Puppeteer Pam Arciero

Muppet Mainstage, February 12th, 2024

“Ballad of the Sad Cafe” was written by Paul Jacobs and Josh Selig for season 23 of Sesame Street. The song is performed by a group of cowboys (Jerry Nelson as the purple cowboy, David Rudman as the blue cowboy, Louise Gold as the green cowgirl, and Camille Bonora as the lavender cowgirl), their horses (Martin P. Robinson) and their cows (Pam Arciero). Together they sing about the Sad Cafe, where they go when they feel sad.

Pam Arciero a puppeteer on Sesame Street mostly known for playing Oscar the Grouch's girlfriend Grungetta, just posted this on facebook

Broadway-Bound 'Aanika's Elephants' Premiere and Sesame Street Panel Coming to Center for Puppetry Arts

Speakeysie News Service ATLANTA – An original work produced by a cohort of Sesame Street writers, designers, and performers will premiere at the Center for Puppetry Arts on August 17th and run through September 3rd. The star-studded Sesame Street cohort behind this new production includes Emmy Award-winning writer Annie Evans, director Pam Arciero (performer of Grundgetta Grouch and assorted…

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Caroll Spinney and Pam Arciero

Happy Birthday. Today, May 8, – Pam Arciero, American puppeteer and voice actress was born. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pam_Arciero) Prop Troopers (www.PropTroopers.com for Custom #Cosplay #Costumes and #Accessories)

jimhenson-themuppetmaster: Pam Arciero with Grundgetta https://t.co/CNYnaD0mPd https://etsy.me/1Aj5Sr4

Trilobites were actual crab-like creatures of the sea who lived on earth 150 million years before the first dinosaurs – and, like dinosaurs, are long extinct. But they remain as sturdy fossils for scientists to study….and theater artists to imagine.

“The Riddle of the Trilobites,” running at New Victory Theater through February 23, is being billed as a musical for kids about climate change. That may be the most marketable way of describing a show that is also about puppets and paleontology.and puberty.

Under the direction of Lee Sunday Evans, the show features a cast of six who use oversized hand puppets, wear colorful costumes, and sing a serviceable score of 13 songs, to tell the story of its heroine, Aphra (Safiso Mabena), an adolescent “trilo.” On “Molting Day,” Aphra’s shell reveals special markings that fulfill a prophecy drawn on the wall of her tribe’s grotto. Just such markings will be on the trilo who will solve the species’ ancient unsolved riddle:  “​When the ocean changes, the Trilobites cannot live but will not die.​”

Aphra goes on an epic journey to find the answer to the riddle,  with her pals Judomiah (Richard Saudek) and the five-eyed Calliope, an Opabinia (Sophia Aranda on the night I saw the show.) Along the way, they meet other sea creatures and have adventures and learn lessons about politics and science and life. And so does the audience, age six and older.

While there is no orange trilobite dismissing climate change as a hoax, there are more subtle references to twenty-first century politics. Aphra is told that volcanoes have destroyed other settlements, forcing trilobites to live in “refugee camps.” The elders of their community are not inviting in the refugees, even though the elders “have a code to embrace others,” because they’re scared.

Among the glancing science lessons are a few lines about geology and  an esoteric dive into paleontology,  Actual extinct sea species, made visually cute, populate the show – not just trilobites and opabinia, but Haikouichthys and Anomalocaris and Hallucigenia

(The fact that all these species are extinct but still exist as fossils is of course the key to the riddle that Alphra must solve.)

A lesson about growing up occurs early in the show, when Aphra is frightened about her first molting day. Her grandmother Galla (Julia Sirna-Frest) reassures her

Galla: Molting is nothing to be scared of. Your first molt will be a day of excitement and wonder. Aphra: How will I know what to do? Galla: You’ll know automatically. Aphra: But all the other first-time molters will have their parents there to help them. Galla: What am I – chopped plankton? I will be by your side the entire time

This is funny, and it’s also clever; it’s not a total stretch to see this as an indirect and inoffensive lesson about menstruation.

