The Magnificent Ms. Pham is a fantastic retelling of the true story of boatperson Kim Pham and her unwitting journey to becoming American. Moving fluidly between lived experience, memory, literature, and myth, this work reframes her exodus from Saigon to Houston as a Country Western Musical with music direction and new music by downtown theatre marvel MUR and additional music by Vietnamese American composer Hao Le.
This story of self-discovery and resilience is told through humor, spectacle, and song, celebrating the bonds of sisterhood and feminine power. Legendary warrior Lady Trieu strides along in the story to fortify Kim’s instincts and situate her within Vietnam’s long, defiant history, while literary icon Lady Kieu offers lessons —sometimes welcome, sometimes dubious— on what it means to be “a lady.” Along the way, Kim encounters dragons, dances with lion dogs, meets boys, a husband finds her, all culminating into somehow raising four very different sons. In a world of cascading cause and effect, can there be anything other than unintentional consequences? The essential element of water in the story and performance reminds us that life essentially ebbs back and forth but always moves us forward.
The Magnificent Ms. Pham is presented with the support of The Jim Henson Foundation.
Wednesday, Feb 25 @ 7pm
Thursday, Feb 26 @ 7pm
Friday, Feb 27 @ 2pm
Friday, Feb 27 @ 7pm
Saturday, Feb 28 @ 2pm **mask required performance**
Saturday, Feb 28 @ 7pm
The Magnificent Ms. Pham is the premiere production of the new puppet company Puppetual Motion founded by celebrated director and designer Doug Fitch, returning to his puppet roots, and partner artist, illustrator, and writer Tommy Nguyen, emerging puppet artist.
Doug Fitch is a visual artist best known for his opera and concert theater productions. Past projects include Le Grand Macabre, The Cunning Little Vixen, and A Dancer’s Dream, all with the New York Philharmonic. His productions of H. K. Gruber’s Gloria: A Pig Tale and Suzanne Farrin’s Dolce la Morte, both premiered at the Metropolitan Museum. He has directed several Young People’s Concerts for the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic, including the 100th anniversary performance in New York and a live performance of an animated version of Peter and the Wolf in Hollywood for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which became an interactive app featuring Alice Cooper as narrator. Career highlights include Turandot at the Santa Fe Opera, and Hansel and Gretel at LA Opera and Dallas Opera. He designed sets and costumes for Nashville Ballet’s Black Lucy and the Bard scored by Rhiannon Giddens, which aired on PBS Great Performances. His production of Matthew Aucoin and Sarah Ruhl’s Eurydice premiered at Boston Lyric Opera and was remounted at Opera Grand Rapids. His Tanglewood production of Elliott Carter’s What Next? was filmed and screened at the Museum of Modern Art. For the Mozart Week Festival in Salzburg, he created Punkititi, in conjunction with the legendary Salzburg Marionette Theatre, and featuring Geoff Sobelle. He apprenticed with visionary designer Gaetano Pesce and conceptual artist Arakawa, operated a Muppet with Frank Oz, built a family treehouse in the Philippines, and starred in a silent movie called The Blind Date. Mr. Fitch co-wrote Orphic Fodder, a book about a series of edible art projects, ran an art furniture company called Ooloo, and is an alum of the Hermitage Artist Retreat.
Tommy Nguyen is an internationally exhibiting visual artist based in Brooklyn and Philadelphia. His work celebrates the unifying possibilities of cross-cultural pop materialism creating installation exhibits and performances as hypothetical utopian explorations.
He is a member of Flux Factory art collective in Queens and has been in artist-in-residence at Aros Kunstmuseum, Wave Hill, Platform, TurnPark, and NES Artist Residency. He was an Atrium Artist at The Cleveland Museum of Art, a Kunstiftung Sachsen-Anhalt fellow, a Great Lakes Drawing Biennial artist. He received the Eugene A. Gaier award in achievement in drawing and received the ReVealed Emerging Artist at The Sculpture Center in Cleveland where he premiered the performance exhibition may the PLUSH be with you. His show new gods, old America! at BAS was awarded the Best New Exhibition by ArtVoice. Rosarium Publishing is publishing his graphic novel series Bi-Hard, including The Texas Chainsaw Manicure, The Birth of a Gaysian and Broken Bosoms. He teaches animation and comics at Pace University.
He frequently collaborates with artist and director Doug Fitch. Together they produce videos and animations for the NYPhilharmonic for their Young and Very Young People’s Concerts. They have worked with Grammy, Tony, and Emmy award winning composers, performers, artists, and ensembles. Their works has been nominated for Queerty and Webby awards; their animation commissioned for Visionnaire The Sourdough Conspiracy with Anthony Roth Costanzo and MUR was accepted into the Woodstock
Film Festival.