La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club will present STAND BY — an allegory by Corningworks as part of La MaMa Moves! Dance Festival, on Thursday, April 16 and Friday, April 17 at 8pm at The Downstairs Theatre, 66 E. 4th Street. Tickets are $30 (general), $25 (students/seniors), with a $50 Support-the-Artists ticket option. Tickets are available at https://ci.ovationtix.com/42/production/1267169?performanceId=11772668. Festival packages start at $45 and are available at https://ci.ovationtix.com/42/store/packages. Additionally, the first 10 tickets of each performance are $10 (limit 2 per person).

STAND BY — an allegory is a multi-disciplinary, dance-theater production created in collaboration with renowned puppeteer Tom Lee (engaging the centuries-old style of Japanese Kuruma Ningyo/Cart Puppetry). It is a whimsical glimpse at human inability to recognize our own mortality: not so much about death or grief, or even loss, as about the mysterious & magical continuity of life.

Corningworks is a vehicle for the multi-disciplinary, dance-theater productions by Beth Corning and her award-winning series, THE GLUE FACTORY PROJECTS — original full-evening length works created on internationally & nationally renowned performers over the age of 40 that combine sophistication, clarity of theatrical concepts, visceral choreography, and dynamic musicality. Humor co-exists with serious examination of such issues such as race, gender, aging, death, inequality, politics, human rights, art, and myth. For more information, please visit https://www.corningworks.org/the-glue-factory-projects.html.

STAND BY — an allegory is made possible in part with support from: CORNINGWORKS Board of Directors, an Anonymous Funder, The Chicago Puppet Lab, The Heinz Endowments, The Howard Gilman Foundation, Individual Donors, Off The Wall Charitable Trust, Opportunity Fund, PA Council on the Arts, The Pittsburgh Foundation & Nancey Rosensweig & Dan Arshack.

Creative Team Credits

PUPPETEER – Tom Lee

ARTISTIC DIRECTOR/CHOREOGRAPHER/PERFORMER – Beth Corning

LIGHTING & TECHNICAL DIRECTOR – Iain Court

SET COORDINATOR – Stephanie Mayer Staley

PERFORMERS: Chezney Douglas, Evan Fisk, Kimani Fowlin, Alberto Del Saz

Tom Lee (puppeteer) is a director, designer, and puppet artist born in Korea and raised in Hawai’i. Mr. Lee began his career at La MaMa Experimental Theater with the encouragement of Ellen Stewart and later, the St. Ann’s Warehouse Puppet Lab. His work often explores the synthesis of manipulated figures and objects using film techniques and animation. Lee’s original puppet theater work includes Sounding the Resonant Path (La MaMa, Chicago Puppet Festival, Pesta Boneka Indonesia), Akutagawa (US & Tokyo), Shank’s Mare (US, Hawai’i, Japan & France), Kurokami (Asian Improv Arts Midwest), Hoplite Diary (St. Ann’s, La MaMa), Tomte (Chicago Puppet Festival), Ko’olau (La MaMa/Hawai’i tour), and The Great Zodiac Animal Race (La MaMa). Tom received the last of the prestigious MAP Fund grants to create The Mirrored Pool (premiere in 2026).

Tom was a puppeteer in the original Broadway cast of War Horse (Tony Award, Handspring Puppet Company), and designed puppetry and performed as a puppeteer for Mary Zimmerman’s production of Florencia en el Amazonasat the Metropolitan Opera. Mr. Lee is a principal puppeteer in Anthony Minghella’s long-running production of Madama Butterfly at the Met, with puppetry by Blind Summit Theatre; directed and performed puppetry for Petrushka with the NY Philharmonic at London’s Barbican Centre; and Le Grand Macabre at Avery Fisher Hall conducted by Alan Gilbert (created by Doug Fitch/Giants Are Small). He has performed in Dan Hurlin’s Obie Award-winning puppet works Hiroshima Maiden, Disfarmer, and Demolishing Everything With Amazing Speed, and was a principal puppeteer in Lee Breuer’s epic puppet opera La Divina Caricatura at La MaMa.

Tom is co-director of Chicago Puppet Studio. His design work includes puppets, projections, and sets for theatre, dance, opera, and film, including Florencia en el Amazonas (Metropolitan Opera), Monkey (Paramount Theater, Boston), Vancouver (Ma-Yi Theater Company, UNIMA Citation), The Steadfast Tin Soldier (Lookingglass Theater, Jeff Award 2019), Christmas Carol (Alliance Theater), Pinocchio (House Theater Chicago), The Scarlet Ibis(Prototype Opera Festival), The Poacher (Harvard Theatre, Dance and Media), and many pieces at La MaMa Experimental Theater, in addition to work with choreographers Yoshiko Chuma, Christopher Williams, Lisa Gonzales, and Jonathan Meyer.

