Arm of The Sea Theatre

Arm-of-the-Sea is an arts ensemble that fuses visual storytelling with live music in contemporary works of mask and puppet theater. Founded in 1982 by Marlena Marallo and Patrick Wadden, the company’s hybrid style channels the evocative power of the arts as a force for joy, insight, and community uplift. Their low-tech devices of theatrical enchantment illuminate relations between humans and the life-support networks of this blue-ocean planet.

Under the direction of Marallo & Wadden, the creative team includes musicians Eli Winograd, Dean Jones and Juan Basilio Sanchez, and performers Kira deCoudres, Trey Daniels, Anna Hafner, and Soyal Smalls.

Arm-of-the-Sea tours its original productions to cultural centers, festivals, and schools throughout the Northeast. They host THE ESOPUS CREEK PUPPET SUITE each August in Saugerties, NY, adjacent to the site of a 19th century paper mill which the organization is transforming into The Tidewater Center for Arts, Science and Local History.

Recent recognitions include: 2018 Ulster County Executive’s Arts Award for Arts Organization, a 2016 Environmental Champions Award from the US Environmental Protection Agency, the 2014 Excellence in Arts Award from Mill Street Loft, and the 2014 Distinguished Environmental Achievement Award from Mohonk Consultations. Directors Marallo & in-Residence at SUNY Ulster (Stone Ridge, NY), and 2014 Artists-in-Residence at the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies (Millbrook, NY).