But there is a larger lesson about growing up in “Riddle of the Trilobites” — facing life as it is. After the adolescent trilobites visit an Opabinia scientist named Aunt Tonka and her Hallucigenia lab assistant Vanya, Vanya starts crying. “Those young little things going off into the wild sea, facing such enormous obstacles without even knowing how dangerous it is. And for what? Life is only work, and change, and predators and prey.”

“Well, what can we do?” Tonka replies. “We must live our lives. We must work – and laugh from time to time.”

Although “Riddle of the Trilobites” is a modest entertainment, without elaborate staging and effects, “Riddle of the Trilobites” largely works; from time to time, we do  laugh.

The Riddle of the Trilobites Book by Geo Decas O’Donnell and Jordan Seavey Lyrics by Geo Decas O’Donnell, Jordan Seavey and Nicholas Williams Music, Orchestration and Arrangements by Nicholas Williams Puppetry Concept by Amanda Villalobos Puppet Direction by Pam Arciero Directed by Lee Sunday Evans Set Design & Elder Robes Design by Deb O Costume Design by Katherine Nelson Lighting Design by Eric Southern Sound Design by Emma Wilk Puppet Design & Fabrication by Amanda Villalobos Cast: Sophia Aranda understudy, Tiffany Iris as Calliope and others, Sifiso Mabena as Aphra, Joel Oaramas as Elvin and others, Richard Saudek as Judomiah, Julia Sirna-Frest as Gall and others, Phillip Taratula as Hai and others. Running time: About 90 minutes with no intermission Tickets:$17 – $42 Riddle of the Trilobites is on stage through February 23, 2020.

Tickets and details

  Riddle of the Trilobites Review: A Prehistoric Puppet Musical about Climate Change and Puberty Trilobites were actual crab-like creatures of the sea who lived on earth 150 million years before the first dinosaurs – and, like dinosaurs, are long extinct.

“breathe in...  breathe out”, or “Looking back after The O’Neill 2017″

So.... I need to write this before I forget, get wrapped up in my never-ending fight against mundanity, and start to really feel the distance from my people. I got home from The 2017 National Puppetry Conference yesterday, and promptly fell asleep.  We all did. I’ve been to The O’Neill before, and I left this one without the soul crushing sadness of finding your tribe and then being scattered away from them.  I know I will see some of them very soon, why, Cam and I are redcarpeting it up this weekend for a puppet film we worked on, see?  It’s going to be fine!  Still it’s sinking in slowly, that isolation I feel sometimes, so let me babble on a bit, please, while it’s still fresh. First off, I don’t know if it is impostor syndrome or what, I but I seem inherently convinced that I am incredibly easy to forget.  This means I work extra hard to make an impression and I desperately seek approval. I’m getting better at it, but I definitely introduced myself a few times to some people, either who I figured forgot me since last year or the year before, and even some people who I had met the day before.  “Hello, I’m Valerie” was often met with a politely bewildered: “Yes, we’ve met”.  So... thank you for indulging me. I worked with some amazing people this year, and it helped push me to accept that sometimes I just make friends with incredible people, and they are not just politely enduring the tedium of letting me tag along.  Top of that list is Tim Legasse and James Godwin, who I had surprisingly way more in common with than I realized and they shared a studio together for years, and well... it shows.  Also, yeah, I went in completely ready to re-introduce myself to both of them, but that was unnecessary.  Our dynamic reminds me quite a bit of my band family big brother types.  I especially liked messing around singing Morrissey songs with Tim, and mercilessly, mercilessly slaying B-52′s with James at karaoke.  And my separate hilarious conversations with both about my “previous career”. I finally was able to study with Jim Rose, who is a dear, and a master of his craft, and I would sit at the table with him and struggle to get past this weird shyness I have at times, and it was lovely.  Oh, and I made a marionette under his tutelage, and that’s not nothing.  And then strung it up and added trick strings with the help of Kurt Hunter and Phillip Huber (I suppressed my awkward shyness and went up to Phillip two years ago and asked if we could just be friends who said “hello” to each other, and we’ve been friends ever since)!   Martin P. Robinson is lovely, but I was also always a little shy of him when he’d pull out Telly Monster (Telly was my favourite), but I am not shy anymore (testing out dollar store generic KY jelly on his arm, to make sure no one reacted to it, will do that to a friendship, kicks it up a level).  I’m thrilled I’ll get to see him at Dragon Con this year, and he got my song “I’m Just a Fish” stuck in his head and was whistling it to himself while I was editing my film together.  It made my day.  He also asked me to perform it at every pub show he attended.  I’ve sent him a recording. Martin Kettling was one of my mentors two years back, and I got incredibly sick while I was there, and while I didn’t completely fail, I certainly had some pitfalls I pushed through.  He commented to me on the last night, this year, that I had incredible stage presence (thank you, Hellblinki), and he had this wonderful insight to how my brain works, and the nervous energy and strategy that is constantly playing in my brain, and fear and all that (I was in his writing strand, so if you know me... you get it).  Two years ago he had pretty much only seen that, since I was too sick to perform.  It really meant a lot to me to have someone observe and recognize both sides of my stage personality. Also... hugs for days! The best hugs.  I don’t really get much personal contact in my life, I’m not devoid of it, but I live alone, I am single, and it’s just not something I get much of these days.  The O’Neill is a constant string of supportive hand grabs, contact improv, hugs, shoulder squeezing, and piles of deliriously tired puppeteers on the beach waiting for sunrise.  I feel sort of like a story I read once of Pierrot in white, with black marks showing up where other children have touched him while playing... I’m too tired to remember the whole story.

