Skip to main content
Skip to main content
Updated 7/31/2019

DAN BUTTERWORTH AND HIS MARIONETTES

  • R

    RI

Institution/Business Type: Performing Group

Butterworth's puppetry has taken him from performing locally at fairs and schools to an international career, leading large scale educational workshops, appearing in operas and classical music festivals, film, and television. He picks varied projects, often which involve collaboration, such as constructing a puppet theatre around an adult tricycle, helping to create an Inuit show in Nunavut, Canada, and designing sets for the 2008 St. Petersburg, Florida production of Strauss' comic opera "Die Fledermaus". His work, breathing intellectual life into this elegant, sometimes under-rated art form, has not gone without notice. He has been supported by the National Foundation for the Arts since 1979, and in 2005 he was honored with the Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts, for which he humbly allowed his puppets to take the bow. The grand sets, articulated special effects, and puppet staging surround the exquisitely moving marionettes and shadow puppets as they draw all into the world of Dan Butterworth. Artscope Magazine- 2009 Dan Butterworth’s international award-winning workshops and performances use shadow, light, and movement in ingenious ways. Now, the powerfully equiped Wheelchair Theaters make Dan’s intricate inventiveness accessible to all. The combination of rolling ‘Visual Chairs’ and ‘Music Chairs’ allows for full theatrical productions in a variety of performance spaces. Art Machines are now available: portals with beautiful scenes inside (easily attachable to a wall). Controls are designed to enable recovery of hands, wrists, elbows etc. A wide variety of movement is possible. A few of these in a hospital hallway and the warm, soothing sense of an 'underwater' environment will envelope the patients. Teaching Artists gather in Providence. Our goal is to legitimize and advertise the use of the Teaching Arts in Healthcare.

Dan now is working with Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, Canada to make a permanent Animated Performance Center. In March 2019 boxes were mailed containing two rolling shadow stages (with batteries- so they don't have to be connected to an outlet) with their own curtains and a large, 17ft. wide by 6 ft. deep pipe and drape stage for hand and rod puppets as well as other performing acts. Dan will set out in August to 'teach to teach'. He will show adults in the community how to make sophisticated shadow puppets, hand and rod, as well as animated scenery.

Find Me

Dan Butterworth
Job Title: Owner Butterworth Productions
Phone: 401-568-4251
Address:
451 EAGLE PEAK ROAD
Pascoag, RI 02859

Social Media:

Additional Content:

About

Overview

Institution/Business Type:

Performing Group

Legal Status:

Commercial / For profit - Sole proprietorship

Year Founded:

1980

Overview

Institution/Business Type:

Performing Group

Legal Status:

Commercial / For profit - Sole proprietorship

Year Founded:

1980

Disciplines

Primary Discipline:

Theater - Puppet

Additional Disciplines:

  • Multi-Disciplinary

Activities and Services

Activities and Services:

  • Arts for Social Change / Creative Activism
  • Arts and Health
  • Arts Instruction / Lessons
  • Community Arts
  • Creation of a Work of Art (Including Commissions)
  • Curriculum Development
  • Design Services
  • Exhibitions
  • Film Preproduction / Production / Editing Services
  • Funding
  • Manufacturing / Fabrication
  • Performance / Concert / Reading
  • Public Art Projects (In Free, Public Spaces)
  • Residency - Community
  • Residency - In School
  • Residency - Production / Development
  • Residency - Other
  • Theater Technical Production
  • Wedding / Parties / Private Gatherings
  • Workshops / Demonstrations / Master Class
Seasons Active: spring, summer, fall, winter
Events Per Year: 100

Communities

Populations Engaged:

  • Adults
  • Businesses
  • Elders
  • Families
  • General Public
  • Immigrant Populations
  • Incarcerated (or Formerly Incarcerated) individuals
  • LGBTQ Populations
  • Native American Tribes
  • Nonprofits
  • People with Disabilities
  • School Groups
  • Teens
  • Veteran/Active Duty Military Personnel
  • Youth-At-Risk

Geographic Reach:

  • Town / City
  • County
  • Multi-County Region
  • State
  • Multi-State Region
  • National
  • International

Accessibility of Services

Accessibility of Services:

  • Access accommodations for people who use a wheelchair and have limited mobility

Programs specifically designed for wheelchair and limited mobility persons. Wheelchair Theaters are designed to simply attach to existing chairs for music and image projection. Ideal for parades, singular work, and full theater productions. Some work in conjunction with The Drum Workshop, Inc. (drum-workshop.org).

