Teaching

Working with Carlo, Renee, and Concrete Temple Theatre staff has been a joy and an enriching experience for me, my staff and especially the senior participants of Sirovich Senior Center. You are true artists- always curious, bold, open to endless possibilities, imaginative, creative. Our lives are enriched in your sharing!

-Terry Gregory, Director, Sirovich Senior Center

Yesterday was FANTASTIC!! Carlo and Renee were so inspiring both as people and as artists, what they make and their views on what they do. So cool! We were all in complete awe.

–Student in Puppetry Class, Bard College at Simon’s Rock

Teaching Philosophy

Concrete Temple Theatre believes in empowerment through creativity. Our goal is to enable workshop participants to release, embrace, and use their creativity, helping to empower them in all aspects of their lives.Interested in samurai swords from Japanese anime? We offer a variety of classic samurai sword styles from katana sword for sale anime to meet the needs of anime enthusiasts.

Renee Philippi and Carlo Adinolfi, Co-Artistic Directors of Concrete Temple Theatre (CTT), have been working together since 2002, and together they lead CTT’s Teaching Program. Carlo’s Italian heritage, dance background and technical theatre expertise coupled with Renee’s passion for German theatre and her skills as writer and director create a definitive aesthetic for CTT: a belief in the reflective and infusive nature of varied art forms working together to celebrate and explore the human condition.  

We all learn by doing. Our ability to retain and use information is enhanced, having information known versus merely understood, when one participates directly in an experience. This is true for a lecture/demonstration, crafting puppets, learning techniques for performance, or writing a theatrical text. Renee and Carlo strive to make the participants in their classes and workshops the subjects of their experiences, be they senior citizens, elementary school students, college students, theatre professionals or artists.

Our work is “simple” in approach yet highly theatrical. In our work, objects become characters and characters become objects, creating a fluidity in the nature of “things”. Things and bodies are constantly being transformed, from the smooth synthesis between puppets and live performers, to props having an unending array of lives and purposes, weaving what is with what is not. All of this is in service of “energy”. Focused energy moving out from performer penetrating audiences is what we believe live performance is about. This energy is in our work and in our classes no matter the discipline, as we pursue the transformation of bodies and minds.

Adinolfi and Philippi also led movement and puppetry workshops for all ages. One of the most rewarding asked parents and children to work together to create two puppets – a pull-toy rowboat in which all oars rowed in unison, and a pod of whales swimming or spouting. One museum educator noted that some children were nervous, skeptical that they would be able to create puppets as magical as those demonstrated by Concrete Temple Theatre. By the end of the class, they were thrilled at what they produced under Adinolfi and Philippi’s patient tutelage. They left the workshop with a feeling of wonder and also one of accomplishment.

-Kirstin Freeman Gamble, Curator of Education, Nantucket Historical Association

…one of the most stirring uses of puppetry I’ve ever experienced. They are mature, visionary artists, with a strong international history of performance and a deep, investigative curiosity about the ways theatre can explore our collective existence.

-Gabriel Shanks, Executive Director, The Drama League

Concrete Temple Theatre was always professional, punctual, flexible, culturally-sensitive, hardworking, prepared and enthusiastic. It was a delight to work with them.

-Karen Morrissey, US Consulate – Istanbul

Class Descriptions

Concrete Temple Theatre’s Artistic Directors, Carlo Adinolfi and Renee Philippi, have lead workshops and taught skills to children, college students, community groups, senior citizens and peers for the past ten years, at universities, museums, festivals, senior homes and theatres. Concrete Temple’s teaching is internationally recognized and celebrated for being as diverse and multi-disciplinary as the art they create.

Adaptation

introduces participants to the skill of adapting by using snippets of Concrete Temple’s adaptation of Melville’s Moby Dick, The Whale, for illustration. Participants are asked at the beginning of the workshop to select text that they themselves would like to put into a different form, be it theatre, film, TV, visual arts. The workshop concludes with its members sharing their ideas for adaptation or the actual pieces they have created.