In 2005, supported by the NEA/TCG Career Development Program for Designers, Tom spent two months studying traditional and contemporary puppetry throughout Japan. He met Koryū Nishikawa V, headmaster of Hachioji Kuruma Ningyō (cart puppet theatre company), with whom he has maintained an ongoing creative relationship. Together they developed Shank’s Mare, an international puppetry collaboration that has toured throughout the US, Japan, and France and received the 2016 Arlyn Award for Outstanding Puppet Theater Design. In 2023, Tom Lee and Koryū Nishikawa premiered a second collaboration, Akutagawa, at the Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival and subsequently toured the US and Tokyo.

Mr. Lee was a guest faculty member at Sarah Lawrence College and a co-director of the St. Ann’s Puppet Lab in Brooklyn. In 2021, he established the Chicago Puppet Lab with co-director Blair Thomas, seeking to develop and empower new voices creating original work for the puppet theater in Chicago. Mr. Lee teaches puppetry and puppet design in the US and internationally.

www.tomleeprojects.com

Beth Corning (artistic director/choreographer/performer) is an award-winning choreographer, performer, and director. She began her national and international touring career with Second Take—a solo repertory concert in 1981—showcasing cutting-edge and historical choreographers, as well as her own work. In 1982, while living in Stockholm, Sweden, she formed Corning Dances & Company (cd&c), attracting some of the country’s major performing artists and designers, including members of the renowned Cullberg Company. In 1986, cd&c moved back to the US, garnering critical acclaim and awards in New York City and Minneapolis, MN. In 2003, Corning moved to Pittsburgh to become the Executive Artistic Director of Dance Alloy Theater, which she led until 2009. In 2010, she launched CORNINGWORKS, a vehicle for her GLUE FACTORY PROJECTS and other collaborative dance-theater productions, with the mission to create opportunities for “seasoned” performing and creative artists.

The 2025-26 season celebrates CORNINGWORKS’ 16th anniversary in Pittsburgh and her 47th year as a working dance professional, creating and producing new works consistently since 1978. Along with her ongoing work as a performer, Corning has created over 90 works, 36 of which are full evening-length productions, as well as commissioned works for Utah Repertory Dance Theater, Pennsylvania Dance Theater, Eugene Ballet Company, GroundWorks DanceTheater, Dancing Wheels, Nye Carte Blanche (Norway), and the 2021 International Nostos Festival (Athens, Greece). She choreographed for the award-winning Danish/Swedish film production of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress, directed by Inger Åby, conducted by Esa-Pekka Salonen, and starring Barbara Hendricks.

She has been invited twice to Robert Redford’s Sundance Institute Dance/Film Lab and has been the subject of two TV documentaries for Swedish National TV and Iowa Public TV. Her work has received support from numerous organizations, including the American Scandinavian Foundation, American Express Foundation, Jerome, Bush, and Harkness Foundations, Sage Cowles, NYFA, NYC Pilgrim’s Project, MN Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, Iowa Arts Council, The Heinz Endowments, The Pittsburgh Foundation, The Benter Foundation, McCune Foundation, Hillman Foundation, and, most recently, The Howard Gilman Foundation.

She has received multiple honors, including recognition by the Minneapolis Annual Arts Registry, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette (Top 50 Creative Forces), and the Pittsburgh BRAZZY Award for Outstanding Female Dance Artist (2016). She has also been nominated three times for the Carol R. Brown Established Artist Award.

Ian Court (lighting and technical director) has worked as a designer and production manager/stage manager, as well as a performer and director, across all genres of performance in theatres throughout Australia, Europe, and North America. His principal interest is lighting design, and he has lit works in medieval churches, circus tents, riverbanks, haunted houses, and traditional theatres. He also works in new media performance and has collaborated on installations, touring productions, and award-winning immersive works.

He has been involved in arts education for over 30 years, teaching at CalArts, the Australian National Institute of Dramatic Arts, and universities across the USA and Australia. He has also developed technician training programs for the Sydney Opera House and consulted on national standards for the entertainment industry in Australia. He received the David Helfgott Award for his contribution to Accessible Arts in Australia. Ian has collaborated on CORNINGWORKS GLUE FACTORY PROJECTS for over 10 years, lighting and coordinating technical elements. This will be his 19th season with CORNINGWORKS. He is currently based in Europe as a freelance designer. www.iclights.net

Stephanie Mayer Staley (set coordinator) is an idea artist whose work spans scenic and lighting design, installation, land art, painting, photography, and stone masonry. Originally from Germany, her art reflects a desire for cross-cultural understanding. Her work has been produced, displayed, and honored in both the USA and Germany.

