Wood Boy Dog Fish
Creative Director, Puppet Designer
Rogue Artists Ensemble • 2018 • Los Angeles, CA
A gritty, high-octane re-imagining of Pinocchio, this explosive stage spectacle blended puppetry, projections, and music into a fever-dream carnival of fire, fame, and monstrous transformations.
REVIEWS
Winner Best Puppet Design LA Stage Ovation Award 2017
“A breathtaking feat of theater... wildly imaginative.... a dizzying fusion of sound, lights, puppets, masks and music... The Pinocchio puppet is a spectacular creation.” — Los Angeles Times
“RECOMMENDED… STAGE RAW TOP 10… a toy-box of visual wit” — Gray Palmer, Stage Raw
“MAD INVENTIVENESS… magically combines its [grim] vision with buoyant comedy and colorful spectacle… an overwhelming sensory feast… a dazzling romp through the dark side” — Mark Hein, Theatre Ghost
“SPECTACULAR... amazing visuals… a heartfelt illustration of the redemptive power of love.” — élan Dostal, Broadway World
“BLEW ME AWAY… delightfully dark in all the best ways… definitely one show you do not want to miss.” — Jeff Heimbuch, Horror Buzz
“A WILD AND ZANY RIDE… astounding costumes and masks, original music and phenomenal stage effects” — Ron Irwin, LA Splash
“FANTASTIC… UNIQUE… truly top notch” — Shannon McGrew, Nightmarish Conjurings
“ROCKS… the audience is engulfed in a transcendental miasma of sights and sounds.” — Michael Sheehan, On Stage Los Angeles
“WOW!... DELICIOUSLY TWISTED… terrific news for those who like their fairy tales dark and dirty and theatrically magical.” - Stage Scene LA
“A THRILLING spectacle of sight and sound” — Ivan Steel Presents
Wood Boy Dog Fish is a darkly comic, adrenaline-fueled take on the Pinocchio myth, set in a crumbling seaside carnival where temptation, illusion, and exploitation lurk around every turn.
Directed by Sean Cawelti, who also served as Lead Puppet Designer, the production was shaped into a visceral, fully sensory experience—where live rock music, highly articulated puppets, practical effects, and cinematic projections collided onstage in a bold mashup of fairytale and fever dream.
At the heart of the show was a handcrafted, expressive Wood Boy puppet who journeys through twisted attractions and glittering promises of fame, accompanied by the loyal but morally flexible Dog Fish.
One sequence immersed the audience in a surreal, dark ride-inspired dreamscape: audience members donned 3D glasses as a miniature Wood Boy puppet rode a small amusement park vehicle downstage. The perspective shifted dramatically as other characters transformed into towering, blacklight-powered nightmare figures that seemed to leap from the stage into the audience’s field of vision.
The production pushed the boundaries of live performance with a richly layered aesthetic—featuring shadow play, large-scale transformations, and a design vocabulary that was equal parts sideshow, sci-fi, and surreal nightmare. It earned critical acclaim and multiple award nominations for its originality, technical innovation, and emotional impact.