Soils and Spirit Director, Writer, Designer and Fabricator

Marina ‘Heron’ Tsaplina (she+) is a Russian-born, Lenapehoking (NYC) based interdisciplinary eco-puppetry artist, writer and disability culture activist. She forms participatory poetic enchantments through puppetry, material object performance and site-specific installations. In her practice, no person, place or material is disposable. She is on the Eco-Puppetry Committee of the National Capital Puppetry Guild, a group “dedicated to exploring and sharing the concepts and practices of eco-puppetry.” She was awarded the 2024 Nancy Staub Award by UNIMA-USA for her decade of work on puppetry in medicine, disability justice and healing and is currently an artist-in-resident at Henry Ford Health. From stage to classroom to forest, her puppetry work has graced the cover of Orion Magazine, the offices of pharmaceutical companies, an ancient endangered forest, Duke Arts, and more. She is a conservatory trained performing artist under master teacher Kari Margolis, the Ernst Busch school of puppetry in Berlin, Germany, Sandglass Puppet Theater and Pochinko clown.

Composer

Nathan Leigh is the co-artistic director of CirqueSaw. His immersive piece POV: You Are An AI Achieving Consciousness was named The Young-Howze Theatre Journal’s Immersive Production of the Year for 2023, and Creatives of the Year for 2024, as well as awarded No Proscenium’s Special Editor’s Award for 2024.

As a theatre artist, Nathan has designed sound and composed music for over 300 plays at theatres across the country.

Nathan is a proud member of IATSE Local 829 www.nathanleigh.net

Production Assistant; Fabrication Assistant

Eliza Noxon (she/her) is an artist-educator from Los Angeles, CA. Having recently graduated from Brown University with degrees in Education and Interdisciplinary Artistic Studies (a degree of her own making), her work centers on themes of loss, collection, and radical joy. As a singer-songwriter, she has amassed over five million streams and is gearing up to release her highly anticipated first full-length album Good Monsters With Bad Habits. Find her on all streaming services under the name Eliza Noxon and follow @enoxon1 on Instagram for updates. She would like to thank the Soils and Spirit crew for being fearless teammates on this journey and Marina Tsaplina for taking a chance on her.

Stephen S. Carrington (He/Him) is a Caribbean-American stage and screen actor based out of NYC. Born and raised in NYC, he is very excited to be able to pursue his passion so close to home. He has recently been seen on stage in Don’t Pass Peppa Sauce’s Sketch Comedy productions and HoneyVic Productions on Amen Amen 2 and looks forward to continued work in the community. He is very grateful for the opportunity to work on Soils and Spirit and truly hopes to continue collaborations in the future.

Emma Sarah Davis is a New York based actor and theatre maker with a BFA in Acting from Emerson College. Emma is thrilled to be a part of the Soils and Spirit team and would like to thank this incredible ensemble for creating an inclusive and compassionate work space. A big thank you to Emma’s friends, family, and partner for relentlessly supporting Emma’s work. Lastly, thank you Marina for giving voice to a ruptured relationship with land. The intersection of environmental justice and the arts is the path towards a more empathic world. Emmasarahdavis.com

Liz June (they/them) is an actor working in film and theater, devising movement artist, and early childhood teaching artist based on unceded Lenape and Canarsie land (Brooklyn, NY.) Their devising work includes explorations of relationships and power structures, and relies on collaboration with both personal artistic community as well as thoughtful connection to the global community.

Maya (she/her) is an actor and educator from Oregon and now based in Brooklyn. Recent projects: an immersive theater adaptation of Shel Silverstein’s Where The Sidewalk Ends and a reality tv adaptation of The Seagull. She’s an acting instructor at New York Film Academy, an assistant script analysis instructor at Terry Knickerbocker Studio, and takes kiddos on sing-a-long adventures with Treasure Trunk Theatre. NYU Tisch Drama ‘22.

(She/Her) Where and what is home? Born in NYC but raised in a Sicilian household, I’ve always felt I had one foot in the wrong place. The soils, smells and sounds of both islands resonate through me, sometimes clashing. Through acting and dance I take on the personas of others in the service of telling a story. Now I am investigating the world beneath my feet through this adventure, Soils and Spirit.

Ellis Rodenas (she/hers) is thrilled to be part of the Soils and Spirit production. She has studied acting technique at various studios including, Michael Howard Studios and has been cast in off broadway productions and done extra work on TV and movies. She has also studied dance at various studios across NYC. She is always grateful for the love and support of her mom and friends.

Performing Object Concept, Design and Fabrication

Marina naturally dyed all the colors for the soil-phrase performing objects, developed the animation of the objects, and final fabrication.

Performing Object Design (First Mock-Ups)

Torry Bend is a Set designer, Puppet artist and Associate Professor at Duke University. Bend’s set design includes: Animal Dance, The Children's Theatre Company, Are They Edible, La Mama, Incubator Arts Project and Dixon’s Place, New York; Circle Course, Katmandu; Pygmalion, Southwest Shakespeare Co.; Stephen Wadsworth's Agamemnon, Getty Villa; References to Salvador Dali Make Me Hot, Empty Space Theatre Seattle. In Portland, OR: Omnium Gatherum, The Bald Soprano/The Lesson and Brilliant Traces, for which she received a Drammy and A Tuna Christmas with Oregon Repertory Theater. She created and directed the toy theater piece The Paper Hat Game, 3Legged-Dog Art and Technology Center, New York, Manbites Dog Theater, Durham, NC, The Great Small Works Toy Theater Festival, Brooklyn, NY, The Den theater, Chicago, IL and Open Eye Figure Theater, Minneapolis, MN; Nesting: Great Small Works International Toy Theater Festival, NY, The Port City Puppetry Festival, NC, Douglas Paasch Puppet Festival ’13, Seattle and Open Eye Figure Theater, Minneapolis, MN. The Elephant, premiered at Disney Music Hall’s International Toy Theater Festival 2008 and performed with Jumbo Shrimp Circus, Los Angeles. She created and directed Loser in 2007, Prague, New York, Minneapolis and Los Angeles. Love’s Infrastructure, a collaboration with band Bombadil, premiered with Duke Performances in 2014. Bend has received funding from the Jerome Foundation, Henson Foundation, Minnesota State Arts Board, the Durham Arts Council, and the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation.

Fabrication

Production Assistant; Fabrication Assistant

Eliza Noxon (she/her) is an artist-educator from Los Angeles, CA. Having recently graduated from Brown University with degrees in Education and Interdisciplinary Artistic Studies (a degree of her own making), her work centers on themes of loss, collection, and radical joy. As a singer-songwriter, she has amassed over five million streams and is gearing up to release her highly anticipated first full-length album Good Monsters With Bad Habits. Find her on all streaming services under the name Eliza Noxon and follow @enoxon1 on Instagram for updates. She would like to thank the Soils and Spirit crew for being fearless teammates on this journey and Marina Tsaplina for taking a chance on her.