Pittsburgh theatrical design credits include The History Boys and The House of Bernarda Alba (Conservatory Theater), Welcome to Here (Bricolage Production Company), The Traveling Song (Hiawatha Project), Flying Lovers of Vitebsk and A Moon for the Misbegotten (Quantum Theatre), and multiple works with CORNINGWORKS, including The Waiting Room, Beckett & Beyond, The Other Shoe, the fisherman, the butterfly, eve & her lover – a parable, What Do You Think You Just Heard Me Say?!, and A (not so) Quiet Evening with Beth. She is currently Director of Theater Design at Point Park University in Pittsburgh, PA. https://www.steffimayer.com

Chezney Douglas (performer). is a queer dancer and visual artist from Las Vegas, Nevada. They began formal training at age five at Bunker Dance Center and continued at the Las Vegas Academy of the Arts. Their practice spans tap, jazz, modern, contemporary, and diverse folk dance forms. Chezney has performed works by Peter Chu, Stacey Tookey, Naomi Stikeman, Anthony Morigerato, Sonya Tayeh, Chloé and Maud Arnold, and Roger Van der Poel. While earning their BFA at Point Park University, they collaborated on works by Tyce Diorio, Adam Hougland, Pearlanne Porter, Robert Priore, Jason McDole, Colleen Hooper, and David Norsworthy. They have also worked as a teaching artist at Point Park University and Pittsburgh CAPA. Chezney is currently pursuing an MA in Ethnochoreology at the Irish World Academy, University of Limerick, and is excited to return for their second season with CORNINGWORKS. Their work centers embodiment, identity, and cross-cultural movement research.

Evan Fisk (performer) is a dancer, actor, and model based in New York City. A graduate of Juilliard, they are known for portraying Macbeth and Banquo in Punchdrunk’s Sleep No More, which they performed for three years. Fisk has also danced with Brian Brooks Moving Company, originating new works and performing nationally. They currently teach second-year movement at NYU’s Playwrights Horizons Studio and Pilates at Dynamic Body Pilates in Union Square. Fisk has appeared in television series on Netflix and Amazon Prime, as well as commercials for Tyson Chicken and Oscar Mayer.

They have performed at Susan Bartsch’s LoveBall (hosted by Billy Porter) and in Nick Cave’s The Let Go at the Park Avenue Armory. Their choreography has been presented at venues including Juilliard’s Meredith Willson Theater, Arts on Site, and Judson Church. Fisk performed as “the lover” in CORNINGWORKS’ 2023 production the fisherman, the butterfly, eve & her lover – a parable and in the 2024 production What Do You Think You Just Heard Me Say?! https://www.evanmfisk.com

Kimani Fowlin (performer) is a dancer, choreographer, Associate Professor, Director of the Dance Program, and Chair of the Theatre & Dance Department at Drew University. She previously spent 25 years on the dance faculty at Mason Gross School of the Arts, Rutgers University, and received the New York State Dance Education Association’s Outstanding Dance Educator Award. Her international work includes performances and teaching in Russia, Ghana (Panafest), and Greece with the funk band Milo Z. She has performed with and choreographed for Ronald K. Brown, David Rousseve, Youssouf Koumbassa, Andrea E. Woods, Souloworks, M’Zawa Danz, Umoja Dance, Harambee Dance Company, and Antibalas.

She co-founded Boom!Beep!Bop!, a children’s dance program rooted in African Diasporic traditions, and is a collaborator in Embodied Truth: Finding Ways to Move Together. She also helped launch Black Dance Stories. In 2023, she was a guest artist at the International Dance Festival in Lebanon. One of Kimani’s favorite magical dance bubbles is teaching and dancing at Bates Dance Festival in Maine for the past 4 years, where she now serves as an Advisory Board Member. Kimani’s most recent project is choreographing a new work, Crossroads (KWA) with musician Okai Fleurimont premiering at the New Brunswick State Theater in NJ for Rutgers Dance Plus concert.

Alberto Del Saz (performer) has served as director of the Nikolais/Louis Foundation for Dance for over 40 years. He stages and reconstructs the Nikolais/Louis repertory worldwide and is dedicated to preserving its legacy through teaching and performance. Born in Bilbao, Spain, he began as a competitive figure skater, becoming Spanish National Champion in 1980 and performing with Holiday on Ice International. His skating has appeared on major broadcasts and at venues such as Rockefeller Center and Bryant Park.