Media Gallery

I Have Worked With

Affiliations and Accomplishments

Professional Associations

Professional Associations:

  • Screen Actors Guild

Professional Associations

Professional Associations:

  • Screen Actors Guild

Awards

Awards:

  • Pell Award for Excellency in the Arts- 2005
  • Keynote Speaker, the Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire
  • Keynote Speaker, Walsh High School graduation. 2016

Special Designations

Special Designations:

  • NEFA Grant Recipient

Artist Info

Teaching Artist

Teaching Settings:

  • Afterschool Program
  • Arts and Cultural Center / Venue
  • Community Site / Center
  • Healthcare Facility
  • School / University

Ages Served:

  • Elementary School-age
  • Middle School-age
  • High School-age
  • College-age
  • Adults
  • Seniors

Subject Areas:

  • Arts Integration - Health
  • Arts Integration - History and Social Science
  • Arts Integration - Science / Technology / Engineering
  • Dance
  • Design
  • Literature
  • Music
  • Theater
  • Visual/Crafts

Certifications and Training:

  • In 2005 Walsh High School in Providence and Coventry High School in conjunction with Chris Kane (sculptor teacher), Gene Dufault (shop teacher), and Dan Butterworth ran a 6 week workshop. The students in Coventry cut out all the marionette parts. The stud
  • 2015 Walsh High School in Pawtucket
  • 2016 Nowell School, Providence
  • 2017 Beacon Charter High School for the Arts
  • 2018 Cambridge Bay, Nunavut CA youth center
  • 2000- 2019- Bushnell 'out reach' programs
  • 2019 Walsh High School in Pawtucket- Shadow Puppetry
  • 2019- The William Yandow Education Award

Fee range:

$500 - $5,000

Teaching Artist

Teaching Settings:

  • Afterschool Program
  • Arts and Cultural Center / Venue
  • Community Site / Center
  • Healthcare Facility
  • School / University

Ages Served:

  • Elementary School-age
  • Middle School-age
  • High School-age
  • College-age
  • Adults
  • Seniors

Subject Areas:

  • Arts Integration - Health
  • Arts Integration - History and Social Science
  • Arts Integration - Science / Technology / Engineering
  • Dance
  • Design
  • Literature
  • Music
  • Theater
  • Visual/Crafts

Certifications and Training:

  • In 2005 Walsh High School in Providence and Coventry High School in conjunction with Chris Kane (sculptor teacher), Gene Dufault (shop teacher), and Dan Butterworth ran a 6 week workshop. The students in Coventry cut out all the marionette parts. The stud
  • 2015 Walsh High School in Pawtucket
  • 2016 Nowell School, Providence
  • 2017 Beacon Charter High School for the Arts
  • 2018 Cambridge Bay, Nunavut CA youth center
  • 2000- 2019- Bushnell 'out reach' programs
  • 2019 Walsh High School in Pawtucket- Shadow Puppetry
  • 2019- The William Yandow Education Award

Fee range:

$500 - $5,000

State Arts Agency Roster Artist

  • Rhode Island Education Roster

Touring Artist

NEST Eligible Artist

Technical Requirements:

  • Space 12 ft. wide, 7 ft. high, 12 ft. deep.
  • Space for the audience with aisle for inter-active
  • Or- 90 minutes to a full day for educational workshops

Fee Range:

$500 - $2,750

State of Residence:

Rhode Island

Minimum Number of Performers:

1

Maximum Number of Performers:

3