Pam Arciero is like my puppet mom, and one of the people I am totally geeked out that I get to be friends with.  I didn’t make it to her office this year, possibly because I managed not to have a breakdown, but in doing so, I feel like I missed out on something.  Also her and Jean Marie do such amazing work at The O’Neill I owe all of these wonderful feelings to those two powerhouse ladies.  And I own Jean Marie some rhino drawings, I have not forgotten.

Fred Thompson was there this year, and that alone is reason for celebration.  Fred is great and I love our silly conversations, but also our serious ones.  I’ve gotten so much advice from him about life and art, he’s a fantastic creature, and I’m lucky to have gotten stuck at a lunch table alone with him 5 years ago. Mervyn Millar!  Gave me moldable plastic (it’s next to my kettle and I cannot wait to use it!) and agreed to befriend me.  This may not seem like a big deal, but I definitely introduced myself to him twice.  I had just indefinitely postponed my trip to London a few weeks back, but when I do sort it out, I have more artists to visit, and that is spectacular. Ronnie Burkett made us all cry and inspired the marionette strand kids to take turns holding eachother’s puppets so we could all kneel down and kiss the stage before the show.  It was magical.  Also, I have finally reached a level of self confidence around him to make dirty pearl-clutching jokes with him in voices from the early talking pictures.  I adore you, Ronnie. Last year shortly after leaving, I had my heart stomped, and my O’Neill inspiration high crushed (that probably had a bit to do with my perceived disposable nature or ease of being forgotten, it’s not true, and I have the photos, videos, and memories to prove it).  This is not going to be the case this year, and I am thankful of that. I have a bunch of work to do, and never enough time to do it. I know I am forgetting people, but I am super tired and this is a blog post no one is going to read.  To sleepy to edit, that’s me.  But at least it’s out on this digital paper medium, not just stored up in my unreliable head right now. This is all a bit interpersonal, which is great and all, but I also LEARNED SO MUCH. And I cannot wait to apply it.  Once I get some sleep. So from a very full, and very tired heart, I made you all this: https://youtu.be/HrOrIvefF5E?list=PLz0pM6yNwcaD6ofLs_j_SmFsyCv2cvark

Pam Arciero

Muppet Mainstage, January 19th, 2024

“A New Way to Walk” was written by Joe Raposo and Mark Saltzman for season 18 of Sesame Street (1987). The song was originally performed by The Oinker Sisters with Ivy Austin as the lead vocal, the backup singers are unknown. The Oinker Sisters in the original recording were puppeteered by Richard Hunt, Kevin Clash and Martin P. Robinson with Noel MacNeal, Pam Arciero and David Rudman assisting.

Jerry Nelson (Hidden) David Rudman, Camille Bonora, Fran Brill, Richard Hunt (Hidden) Pam Arciero and Noel McNeil, Sesame Street in the Eighties.

