The Broad Stage presents Manual Cinema’s Mementos Mori – a dynamic, beguiling meditation on death and dying. A cast of six puppeteers use hundreds of paper puppets, seven overhead projectors, two cameras and three screens to create a live “movie” in front of the audience.
When Death takes an unexpected holiday, an elderly film projectionist finds a new lease on life; a ghost explores the afterlife with her iPhone; and a seven-year-old girl discovers her own mortality. Accompanied by four musicians and live sound effects, the result is a rich mosaic of cinematic storytelling, all performed live with puppets

Manual Cinema is a performance collective, design studio, and film/ video production company founded in 2010 by Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia VanArsdale Miller, and Kyle Vegter. To-date Manual Cinema has created nine original feature-length live cinematic shadow puppet shows a live cinematic contemporary dance show created for family audiences in collaboration with Hubbard Street Dance and the choreographer Robyn Mineko Williams (Mariko’s Magical Mix); an original site-specific installation (La Celestina); an original adaptation of Hansel & Gretel created for the Belgian Royal Opera; music videos for Sony Masterworks, Gabriel Kahane, three time GRAMMY Award-winning eighth blackbird, and NY Times Best Selling author Reif Larson; a live non-fiction piece for Pop-Up Magazine; a self-produced short film (CHICAGOLAND); a museum exhibit created in collaboration with the Chicago History Museum (The Secret Lives of Objects) a collection of cinematic shorts in collaboration with poet Zachary Schomburg and string quartet Chicago Q Ensemble (FJORDS ); and live cinematic puppet adaptations of StoryCorps stories (Show & Tell). The company won an Emmy (and was nominated for a Peabody award) for The Forger, a documentary short produced by The New York Times.

Tickets start at $35. Prices subject to change. Call 310.434.3200 or visit to the box office at 1310 11th St. Santa Monica CA 90401

What: Manual Cinema’s Mementos Mori
Where: The Broad Stage, 1310 11th St. Santa Monica CA 90401
When: Friday, April 12, 2019, and Saturday, April 13, 2019, 7:30pm; Sunday, April 14, 2019, 2:00pm
Phone: 310.434.3200
Website: http://www.thebroadstage.org