Summer 2025 Artists in Residence
Maria Camia
23 Jun. – 20 Jul. 2025
Maria Camia (b. 1991) is a Brooklyn based Filipino-American Visual Theatre Artist, Director, Playwright, Fashion Designer, and Introspective Hypnosis Practitioner from Virginia Beach, VA. Her work is a playful yet political call to disconnect from hyper-consumerism and to reclaim the truth within through the use of storytelling, new ceremonies, puppets, comics, illustration, music, and spiritual clothing. With sharp comedy, Shakespearean styled writing, catchy tunes, and joyful theatrical surprise, she intends to make self-reflection and shadow work fun. Since 2013, Maria has dedicated her entire artistic practice to the creation of the world of Aricama, bridging indigenous ancestry with galactic futurism by globally inspiring practice, play, and healing.
Maria attended Virginia Commonwealth University for a BFA in Sculpture + Extended Media and Sarah Lawrence College for a Masters in Theatre. Her original work was performed at Dixon Place, La MaMa Experimental Club, Chicago’s International Puppet Festival, Coney Island, and Museum of Chinese in America. She received the Jim Henson’s Workshop in 2021 and 2023, and Production Grant, and Women’s Fund for Media and Music for her puppet musical, The Healing Shipment. Recently, she was awarded The Puppetry Guild of Greater New York’s BIPOC Puppeteer Scholarship for outstanding dedication to the art and craft of puppetry and ongoing contributions to the puppetry community.
@themaricama
Youtube.com/MariaCamia
MARICAMA.COM
La MaMa Kids Workshop
My Handy Ancestors Art
28 Jun. 2025 | 1-4pm
Who is your first finger? Who is your pinky? Students participate in making a pair of ancestor gloves with white cotton gloves, their imagination, paper, markers, glue, and scissors to celebrate their hands. They think of each finger as an ancestor/character here to assist them in the world and share with the group if they wish. Gloves are displayed and must be used in a ritual ceremony at the end of Maria’s performance in order to take home. Maria provides examples to expand the possibilities. This workshop is to imagine the body as a sacred supportive vessel that supports us instead of just a meat sack to do work.
Workshop
Energy Hygiene Puppet Painting
$10 | RSVP Required
13 Jul. 2025 | 1-3pm | RSVP
Join Maria as we practice energy hygiene techniques to connect to the different sensations/emotions/pains trapped in our body followed by using our imagination to clean it out. Participants will then paint provided mini Aricamian puppet statues with how they imagined cleaning out their body. Painted puppets will be used in Maria’s final performance.
Since 2020, Maria became a certified Introspective Hypnosis Practitioner alongside her artistic practice to release heavy energies from the body. She has learned how past experiences can get stuck in our body and using the imagination daily to release these energies is beneficial before unresolved feelings become physical ailments or disease. She will teach techniques she uses in hypnosis and is excited to share this with the public.
Materials included.
This class is suitable for all ages and abilities.
Performance
Higher Eyes on Aricama
Piano | Aaron Banes
Free | RSVP Required
19 Jul. 2025 | 1pm | RSVP
19 Jul. 2025 | 3pm | RSVP
20 Jul. 2025 | 1pm | RSVP
20 Jul. 2025 | 3pm | RSVP
Maria will perform Higher Eyes on Aricama, a 45-minute solo-performance with four 4’x4’ colorful paintings / Toy Theater sets, hand puppets, costume, and a live pianist. The story follows two flower humanoids, Ari and Cama, as their attention spans shatter into infinite altered dimensions causing their homeland Aricama, the land of practice, play, and healing, to turn into dust. Will they release themselves from their attachments or lose everything they worked for? Maria explores dreams, phone addiction, and a message from the body.
La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club is dedicated to the artist and all aspects of the theatre. They are a creative home to artists and audiences from around the world and a dynamic hub for risk-taking performance. La MaMa believes in the power of art to reveal our shared humanity and supports artists of all identities in the creation of new work.
Founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, La MaMa is the only original Off-Off-Broadway theatre still in operation. Over the course of 61 years, they have grown from an underground refuge for the avant-garde to a world-renowned cultural institution, with 30+ Obie Awards, dozens of Drama Desk Awards, Bessie Awards, Villager Awards, and the 2018 Regional Theater Tony Award. They have supported nearly 160,000 artists from all over the world, such as Blue Man Group, Peter Brook, André De Shields, Ping Chong, Olympia Dukakis, Harvey Fierstein, Philip Glass, Tedeschi Kantor, Shuji Terayama, Adrienne Kennedy, Diane Lane, Taylor Mac, Bette Midler, Meredith Monk, Sam Shepard, Andrei Serban, Elizabeth Swados, and Julie Taymor, to name a few.
This program is made possible by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.