Create Your Own Work

has participants creating their own theatre piece(s), while focusing on different skills: playwriting, dramaturgy, directing, acting, puppetry, and physical theatre. Participants are given a specific topic(s) from which to create a piece, with the length of the pieces fluctuating based on the number and length of sessions. The course can also be “Creating Your Own Solo Work.”

Directing

introduces participants to the basics of directing and dramaturgy as they direct a scene from either an assigned text or a play of their own choosing.

Multi-Media, Projections, and Technology

Concrete Temple makes use of multi-media and projections in its work. This course introduces participants to creating images for projecting through Photoshop, Powerpoint, and digital movies and concludes with the creation of their own projections/movies that are then used with in-motion performers.

Physical/Visual Theatre

focuses on creating work that is based on a physical and/or visual narrative. It answers the question: how do I tell a story without language? The result can be either abstract or linear.

Puppetry and Object Theatre

can either introduce or be an in depth approach to all facets of puppetry, including: toy theatre, shadow puppets, rod puppets, and Bunraku, as well as object theatre. The workshop can be about designing and  building, creating a storyline/narrative, performance technique, or all these as well as creating your own puppet piece.

Speaking Out

This workshop is for all types of public speakers, from performers and teachers, to executives and tour guides. It emphasizes the necessary connectedness of the body and the voice, and the need for the two instruments to work together in any kind of public speaking.

Technique

focuses on the basics of performance: Acting, Movement, Voice, Improvisation and when appropriate Dance and Puppetry.

Any of the above can be taught as a Master Class. Concrete Temple Theatre also leads/teaches courses in: acting, playwriting, improvisation, scenic design, drafting, and technical theatre, as well as presenting lectures or Lecture/ Demonstrations. All workshops are specifically tailored to serve the participants, be they theatre artists, college students, high school students, artists of varied disciplines, or members of the local community.

For additional information on workshops, performances, fees, and availability, contact

Renee and Carlo: 212/598-9135 or Renee@ConcreteTempleTheatre.com

Renee and Carlo are superb teaching artists, who combine superb skills, talent, empathy and real knowledge of students’ needs. After 44 years of being an educator at arts-centered public schools, it is clear to me that Concrete Temple Theater stands out from the rest of collaborative organizations.

-Jeffrey Levitsky, Arts Education Consultant, Berkshire Taconic Foundation

We have received nothing but excellent feedback from students who participated in your classes, and the overwhelming attendance at the show was proof of the excitement it generated. I had multiple audience members contact me afterwards to thank you and us for bringing such a creative group to Colombo.

-Kathleen Fox, Press and Cultural Affairs Officer, US Embassy, Colombo, Sri Lanka

Teaching History

May-June 2024  Sirovich Senior Center, NYC: Puppetry Intensive Workshop: “LAND, AIR, WATER”

May 2024  Open Source Gallery, Brooklyn, NY: “Ahoy Matey: Whaleboat Workshop”

February 2024  Greater Atlanta Christian School, Norcross GA: Playwriting Workshop

February 2024  Center for Puppetry Arts, Atlanta, GA: Design Workshop: Ratan

October 2023 – March 2024  Sirovich Senior Center, NYC: “Big Stories in small Spaces”: Playwriting and Visual Theatre Workshop

October 2023   US Embassy – Mexico City, in Guanajuato, Mexico, Festival Internacional Cervantino: Puppetry Design and Dramaturgy

July 2023  Puppeteer of America National Puppetry Festival, College Park, MD: Woodcarving and Hand Tools

June 2023  Sirovich Senior Center, NYC: “Oh, Rescue Me,”: Toy Theatre Intensive with senior citizens and young artists

May 2023   Eugene O’Neill Puppetry Conference, Waterford, CT: Toy Theatre Workshop

November 2022   Seoul Institute of the Arts, Seoul, Korea: Puppetry Design Master Class

November 2022   Guemnarae Art Hall, Seoul, Korea: Fire Workshop + Q&A

September 2022-February 2023   Sirovich Senior Center, NYC: Acting for Playwriting

July 2022   Hudson Area Library, Hudson, NY: Whaleboats: A Puppetry Lab with Concrete Temple Theatre

