The Healing Shipment Excerpt December 2022 at La MaMa’s Jumpstart Festival

By Maria Camia 

 WILLIS: Sienna Aczon
MARIKATA: Mariel Sanchez 
NARINGA: lim 
PLEASURN: Fara Faidzan 
OILAY: Julliette Holliday 
QUEN: Thalya David 
MAR: Olivia Bernabe 
MARICAMA: Sienna Aczon 
ALIEN INTRUDER: Olivia Bernabe 
GUITAR: Austin D’Adamo 
VIOLA: Katya Barmotina 
CELLIST: Timmy Ong 
STAGE MANAGER: Sarah Samonte 
ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER: Julliette Holliday 
CHOREOGRAPHER: Julliette Holliday 
MAKE UP: Fara Faidzan 
Photo Credit: Steven Pisano

Maria Camia (she/her) is a Filipino American Artist, Fashion Designer, and Introspective Hypnosis Practitioner who creates Spiritual / Sci-Fi Puppetry Theater with the intention to globally inspire liberation through healing and play. She has performed original work at Chicago’s International Puppet Festival, Dixon Place, La MaMa, and Coney Island USA. Her first full-length puppet show, NEW MONY! was commissioned and first presented in NYC by Dixon Place with private funds from the Jim Henson Foundation and The Jerome Foundation. Maria received the Jim Henson Workshop Grant ’20 and ’22. The Healing Shipment’s world premiere will be at La MaMa’s Puppet Festival November 2023. @themaricama 

Sienna Aczon is a Filipino-American multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Honolulu, currently based in NYC. She holds a BA from Sarah Lawrence College, and trained at the British American Drama Academy. Recent credits: Heart Strings (Hoku, Atlantic Theater) Do You Speak? (Solo Show, 59E59 Theaters); NEW MONY! (Keyboardist, Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival); NuWorks 2022 (Director/Actor, Pan Asian Repertory Theatre). @miss.sepa 

Katya Barmotina is a viola teacher that enjoys an active freelancing career in NYC. They are a passionate champion of contemporary music and expanding the viola repertoire. They are a member of The Achelois Collective, a virtual contemporary music ensemble dedicated to community-based collaborative music. A lover of new music, they have been part of the enormous outdoor world premiere of John Luther Adams’ Sila: The Breath of the World and was part of the new music collaboration project Mix Nouveau for three years. They recently participated in the esteemed Fresh Inc festival where they collaborated with the Fifth House Ensemble and premiered 5 new works during the festival. They currently maintain a thriving private studio in the greater New York area. They earned their masters in viola performance at the Mannes School of Music. They currently reside in Brooklyn touring coffee shops and taking pictures of street kitties. 

Olivia Bernábe (they/she) is a Mexican-American theatre artist focusing on musical theatre, devising, and puppetry. Prior to performing at La MaMa, they have previously worked with Target Margin Theater, The Brick, and HERE Arts Center. You can currently watch Olivia as Coral, the purple puppet co-host in The Smack Dab in the Middle of the Day Show on Youtube and Kartoon Channel! Thank you Maria for bringing practice, play, and healing to this wonderful group of performers, and thank YOU for supporting the artists in this program. Love to Walter and Memo. IG: @ oliviab_24 

https://oliviajbernabe.squarespace.com/ 

Austin D’Adamo is a professional musician and guitarist based in Brooklyn. No stranger to the stage - Austin makes a living playing for local bands and teaching private lessons on the guitar and bass. His experiences with theatre include a run of Spring Awakening and a previous show with the Aricama crew. He’s found himself playing in duos, in big bands, for reggae artists, for punk bands, for folk singers and everything in between. His jazz fusion trio Our Messy Ghost is currently recording their debut album. 

Thalya I. David is originally from Florida and graduated with BA in Fine Arts at Broward College. In 2017, she moved to New York to continue to pursue Acting. She graduated May 2020 with a BFA in Acting at Marymount Manhattan College. She worked in Love and Information at Live Arts (MMC off campus production), ManI-Festo (on campus and at Manhattan Repertory Theatre). Now, Thalya has become a member of the ARICAMA community for the second time. 

