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 James Godwin, puppet provocateur. Master puppeteer and performance artist James Godwin has been pushing the puppetry envelope for years with his Bunraku-inspired dark-comedy puppet troupe, The Elementals. His creations have been described by The Village Voice as “―gorgeously wrought mutants who look like they evolved downstream from a nuclear waste dump and talk like vulgar barflies.”
Godwin brings his perverse sense of puppet humor to Dixon Place for the world premiere of Lunatic Cunning, his semi-autobiographical “mockumentary” that revolves around the story of a shaman who is asked to cure a tribal elder (who is dying of old age) by using a puppet channeled to him by the spirit of the shaman.
Godwin blends experiences from own life as a puppeteer into the plot—working with Julie Taymor, his appearances on Saturday Night Live, Chappelle’s Show, PBS, and his work with the Muppets—with an amusing assessment of the history of puppetry and performance art. To connect all the dots, he mixes traditional puppet techniques such as tabletop, marionette, hand, shadow, mask and objects, with live drawing, ritual, lights and sound―all the while showing us why he is a master of his craft.
Dixon Place // $15 // *Suitable for ages 13 and over // Fridays and Saturdays, April 6 – 21 // 7:30pm // 161A Chrystie Street.
 Radio Purgatory - currently running at Dixon Place. It’s going to be an action packed weekend on the Lower East Side. Along with Ken Beasley’s Music Picks, the Steampunk Haunted House at Abrons and an East Village eating tour that supports the arts, here are a few more events worth checking out.
 Known as “everybody’s favorite schizophrenic nut ball,” Dynasty Handbag (AKA Jibz Cameron) is back at the HOT! Festival this weekend with her show, Vertititgo, at Dixon Place. The show is her first full-length piece, described as an “explosion of noir inspired mind melting performance art.” Papermag has a nice interview with her here and the Village Voice’s Michael Musto speaks with her here. $10 (adv.), $15 (door) // Fri. & Sat., July 16,17,23, & 24 // 7:30 P.M. // 161 Chrystie Street
 Little Theatre, a monthly presentation of new theater, dance, performance & media, curated by Jeffrey M. Jones & Mike Taylor, is wrapping up it’s current season (it’s tenth) at Dixon Place tonight at 8pm. The evening’s scheduled performances include: Symposium on Slippage through Time’s Coarse Grasp - written and performed by Laylage Courie, Hope! Change! Blah: written and directed by Ben Gassman, with Eliza Bent, new work by Beth Kurkjian, three songs from The Unfortunate Squirrel by Sonya Sobieski, Crossing the Cow Field or An Ode to Inertia, written by Valerie Work, directed by Meghan Finn. // $15, $12 for students & seniors // 161 Chrystie Street // 8p.
We’ve got plenty of ideas for your “stay-cation” this Memorial Day Weekend. If there are other L.E.S. events or activities that you’d like us to know about, please email us.
The weather might be too warm to resist taking a field trip over to Pier 40 for some FREE kayaking, brought to you by the NYC Downtown Boathouse. Usually only available on weekends, they’ll be open this Monday for the holiday. Walk-ups are welcome from 9a – 6p with the last boat going out at 5:30p.
 Starting tonight, choreographers from Croatia, Serbia and Slovenia will participate in the X-YU Festival, a first-ever festival of new dance from the former Yugoslav countries, at Dixon Place. The festival, a collaboration with Dixon Place, Wax Factory and Dance New Amsterdam, will present three U.S. premiers in rotating repertory through Saturday, May 29th. (You can see all three pieces on Saturday.) As noted in the New Yorker: The Slovene dancers Maja Delak and Luka Princic offer a violent, punk, and multimedia vision of love.
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