June 2022   Sirovich Senior Center, NYC: “Do You Know What I Am Thinking,” NYC: Monologue Workshop

June 2022   Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, National Puppetry Festival, Waterford, CT: Woodcarving Workshop

February 2022   Yellowbomb, Seoul, Korea, via Zoom: Puppetry Manipulation Workshop

January 2022   Edmonds Center For the Arts, Edmonds, WA: “Make Your Own Packrat Puppet,” and “Meet the Puppets”

October 2021-March 2022   Sirovich Senior Center, NYC: “What We Leave Behind,” NYC: Playwriting and Visual Theatre Workshop

July 2021   Amphibian Stage, Fort Worth, TX: Adult Workshops – “Introduction to Puppetry and Manipulation,” “Puppetry, Dramaturgy, and Puppet Plays – MAKE YOUR OWN!,” “Puppet Building and Manipulation Techniques,” and “Putting on the Show” + Youth Workshops: “Fire and Puppetry” and “Toy Theatre Workshop”

June 2021   Spoke the Hub’s Local Produce Festival, Gowanus, NY: Toy Theatre Workshops

April-June 2021  Sirovich Senior Center, NY: “Me and My Shadow” via Zoom, NYC: Visual Theatre Workshop

March 2021  Amphibian Stage, Fort Worth, TX (ON ZOOM): Adult Workshops – “Introduction to Puppetry Manipulation and Design,” “Introduction to Creating Your Own Puppet Play,”Introduction to Puppetry Construction,” and “Introduction to Putting on the Show” + Youth Workshop – “Packrats and Puppetry”

October 2020 – February 2021  Sirovich Senior Center, New York, NY: “Childhood Fascinations” presented        on Dixon Place TV, NYC: Playwriting/Visual Theatre Workshop

August 2020  Singing Eagle Lodge, Holderness, NH: Bud and The Great Fire, Book Reading, Video and Meet-the-Puppets

April 2020  Sarah Lawrence Workshop, Bronxville, NY, Puppetry and Design with Prof Mabena’s theatre class

April-June 2020  Sirovich Senior Center, New York, NY: Playwriting

February 2020  University of Michigan, Theatre Department, Flint MI: Directing Workshop

February 2020  Flint Institute of Arts, Flint MI: Family Puppetry Workshop

February 2020  Flint Institute of Arts, Flint MI: Design and Puppetry Workshop

Oct 2019-Mar 2020  Sirovich Senior Center, NY: “Old?” at Dixon Place and Sirovich Center, NYC: Playwriting/Visual Theatre Workshop

Apr 2019-Jun 2019  Sirovich Senior Center, NY: “This I Believe” presented at Dixon Place, NYC: Playwriting/Visual Theatre Workshop

January 2019  Special Self-governing Province Rehabilitation Center  Welfare institute for Disabled, Jeju, Korea “Puppet Building and Manipulation”

January 2019  Jeju Global English Center, Jeju, Korea, “Using Theatre to Teach English”

October 2018-February 2019  Sirovich Senior Center, NY: “Shadows: A Silhouetted Life” presented at Dixon Place, NYC: Puppetry/Visual Theatre Workshop

August 2018-September 2018  Sirovich Senior Center, NY: “Lone Ranger in Shadow: a shadow puppetry presentation” presented at Dixon Place, NYC: Visual Theatre Workshop

June 2018  New York State Puppet Festival, Perry, NYS: Marionettes for Beginners

June 2018  New York State Puppet Festival, Perry, NYS: MEET THE PUPPETS

March 2018  SUNY-Orange, Kaplan Hall, Newburgh, NYS: MEET THE PUPPETS

Oct 2017-May 2018    Sirovich Senior Center, NY:”Remembering” presented at Dixon Place and Sirovich Senior Center, NYC: Visual Theatre Workshop

October 2017  Detroit Institute of Arts with Boys and Girls Club of Southfield, MI: Puppetry

June 2017  Storytelling Arts Center, Laurinburg, NC: Shadow Puppetry

April-June 2017  Creative Center at University Settlement, NYC: Original Shadow Puppet Plays, “Losing”

April 2017  Sirovich Senior Center, NY:”Re-writing” presented at Sirovich Center

April 2017  CTT Crafts at Access Theatre, New York, NY:”How to Make Puppet Heads from Foam”

Oct 2016-Feb 2017  Sirovich Senior Center, New York, NY: Playwriting Workshop, “Surprise!”