He trained at the Nikolais/Louis Dance Lab and debuted as a lead soloist with the Nikolais Dance Theatre in 1985, touring globally. His career includes performances for the Kennedy Center Honors, PBS’s American Masters, and international tours with the US State Department. Mr. del Saz has appeared as a guest artist with Ushio Amagatsu. He has also performed in works by Hanya Holm, Maureen Fleming, Sara Pearson, Cleo Parker Robinson, and others; appeared with Bill T. Jones and Arnie Zane Dance Company; and danced Rudolph Nureyev’s role in “Moments,” choreographed by Mr. Louis. Most recently, del Saz was seen in CORNINGWORKS 2024 production of “What do you think you just heard me say?!”www.albertodelsaz.com

La MaMa Moves! 2026, the 21st season of La MaMa’s annual dance festival, brings together dance artists at all stages of their careers to experiment, collaborate, and share new work. Curated by Nicky Paraiso, the festival will take place over five weeks in April and May of 2026 and will include twelve productions across La MaMa’s four venues, and up to four in-person community workshops and public discussions. This year’s festival line-up features dancemakers Donald Byrd, Beth Corning with guest puppeteer Tom Lee, Vangeline, Patricia Hoffbauer, Dancers Unlimited, Sun Kim Dance Theatre, Green Cow, Iver Findlay, BamBam Frost & Ori Flomin, Pioneers Go East Collective, and ms. z tye & Mina Nishimura in a shared weekend curated by La MaMa Curatorial Residents Martita Abril & Blaze Ferrer.

Building on the festival’s growing national impact, La MaMa Moves! will again offer hybrid programming that extends beyond New York City, including livestreams of several productions and open rehearsals or interactive discussions designed for online audiences, partners, and students across the U.S. These online/hybrid events are part of La MaMa’s ongoing work with Bloomberg Philanthropies Digital Accelerator program. These types of programs are essential not only to La MaMa’s mission and strategic plan, but to the sustainability of the dance community, because they empower and connect generations of dance artists.

In 2026, La MaMa Moves! continues its Curatorial Residency for the second year. Over six months, Curatorial Residents Martita Abril and Blaze Ferrer work with Nicky Paraiso as they plan and execute a shared program to be presented in the festival. Curatorial Residents have research time in the La MaMa Archive (which documents 60+ years of dance history) and attend productions across NYC with Paraiso. The residency aims to provide curatorial mentorship and professional development to young dance artists, empowering them to build sustainable careers while bringing new voices into La MaMa.

La MaMa Moves! highlights the extraordinary diversity and range of artists across cultural backgrounds, ages, and dance styles. By amplifying underrepresented voices and fostering intergenerational exchange, the festival continues to reimagine what contemporary dance can be. One of New York’s signature dance festivals, La MaMa Moves! has showcased small and large-scale works of more than 400 emerging and seasoned choreographers since its beginning in 2005. With sustained support, La MaMa can deepen this impact and ensure that visionary artists and their communities have continued access to this vital platform for years to come.

About La MaMa

La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club is dedicated to the artist and all aspects of the theatre. La MaMa’s 64th Season, LA MAMA NOW, focuses on creating solidarity and building community, exploring ways to build connections for cross-sector coalition and invite artists, activists, organizers and community members into the creative process.

La MaMa has been honored with 30+ Obie Awards, dozens of Drama Desk, Bessie Awards, Villager Awards, the 2018 Regional Theatre Tony Award, and most recently a 2023 New York Drama Critics’ Circle Special Citation. We are a creative home to artists and resident companies from around the world, many of whom have made lasting contributions to the arts, including Blue Man Group, Bette Midler, Ping Chong, Jackie Curtis, Robert De Niro, André De Shields, Adrienne Kennedy, Cole Escola, Bridget Everett, Harvey Fierstein, Diane Lane, Charles Ludlam, Tom Eyen, Spiderwoman Theater, Tadeusz Kantor, Marc Shaiman and Scott Wittman, Meredith Monk, David and Amy Sedaris, Stephanie Hsu, Julie Taymor, Kazuo Ohno, Tom O’Horgan, Andrei Serban, Liz Swados, and Andy Warhol. La MaMa’s vision of nurturing new artists and new work from all nations, cultures, races and identities remains as strong today as it was when Ellen Stewart first opened the doors in 1961.

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