Fara Faidzan (she/they) was a part of Maria Camia’s show NEW MONY! May 2021. The Malaysian born actor has had their fair share of puppetry experiences, from a pink crayon hand puppet by a show called Crayons on Strike to shadow puppets & huge Bunraku puppets from Valencia College production of Creation: Birth of Mythology. Fara graduated from Marymount Manhattan College with a BFA in Acting. Currently,They are a virtual host for Performing Arts Mosaic (@pamosaic on Instagram) monthly open mic show OPEN STAGE | OPEN ROOM highlighting BIPOC & underrepresented voices in the arts. They also have a hip hop jazz fusion band called Our Messy Ghost as the drummer, percussionist & vocalist. 

Julliette Holliday (she/her) is a New York based multi-hyphenate artist—writer, composer, performer, director, teaching artist and producer. She studied theatre, dance, and history at Sarah Lawrence College and now explores theater-making methodologies that dig into the forgotten pieces of Black history and the tangible magic of Black futures in her own creative work. Most recently Julliette wrapped up her position as the former artistic programming associate for the New Victory Theater, fostering the development of new work for kid and family audiences in their LabWorks program. She is currently the associate creative producer for Nehprii Amenii, a ballet teacher for Tutu School Brooklyn, and Education manager for Trusty Sidekick. 

lim has performed and produced theatre all around new york city, including Ars Nova, AMiOS, La MaMa, Center at West Park, Puppets Come Home, Eugene O’Neil Puppet Center, St Ann’s Puppet Lab,, The Tank, Dixon Place, and Vital Joint. You can spot lim in commercials for Amazon Alexa, UPS, Brooklyn Brewery, OLAY, and more. In 2022 they presented From Darkness Gilt, an original play, as part of the Object Movement Festival at Center at West Park. They were a playwright in resident with AMiOS’ First Draughts, developing a 2 person Queer play called 19th Street, as well as releasing their first short film, how was if for you?, the same year. 

Sarah Samonte, Stage Manager (she/hers+) is a multidisciplinary creative based in NYC. She received an AS from LaGuardia Community College in 2016. Since then she has been a Freelance SM/Production Human and wishes to take her talents abroad. Her recent credits include 24 Hour Plays Broadway (DM, Town Hall 2022, 2021, 2020), Humane Society Gala (ASM, Cipriani), Posaka (SM, La MaMa), ApocaBlopera Untitled (SM, Mercury Store), UN General Assembly SM, Nero (SM/1st AD Pregones PRTT), Maria Reads A Book: Sweaty Power Hour (SM, Coney Island USA), Dear Listener (SM, Long Wharf Theater), Breathe (PSM, NSB@NYU) 

Mariel Sanchez (he/she/they) is a Sarah Lawrence College alumna, having graduated in 2019 with a BA. He studied just about everything under the sun while in college, and is currently working at Ensemble Studio Theatre as their Company Administrator. Throughout their life, they have worked on several different productions, all under different titles and some of their favorites include: Faulty Defense Mechanisms by Julie J - Production Manager, NEW MONY! by Maria Camia - Stage Manager/Lighting Designer, Floral de Epic by Maria Camia - singer, and Hedwig And The Angry Inch by John Cameron Mitchell - Yitzhak. 

Timmy Ong (he/him) is a Malaysian born, NYC based actor, singer, dancer and musician. Timmy enjoys working on new material, and has originated leading roles in new plays and musicals, including Isabel, The Retreat, Di Zang the Musical, and Xuan Zang: Journey to the West. Recent credits: Lamont in Mr. Holland’s Opus: A New Musical, Yuan Fan-Shen in Dress in Code, Simeonov-Pishchik in The Cherry Orchard, Mercutio in Romeo & Juliet, and Prince Edward V in Richard III. Timmy is multilingual and has worked on stage and screen in English, Malay, Mandarin, and Cantonese. MFA: The New School. @timmy_ong

Special thank you’s to Cheryl Henson, The Henson Foundation, Loco7, Denise Greber, Federico Restrepo, E. Wray, Luke Delvo, Alexis Lim, Eilie Astara, CTown, my mom, dad, Dr. Camia, and my patrons: Sienna Aczon, Aicha Barry, Carolyn Bacciggione, Annabel Cantor, Viper Cazimi, Mary Eisendrath, Tyler Gunther, Logan Hashagen, David Herskovits, Brodrick Jones, Sibyl Kempson, Tracy LaRock, Mariel and Michele Sanchez, Claire Marieb, Sifiso Mabena, Marcella Murray, Leah Ogawa, Eva Cranky Pantz, Tristan Raak, Helen Rai, Johanna Robinson, Bentley Robles, Andrea Staats, Lorenza West, E. Wray, Allan and Marilyn Wolff, and Sam Yee.