Anna Sobel

ANNA SOBEL (ACTOR, PUPPETEER, PERCUSSION) discovered puppetry as the ideal way to fuse her passions for theatre, art, activism, children and writing when she saw Bread and Puppet Theatre's last giant circus in 1998.She joined the Middletown, CT branch of Kids on the Block, bringing puppetry to schools to promote awareness of disabilities, and becoming the troupe's director after three years.During a six-month trip to Israel, she worked on the Tel Aviv Puppetry Festival.

Anna graduated Phi beta kappa from Wesleyan University with a BA in English.After graduation, she moved to Washington, D.C. to join Blue Sky Puppet Theatre, where she worked for two years performing several daily solo or duo shows in schools throughout the mid-Atlantic states.Meanwhile, Anna volunteered as an art therapist at Children's Hospital in Washington, D.C.She performed with Bread and Puppet during the summer of 2003.

In fall of 2003, Anna received a Fulbright Fellowship to study puppetry in India as a tool for social change.During her nine-month stay, she collaborated with many Indian troupes, taught workshops in puppetry as a form of therapy, and was hired to as a puppeteer on a daily satirical television show, "Double Take."Anna performed a show for the Fulbright mid-year conference and was subsequently invited by the American Embassy to teach a puppetry workshop in Nepal.She returned to New York in 2004 to found her own puppet troupe, Talking Hands Theatre performing for adults and children using hand puppets.She is excited to be performing one of the shows she wrote in this year's New York International Fringe Festival.

Anna Sobel Director

Director Anna Sobel has been performing professionally as a puppeteer since 1998.For three years she worked with the Middletown, CT branch of Kids on the Block, teaching fourth graders about disabilities using muppets.At Wesleyan University, where she earned her BA, she studied Indonesian puppetry with dalang Sumarsam and worked in the costume shop under puppeteer Leslie Weinberg, designing puppets for a number of University productions.After graduation, she joined Blue Sky Puppet Theatre, a Washington, DC-based children's educational troupe, and toured throughout the Mid-Atlantic states for two years.

In 2003, Anna Sobel was the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to study puppetry in India as a tool for social change and education.She spent nine months in India researching, performing and collaborating with Indian puppeteers, and brought home her own unique style of puppetry.

Heart Puppet from Nutrition ShowShe returned to New York in 2004 to found Talking Hands Theatre.Anna is also currently an associate artist with the Jewish performance troupe, Storahtelling.

Anna's show FINGER LOVE appeared in the New York International Fringe Festival 2005.The Jim Henson Foundation accepted the children's opera CUSTARD THE COWARDLY DRAGON, which features Anna's puppets and puppetry, into the first round of its granting process, and the final grant is pending.

In August 2006, New York City Housing Authority commissioned Anna Sobel to co-create a giant puppet show on nutrition for community centers around the five boroughs.

Anna also puppeteered for Basil Twist in RED BEADS in Sept. '05 and for Twist's workshop production of HANSEL AND GRETEL, July '06, and has performed with GREAT SMALL WORKS, BREAD AND PUPPET THEATRE, and LONE WOLF TRIBE.

Anna Sobel Director

Director Anna Sobel has been a professional puppeteer since 1998. She was employed as a puppeteer for Kids on the Block for three years and Blue Sky Puppet Theatre for two years. In 2003 she was the recipient of a Fulbright Fellowship to study puppetry in India as a tool for social change and education. She spent nine months in India and founded Talking Hands Theatre on her return to New York in 2004.

In addition to her work for children, she has presented shows for adults at the New York International Fringe Festival, HERE Arts Center, and Henry Street Arts Settlement. She teaches puppetry workshops in public schools all over New York through Shadowbox Theatre and Brooklyn Arts Council. In 2008 she was honored as the Laura Adasko Lenzner artist in residence at the Bank Street School for Children. She has studied early childhood education at Bank Street College and is currently pursuing an MA in educational theatre at N.Y.U.