DOV WEINSTEIN
Founder, Director
Dov Weinstein was born in Madison, Wisconsin. He has studied puppetry with The Green Fools from Alberta, Canada and with Jon Bell and Eric Blanc in New York City. He has also been seen as an actor in the original play Snow White for Suckers in Stockholm, Sweden. He founded the Tiny Ninja Theater company in 1999 to "expand performance opportunities for vending machine thespians."
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JONATHAN VAN GIESON
4Panel Productions
Co-Producer, Site Design
Jonathan Van Gieson originally auditioned for the part of Macduff in Tiny Ninja Theater presents Macbeth, but did not meet the stringent height requirements, and so chose instead to help produce the show.
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Xina Nicosia
Company Photographer
Xina's photos have appeared in New York Magazine, American Theater, Playbill Online, Time Out New York, and Stage Directions Magazine. She has also personally hand-typed each and every name on the Tiny Ninja Theater mailing list. Her one-woman show Man of Infinite Desire, premieres August 2002 at The New York International Fringe Festival (FringeNYC).
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Thanks to:
Ron Lasko of Spin Cycle, Elena K. Holy and John Clancy of the Present Company, Trish Comstock, Sarah Diamond, Morgan Dowsett, Elena Gartner, Joey Liao, Alexis Robie, Lockhart Steele
site designed and hosted by Fictional Company |
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Tiny Ninja Theater is a New York City-based company dedicated to the principle that "there are no small parts, only small actors." It was founded in 1999 by company director Dov Weinstein. "I had noticed that there were these tiny plastic ninjas in vending machines all across the city," says Weinstein, "but no one was using them to perform classical theater. Something had to be done."
Weinstein quit his job to work on the project full time, and the company soon expanded to include not only Tiny Ninjas, but also other "assorted dime-store figures," as Weinstein calls them. There are currently over 100 Tiny Ninjas in the company, as well as several aliens, robots, and special guest stars Mr. and Mrs. Smile.
The company's first show, Tiny Ninja Theater presents Macbeth, opened as part of the New York International Fringe Festival on August 16, 2000. During the festival, Macbeth played 21 performances in 12 days, and came away with an Excellence Award for Innovation & Originality.
The show re-opened nine days later in the same space, scheduled for a four-week run. It was extended twice more before finally closing on Dec 26th, 2000.
It has since travelled across the country and overseas.
The company's second show, Tiny Ninja Theater presents A Brief History of DUMBO, was originally performed at the DUMBO Art Under the Bridge Festival from October 13th - October 15th, 2000. The show continued as part of various festivals, benefits, vaudvilles, and cabarets, although it was revised in early 2001 to include Weinstein's eviction from his apartment in the neighborhood. It was retired in April, 2001.
Although the company had originally planned to revive A Brief History of DUMBO for the Great Small Works 5th Annual Toy Theater Festival (November 5th - November 19th, 2000), the ongoing presidential elections provided a theatrical temptation too great to be ignored, and the company instead presented its third show, Tiny Ninja Theater presents Election 2000.
Other Tiny Ninja suitcase shows include The Effects of Nuclear War and Shakespeare's Sonnets.
Tiny Ninja Theater presents Romeo & Juliet,the second mainstage show, premiered in May 2002 at the Piccolo Spoleto Festival in Charleston, SC. |
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