Hatched Puppetry & Creative Drama Workshop
SUN, SEP 14, 2025
11:30 AM
DATE: Sunday, September 14
TIME: 11:30 AM
LOCATION: Flushing Town Hall's Green Room
GENERAL ADMISSION: $5 Per Person
Treehouse Shakers' Artistic Director Mara McEwin, and Concept/Writer/Director of Hatched, will lead families in a farm themed puppetry and storytelling workshop, sure to engage and delight even the youngest of family members. Participants will make simple stick puppets that tie into the characters from the performance of Hatched. Through storytelling with simple-stories, nursery rhymes and songs, toddlers and preschoolers will have a chance to use their own voice, body, and imagination. Young people will also be invited to play along with their newly made puppets. For nearly 30 years, Mara has been leading arts workshops for the very young child across the country.
About The Director
Mara McEwin (she/her) Artistic Director, Co-Founder, Writer & Director, has produced, written, directed and sometimes performed in all of Treehouse Shakers’ 20 original dance-plays including Hatched, which is recognized as being the first dance-play for babies to tour the U.S. by an American artist/company. She has created ongoing arts in education programming for preschools to colleges and led numerous teaching artist and classroom trainings throughout the country for the past 30+ years. During the pandemic, she quickly transitioned the company to virtual programming. During this time Treehouse Shakers’ created Pillow Fort, for ages 3-7, a mini-series to engage young people through the arts at home.
Also, a Storyteller, Mara was named “Best Storyteller of New York” by NY Press and has performed throughout the nation’s schools, festivals, theaters, colleges, and community events. She is the featured teller for F.I.T’s Toy Design Department, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling, as well as Baby Gap, Miramax, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Turtle Pond Publications, Chocolate Sauce Publishing, The Tribeca Film Festival, to name a few. Mara is a writer, voice-over artist and story consultant for Activity Works, an interactive educational video-web series for classrooms across the U.S. She was the subject for a qualitative dissertation on the inclusion of storytelling in the classroom by Dr. Barb O’Neill and a featured 2019 speaker for O’Neill’s Transform Challenging Behavior Conference, the AATE 2021- 2024 National Conference, and the Theatre & Dance for the Very Young Conference in 2022.
Mara co-created Niñopalooza, an all-day rock concert for kids and Niño Nada, a summer festival of children’s work that was acclaimed by the New York Times. Favorite acting credits include Bloomsday on Broadway with Stephen Colbert and Alec Baldwin, which aired on NPR as well as The Sandpiper at Symphony Space, NYC. She has performed with companies such as Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Theater, Eugene O’Neill by-the-Sea- Festival, Chekhov Festival, among many others. She has worked in film, print, television and commercials. Mara is a former long-term board member for International Performing Arts for Youth (IPAY), NYC Storytelling Center, and served on the School Leadership Team at Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School.
To read about life with Treehouse Shakers, or raising a creative family, visit @maramcewin or at marastreehouse.blogspot.com.
TIME: 11:30 AM
LOCATION: Flushing Town Hall's Green Room
GENERAL ADMISSION: $5 Per Person
Treehouse Shakers' Artistic Director Mara McEwin, and Concept/Writer/Director of Hatched, will lead families in a farm themed puppetry and storytelling workshop, sure to engage and delight even the youngest of family members. Participants will make simple stick puppets that tie into the characters from the performance of Hatched. Through storytelling with simple-stories, nursery rhymes and songs, toddlers and preschoolers will have a chance to use their own voice, body, and imagination. Young people will also be invited to play along with their newly made puppets. For nearly 30 years, Mara has been leading arts workshops for the very young child across the country.
About The Director
Mara McEwin (she/her) Artistic Director, Co-Founder, Writer & Director, has produced, written, directed and sometimes performed in all of Treehouse Shakers’ 20 original dance-plays including Hatched, which is recognized as being the first dance-play for babies to tour the U.S. by an American artist/company. She has created ongoing arts in education programming for preschools to colleges and led numerous teaching artist and classroom trainings throughout the country for the past 30+ years. During the pandemic, she quickly transitioned the company to virtual programming. During this time Treehouse Shakers’ created Pillow Fort, for ages 3-7, a mini-series to engage young people through the arts at home.
Also, a Storyteller, Mara was named “Best Storyteller of New York” by NY Press and has performed throughout the nation’s schools, festivals, theaters, colleges, and community events. She is the featured teller for F.I.T’s Toy Design Department, Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art & Storytelling, as well as Baby Gap, Miramax, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Turtle Pond Publications, Chocolate Sauce Publishing, The Tribeca Film Festival, to name a few. Mara is a writer, voice-over artist and story consultant for Activity Works, an interactive educational video-web series for classrooms across the U.S. She was the subject for a qualitative dissertation on the inclusion of storytelling in the classroom by Dr. Barb O’Neill and a featured 2019 speaker for O’Neill’s Transform Challenging Behavior Conference, the AATE 2021- 2024 National Conference, and the Theatre & Dance for the Very Young Conference in 2022.
Mara co-created Niñopalooza, an all-day rock concert for kids and Niño Nada, a summer festival of children’s work that was acclaimed by the New York Times. Favorite acting credits include Bloomsday on Broadway with Stephen Colbert and Alec Baldwin, which aired on NPR as well as The Sandpiper at Symphony Space, NYC. She has performed with companies such as Manhattan Theatre Club, Playwrights Theater, Eugene O’Neill by-the-Sea- Festival, Chekhov Festival, among many others. She has worked in film, print, television and commercials. Mara is a former long-term board member for International Performing Arts for Youth (IPAY), NYC Storytelling Center, and served on the School Leadership Team at Metropolitan Expeditionary Learning School.
To read about life with Treehouse Shakers, or raising a creative family, visit @maramcewin or at marastreehouse.blogspot.com.
