Basic Information

Whether you are a rock star or a platypus —no matter the color of your skin—

Inside you, inside me, right now there is a cell waiting to begin.

opening narration of Cellula, a blacklight puppetry performance of mitosis

Like a bedtime story as told by biologists, Cellula fuses a unique style of playful naturalism with scientific beauty. Through dazzling blacklight puppetry and mesmerizing acapella music, Cellula illuminates the true marvels of cell science inside us all. Cellula features the singing of highly acclaimed improvisational vocalists Mankwe Ndosi and Libby Turner with the puppetry of accomplished performers Shari Aronson and Christopher Griffith, under the direction of UNIMA-award winning puppetry artist Kurt Hunter.

Cellula gives the audience a view of cell division as if they are looking under the lens of a microscope, along with a mother (the narrator) who is introducing her young daughter to the wonder of science. The mother weaves the action of the cells into the story of a young cell named Cellula. Zooming in and out between magnification levels, the audience follows Cellula through the cell cycle, from the dance of DNA to the verge of specialization.

Although the content is purely factual, the narrative framework and music infuses emotion and humor in homage to the family lineage of biologists of Z Puppets’ Shari Aronson, writer of Cellula. Teetering on the fragile borders between science and art, Cellula is the expression of Aronson’s own DNA.

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