Anthropomorphic

Insects, humans, and spiders are among the many anthropomorphed puppets featured in Puppetry Arts New York’s free public performance of a musical about faith and the suicide of a gay teenage boy called Anthropomorphic. Hosted at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Gay and Lesbian Art at 6:30pm on Thursday August 25th, puppeteers will perform highlights from the musical using multiple styles of puppetry including Bunraku, shadow, and rod puppetry. Collaborating with arranger and orchestrator Aaron Latina, vocalists will tell the story of Wesley, who having taken his life, falls into a purgatory of his mind where he is set on a journey to discover that he is someone to be loved. “As a child I was bullied and beaten down because I was different,” says creator Timothy Young. “When I’d come home, I’d hide in my walk-in closet and use my puppets and action figures to work out the emotions and pain I was going through. Coming out to my mother, watching her hold onto the railing of the staircase sobbing has stuck with me all of my life. This became the story of Anthropomorphic.”