In conjunction with The Plastic Bag Store art installation by Robin Frohardt and presented in collaboration with UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance, artist and master puppeteer Eli Presser will teach techniques to transform everyday plastic waste into imaginative puppet characters. Feel free to bring clean, single-use plastic items to add to the workshop supplies. 18 years and up. Space is limited. RSVP required.

Eli Presser is a multi-media artist and performer. His marionette puppetry and choreography with objects focus on character study using movement alone as language. Most recently, he co-directed and co-wrote puppetry productions for Free Forum Theater; and co-organized the Celluloid Golem Puppet Film Festival, in Düsseldorf. He has performed at such venues as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Automata Arts, Dynasty Typewriter, and Track 16 Gallery. He was a key puppeteer for Kevin McTurk’s The Haunted Swordsman, which is currently touring film festivals. He received his BFA through the Cotsen Center for Puppetry and the Arts at Cal Arts (1999) and is a technical supervisor of performing arts and puppetry at the Los Angeles Natural History Museum.

Public programs for The Plastic Bag Store are made possible through generous support from The Bar-Zemer Family and UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance. Special thanks to Automata Arts for program partnership.