Pam Arciero performing Lindi and Kathryn Mullen performing Allegra on Allegra’s Window; 1995.

Happy Birthday. Today, May 8, 1954 – Pam Arciero, American puppeteer and voice actress was born. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pam_Arciero) Prop Troopers (www.PropTroopers.com)

Happy May 8th!

As my friend's mom always says, "So Happy It's Thursday!"

Happy birthday to...

Mary Lou Williams (pictured above), an American jazz pianist, composer, and arranger, who worked with Duke Ellington, Benny Goodman, and Miles Davis, just to name a few. Here's her on Mr. Rogers in 1973; Pam Arciero, an American puppeteer and voice-over artist, mostly known for her role as Oscar the Grouch's girlfriend Grundgetta; Viviana Durante, a retired Italian ballerina widely considered one of the finest and most dramatic prima ballerinas in her time. Watch her in a 2003 performance of Swan Lake;Tatyana Dektyareva, a Russian track and field athlete who specializes in the 100 meter hurdles, coming in 8th at the 2012 Olympics; And Yara Sofia, a Puerto Rican drag queen who rose to fame on the third season of RuPaul's Drag Racing, ending the season with the crown of Miss Congeniality.

On this day...

In 1877, the first Westminster Dog Show was held at Gilmore Gardens in New York City. Originally a show for gun dogs, it was created by a group of hunters who regularly met at the Westminster Hotel in Manhattan. Let's all enjoy what eventually came out of this cultural phenomenon (spoiler alert for a movie released 14 years ago).

In 1886, John Pemberton sells his first beverage labeled as Coca-Cola, initially sold as a patent medicine for five cents a glass at soda fountains. The company went on to develop a wide array of flavors, such as Coca-Cola Lime, Coca-Cola Cherry, and, what we as a society have all agreed as the worst flavor to ever get near our taste buds, Coca-Cola Vanilla.

In 1933, Mahatma Gandhi begins a 21 day hunger strike, protesting against the British rule in India; this day also marked the beginning of a one year campaign to help the Harijan movement.

In 1945, V-E Day marked the formal acceptance by the Allies of World War II of Nazi Germany's surrender of its armed forces and the end of WWII in Europe. Oddly enough, the very first moment of silence for the first World War was proposed exactly 26 years before.

In 1946, Ageeda Paavel and Aili Jürgenson, two school girls in Estonia, blew up a Soviet war monument in Tallinn. This was in response to Soviet authorities systematically destroying the war memorials to the fallen in the Estonian War of Independence. The girls were apprehended by the Soviet authorities and, at 15 and 14 respectively, sent to forced-labor camps in the USSR. 52 years laer, the two were awarded the Estonian Order of the Cross of the Eagle for their fight against the Soviet regime. They are the only two women to receive the Order of the Cross of the Eagle.

Yes, but what's happening today?

Monica Lewinsky opens up in the most recent issue of Vanity Fair, which has now hit the newsstands (and the internet, if you subscribe to a digital copy). Amanda Hess writes for Slate's DoubleX how Maureen Dowd painted her as a "nutty, slutty" bimbo--and won the Pulitzer Prize for it.

Brodie at Rookie writes about jealousy, how to use yours for good, and the importance of rerouting negative energy into something productive and satisfying.

At The Mary Sue, Susana Polo highlights statistics about women in the indie film sector. The numbers of women in major behind-the-scenes roles are much higher--26% in indie movies vs 16% in mainstream Hollywood--but are still dismally low.

Need a pick-me-up?

Watch Olivia Wilde and Billy Eichner play "John Mayer or Pepé le Pew" on Billy on the Street. He's great, she's great, everything is great!

Plus-size fashionistas GabiFresh, Nadia Aboulhosn, and Tess Munster remake Beyonce's "***Flawless," celebrating bodies of all sizes. Writes Gabi on her site, "This video is dedicated to the mainstream media, to the fashion industry, to internet bullies, and to anyone else who thinks it's their right to try to make us feel less than because of their insecurities." Make sure you check out the whole essay, it's brill!

Speaking of killer girl gangs, spend the rest of your afternoon with this song, from Brazilian teenage rappers Pearls Negras, turned way up.