WORLD PREMIERE
MURMURATIONS
Gregory Corbino
July 29
6:30pm participants gather
7pm parade kick off
Teardrop Park, Battery Park City,
Enter at North End Avenue or River Terrace entrance
Warren Street, New York, NY, 10005
Please note this event has been rescheduled from June 12.
All events in the River To River Festival are free and all are welcome.
MURMURATIONS is a collective puppetry performance of oceanic proportions, a puppet poem of city and sea. Responding to the impacts of climate change and plastic pollution on the ocean, giant puppets crafted of plastic trash removed from New York City waterways and beaches will transform Battery Park City into a seascape of androgenous oysters, stunning sturgeon and captivating cetaceans.
The performance is composed of two movements. The first movement begins in the grass lawn of Teardrop Park, where humans of all ages are invited to learn the puppetry art of plastic bottle fish murmuration. The second movement begins as the plastic bottle fish parade to Rockefeller Park where giant puppets inspired by the biodiversity of New York Harbor will join the murmuration in a cacophonous confluence of oceanic wonder and human impact.
Those who wish to participate in MURMURATIONS are invited to an open rehearsal at 6:30pm to learn how to murmurate. Please note that participants will move together in a close group wiggling small puppets. All are welcome to enjoy the performance at 7pm.
Collaborators
Mery Cheung
Ak Jansen
Tamara Ochoa
Ryan Shinji Murray
Juanita Cardenas
Francisca Benítez
Lily Paulina
Eleonore Weill
Marcelo Perez
Sunder Ganglani
Jordan Lloyd
Julian Garita
Gil Verrelli
Kai Pelton
Ali Dineen
Presented in partnership with Battery Park City Authority
Gregory Corbino (Brooklyn, NY) is a multidisciplinary artist, puppeteer and educator whose work investigates how object performance crafted from refuse material and engaged by community can create queer ecologies of care and action in public space. His work is deeply invested in nature and aspires to be zero waste, creating sculptures, puppets and costumes from recycled, found and salvaged materials. Gregory is a long time collaborator with Peter Schumann and The Bread and Puppet Theater where he was a full time company member from 2012-2016. He has worked with Jennifer Miller and Circus Amok, Reverend Billy, Savitri D and The Stop Shopping Choir, Cecilia Vicuña, Amy Trompeter and Cathy Weiss among others. His design work has been seen at The High Line, The Queens Museum, The Leslie Lohman Museum of Art, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, and the Smithsonian Institution. Residencies have included QueerLab (Rome) Isadora Duncan Dance Center (Greece) and Togo Village Art Museum (Taiwan). Gregory is a High Line artist educator focusing on climate change and public art and is one of the music directors of Reverend Billy and The Stop Shopping Choir. In 2021 he was a resident at The Arts Center at Governors Island and is thrilled to be presenting a continuation of that work at the River to River Festival.