January 2017  Jeju Juvenile Corrections Facility, Jeju, South Korea: Shadow Puppetry

January 2017  Global English Center: elementary students, Jeju, South Korea: Shadow Puppetry

January 2017  Self-governing Province Rehabilitation Center, Jeju, South Korea: Puppetry Masterclass

January 2017  Baekseok Univeristy, Cheonan, South Korea: Puppetry Masterclass

January 2017  Gwanju Cultural Center, Art House, South Korea: ACTING I Masterclass

December 2016  Flint Institute of Arts: Family Programs, Flint, MI: Shadow Puppetry

October 2016 Flint Institute of Arts: Pre-College Portfolio Development Program, Flint, MI: Design and Theatre

Sept-Dec 2016  Mott Middle College High School, Flint, MI: Create Your Own Work: Puppetry and Puppetry Design and Construction

September 2016  SUNY-Orange: Middletown, New York, NY: Improvisation Masterclass and ACTING I Masterclass

July 2016  The Flea Theater: Bats, New York, NY: Introduction to Puppetry and Shadow Puppetry Workshop

June 2016  The Creative Center, University Settlement, New York, NY: Concrete Temple Crafts: Joss Paper Workshop

April 2016-June 2016  Sirovich Senior Center, New York, NY: Visual Theatre Workshop, “My First Time”

April 2016  The Child’s Place for Children with Special Needs, Brooklyn Central New York Public Library, workshop for teens with disabilities, NYPL-Brooklyn, NY: Shadow Puppetry Workshop

March 2016  Amphibian Junior Company Extended Workshop Intensive, Amphibian Stage Productions, Fort Worth, TX: Shadow Puppetry, with presentations: March 19 and 20, 2016

March 2016  Camp Fire Kids Outreach Workshop, Amphibian Stage Productions, Fort Worth, TX: Shadow Puppetry Workshop

January-February 2016  6th Grade Class, Germantown Central School, Germantown, NY: The Bystander Project Workshop, with Presentation: Feb 26, 2016

October 2015-February 2016  Sirovich Senior Center, New York, NY: Playwriting Workshop, “Old?”

September 2015  University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO: Devised Theatre Workshop

September 2015  University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO: Puppetry Workshop

April-June 2015  Sirovich Senior Center, New York, NY: Visual Theatre Workshop, “Water”

Oct 2014-Feb 2015  Sirovich Senior Center, New York, NY: Playwriting Workshop, “To Dream”

January 2015  The Gloucester County Institute of Technology High School Academy, Sewell, NJ: Shadow Puppet Workshop

January 2015  Rowan University, Glassboro, NJ: Shadow Puppet Workshop

January 2015  Concrete Temple Craft Workshop, Dixon Place, New York, NY

October 2014  plai theatre/Yai Autism Center, New York, NY: “Create Your Own Work” Workshop

September 2014-May 2015  Community Roots Middle School, Brooklyn, NY: Stage Craft and Design

August 2014  The Child’s Place for Children with Special Needs, Brooklyn Central New York Public Library and plai Theatre, workshop for teens with disabilities, NYPL-Brooklyn, NY: Shadow Puppetry Workshop

April-June 2014  Sirovich Senior Center, New York, NY: Visual Theatre Workshop

April-June 2014  plai Theatre and New York Public Library Harlem, Teen’s with disabilities ensemble, NYPL-Harlem, NYC: Acting Workshop

January 2014  Teatro Jaco, Jaco, Costa Rica: Shadow Puppetry Workshop

October 2013-January 2014  Sirovich Senior Center, New York, NY: Playwriting Workshop

May/June 2013  Puppet Festival (r)evolution, Swarthmore, PA: Wood Carving Workshop 101

