PAPEL MACHETE

Papel Machete is a worker’s street and community theater collective dedicated to puppetry, masks and performing objects for educational and agitational performances as a means of supporting the struggles of the working class and marginalized communities of Puerto Rico. Our collective is composedof a core of puppeteers that come from all walks of life. Teachers, waiters, social workers, students, artists and community organizers all come together to generate cultural work that expresses our concerns about society and our need to to explore creatively by generating and manipulating objects, the subjects in our interventions and performances. All of our work is generated collectively by our active members through facilitated creative processes and construction workshops using papier mâché as our medium and exploring a wide range of forms and styles that include toy theater, cantastoria, shadow theater, table-top puppetry , humanettes, cut-outs, masks, and giants. We have created a repertoire of characters, plays and performances that personify different aspects of economic injustice and struggles of the working class and the oppressed in our struggles for survival and liberation.