Sophia Michahelles (born c. 1975) is one of the two chief artists and

puppeteer A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object, called a puppet, to create the illusion that the puppet is alive. The puppet is often shaped like a human, animal, or legendary creature. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from ...

s of Processional Arts Workshop, makers of pageant puppets and other processional art in

upstate New York Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...

. She works closely with co-director

Alex Kahn Alex Kahn is an American visual/performance artist and co-founder of the arts ensemble Processional Arts Workshop. He is most widely known for his creation of the large-scale puppet performance works that lead New York's Village Halloween Parade ...

. The couple's work, under the informal moniker "Superior Concept Monsters" has been commissioned each year since 1998 to lead

New York's Village Halloween Parade The Village Halloween Parade is an annual holiday parade on the night of every Halloween, in the Greenwich Village neighborhood of New York City. The parade, initiated in 1974 by Greenwich Village puppeteer and mask maker Ralph Lee, is the world' ...

, the largest puppet parade and street-pageant of its kind in the United States, drawing two million spectators. Many of the giant rod puppets (or "pageant" puppets) created by Michahelles and Kahn, are lit from the inside, making them suitable for night parades. They are performed by teams of puppeteers. For the 1998 Halloween parade, Michahelles worked with Kahn and his team to build five 20-foot caterpillar puppets (designed by Kahn) which transformed into giant Luna moths. In 2001, as a response to the attack on the

World Trade Center World Trade Centers are sites recognized by the World Trade Centers Association. World Trade Center may refer to: Buildings * List of World Trade Centers * World Trade Center (2001–present), a building complex that includes five skyscrapers, a ...

, Michahelles herself designed an incandescent baby phoenix puppet for the New York parade, as a symbol of rebirth from the ashes. Michahelles has also worked in collaboration with master puppeteer

Basil Twist Basil Twist is a New York City-based puppeteer who is known for his underwater puppet show, "''Symphonie Fantastique''". He was named a MacArthur Fellowship recipient on September 29, 2015. Life and work Originally from San Francisco, Basil Twis ...

. She performed in Twist's

Off-Broadway An off-Broadway theatre is any professional theatre venue in New York City with a seating capacity between 100 and 499, inclusive. These theatres are smaller than Broadway theatres, but larger than off-off-Broadway theatres, which seat fewer tha ...

show ''

Symphonie fantastique ' (''Fantastical Symphony: Episode in the Life of an Artist … in Five Sections'') Op. 14, is a program symphony written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is an important piece of the early Romantic period. The first performan ...

'' (1998 and 2004) presented at Dodger Stages. The

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the A ...

-winning work is a water ballet of 180 puppets choreographed to the five movements of

Hector Berlioz In Greek mythology, Hector (; grc, Ἕκτωρ, Hektōr, label=none, ) is a character in Homer's Iliad. He was a Trojan prince and the greatest warrior for Troy during the Trojan War. Hector led the Trojans and their allies in the defense o ...

's 1830 orchestral work. Unseen during the performance, she and the other five performers "...emerge from behind the scenes for their curtain calls... Each is wearing a wetsuit, looks exhausted, gets naked and is soaked from head to toe," according to theater critic

Matthew Murray Matthew Murray (1765 – 20 February 1826) was an English steam engine and machine tool manufacturer, who designed and built the first commercially viable steam locomotive, the twin cylinder ''Salamanca'' in 1812. He was an innovative design ...

of TalkinBroadway.com. Since 2002, Michahelles and Kahn have taught a summer workshop in pageant puppetry and processional art in the mountain village of Morinesio, located in the Italian Alps. They draw on local history as an inspiration for the artistic themes of the puppet creations and folk festivals that are part of the workshop. This process of creating locally derived, site-specific processions has become a central aspect of their work, and in 2005, they formed a non-profit entity, Processional Arts Workshop, to further pursue community-based projects.

References

External links

Processional Arts Workshop
{{DEFAULTSORT:Michahelles, Sophia Living people American puppeteers Puppet designers Astor family Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women artists