May/June 2013  Sirovich Senior Center, New York, NY: float making for participation in Greatest Smallest Parade, Dumbo, NY, in conjunction with Great Small Works 10th International Toy Theatre Festival

May/June 2013  plai theatre/Yai Autism Center, New York, NY: puppetry

February 2013  Taconic Hills Middle School, Craryville, New York: Performance, Adaptation

October/November 2012  RAVELED/UNRAVELED with Sirovich Senior Center, Dixon Place, New York, NY: Cultural Education and Community Outreach Program

October 2012 M.C. Intermediate School, Hudson, NY: Acting and Performance

September 2012  plai theatre, New York, New York: Puppetry

September 2012  Ichabod Crane Central School, Valatie, New York: Performance, Adaptation

Spring 2012  Bard College at Simon’s Rock: Puppetry

March 2012  Germantown Central School, Germantown, NY: Performance, Adaptation

Nov/Dec 2011  Sirovich Senior Center, NYC: Chinese Seniors and Toy Theatre

November 2011  M.C. Intermediate School, Hudson, NY: Adaptation

August 2011  Hudson Opera House, Hudson, NY: Object Theatre

May 2011  Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, Istanbul, Turkey: Multi-Media, Projections, and Tech

May 2011  Karagoz Puppet Museum, Bursa, Turkey: Puppetry

April 2011  Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation, Hudson, NY: Shadow Puppetry

April 2011  The City College of New York – CUNY, NYC: Public Speaking – “Speaking Out”

March 2011  The Artists’ Collective for Social Change, Harlem, NY: “Create Your Own Work”

June 2010  Sirovich Senior Center, NYC: Floats/Puppetry, Great Small Works Miniature Parade

March 2010  Educational Alliance, NYC: Multi-Media, Projections, and Technology

July-August 2009  Path Group Home, Paramus, NJ: Shadow Puppetry

Spring 2009  Taconic Hills High School, Craryville, NY: Set Design and Construction

January 2009  Spanish Queens Seventh-Day Adventist Youth Group: “Create Your Own Work”

August 2008  Seven major cities of India and Sri Lanka: “Speaking Out” and Adaptation Ethiraj Women’s College, Chennai, India; American Center, Kolkata, India; Academy of Theatre Arts, Mumbai, India; American Center, American Embassy, Delhi, India; Ranga Shankara, Bangalore, India; University of Peradeniya, Kandy, Sri Lanka and Theatre Department of Lyceum International in Colombo, Sri Lanka

April 2008  Hudson Opera House, Hudson, NY: Shadow Puppetry

March 2008  Hudson Opera House, Hudson, NY: Puppetry

2008 to Present  Sirovich Senior Center, New York, NY: Technique and “Create Your Own Work”

September 2007  West Shore Performing Arts Series, Scottville, MI: Technique, Adaptation, Lec/Demo

June 2007  Access Theatre, New York, NY: Puppetry

May 2007  78th Street Theatre Lab, New York, NY: Puppetry

January 2007  The University of Michigan, Flint, Michigan: Technique and “Create Your Own Work”

July 2006  The Yard and MV Historical Society, Martha’s Vineyard, MA: Physical Theatre

April 2006  Nantucket Historical Association, Nantucket, MA: Interpreters — “Speaking Out”

October 2005  chashama@Queens Plaza, NY: Physical Theatre

September 2005  Spoke The Hub, Brooklyn, NY: Dance

August 2005  Whaling Museum/NHA, Nantucket, MA: Puppetry, Technique, “Speaking Out”

October 2004  Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY: Physical Theatre and Technique

January 2004  Quick Center for the Arts, St. Bonaventure, NY: Lecture/Demonstrations; “Create Your Own Work,” Improvisation, Technique, and Directing

2001-2004  Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville, NY: Technical Theatre

1998-2000  Spoke the Hub, Brooklyn, NY: Modern Dance for Boys

September 2000  Rappahanock High School, Rappahanock, VA: Physical Theatre, Improvisation

Working with CTT has been extremely beneficial for our community, highly enjoyable and we plan on continuing our relationship far into the future.

-Gary Schiro, Hudson Opera House