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Interview: Josh Luxenberg
The co-founder of Sinking Ship Productions talks about Puppet Playlist and the theatricality of the Beatles
“Wrath” by Alissa Hunnicutt from a previous Puppet Playlist
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Josh Luxenberg is co-founder and co-artistic director of Sinking Ship Productions, who bring us the bi-monthly Puppet Playlist series. Yesterday we wrote about their Talking Heads performance (which you can see tonight at the Tank Theater at 7:30 p.m.) and also got a chance to speak to Mr. Luxenberg.
Where did the original idea of Puppet Playlist come from?
Technically, it’s part of a genre called “Puppet Slam.” There are a couple of them in Manhattan; we’re the only one that features entirely original work. The idea basically came from going to a puppet slam, and Jon Levin [co-founder of Sinking Ship Productions] came up with the idea. He thought it’d be fun to do something that was all original and that incorporated music.
Are there a surprising amount of puppeteers in New York?
It’s a small community, but there are more than you would image. Maybe. I’ve never really thought about it. I’ve just been meeting, mostly through this, a lot of incredible and talented people. It’s a very dedicated group. I think you have to be to make it as a puppeteer.
To be included in a Puppet Playlist, people have to send in submissions. How do you guys then pick who’s going to be perform?
The way it works is we accept submissions, but because it’s all original work, we don’t see the act that they want to perform until they literally get on stage for the audience. We have to make a call based on past work or their resume. Like I said, it’s a small community, so we often already know a lot of the people and their work. We also recruit people whose work we admire.
How do you pick which bands you’re going to do for the theme?
At the end of the show, the audience votes. We do a process of elimination. We usually do three shows [for each artist], so the first audience narrows it down, then the second audience narrows it down further, and the third audience votes. The five are just—we sit there and brainstorm, puppeteers make suggestions. We pick bands and artists that we think lend themselves to the potential of something highly theatrical.
Who’s someone that you’d like to see but hasn’t been chosen yet?
I’d love to see the Beatles done. It doesn’t go over well because it seems like such an obvious selection, but their songs are actually really eclectic. They really do lend themselves to a kind of theatricality. The other one that I’d love to see that almost only got picked last time is a general “Divas” theme.
You’re from Baltimore originally, how did you come to New York?
Jon and I were talking about putting in a show in the New York Fringe Festival…and when my job ended in Baltimore, I came here, in 2008. We created a show called There Will Come Soft Rains, an adaptation of three science-fiction short stories, and it was in the Fringe Festival that year. That’s what brought me here, and I just stuck around.