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The Off Center’s 2025 season brings puppetry exploring idea of belonging

Rebecca Barnabi
theater
(© fergregory – stock.adobe.com)

Staunton’s The Off Center, a performing arts organization specializing in puppetry, theatre and story-centered events, announces its 2025 season.

Audiences will enjoy more curious performances and one visual-art-inspired story-telling event between April and December 2025.

The Off Center starts the new year in a new space by bringing its performances to the Staunton Augusta Art Center and a holiday performance at Sol Art Center.

Staunton Augusta Art Center is the perfect partnership for us. Our ensemble creates work that combines performance art, literary art and visual art. A lot of the art on display in the gallery will engage in conversation with the performances we’re creating,” said The Off Center Director Davey White.

From April 17 to 26, The Off Center will present “Amerika: The Boy Who Disappeared,” at 7 p.m. each night at Staunton Augusta Art Center. White’s playful puppetry adapts Kafka’s unfinished epic novel of Karl Rossman, banished by his family to the United States. Audiences will join Karl’s journey as a child finding a new beginning in a strange new world through the eyes of an immigrant, filtered through Kafka’s horrifying imagination.

White brings his beloved punkrock puppet play from the 2024 Queen City Mischief and Magic Festival back from June 12 to 14, 2025 at 7 p.m. each night. “Sir Gawain and the Green Knight” tells of Arthur’s nephew Gawain, who, inspired by the Arthurian Legend, makes a choice when a gruesome giant shows up and proposes a bloody game. “He’s the Green Knight, His head ain’t right, Got rocks in his beard and he’s lookin’ for a fight.”

Dad’s Original Tangy BBQ Sauce” will be presented July 16 to 26 at 7 p.m. each night. A new play by White, siblings Agg And Ollie stand vigil as their father is dying. They attempt to understand the story of their family and vie ruthlessly for their father’s BBQ recipe.

October brings “Degenerate: The DeJarnette Project” at 7 p.m. each night October 16 to 25. Based on research of the true story of one of Staunton‘s most challenging legacies, America‘s eugenics movement, the puppet show promises to be an event like no other.

Stories From the Ether” at 7 p.m. from September 11 to 20 will be a story slap/art exhibit at Staunton Augusta Art Center. The exhibit asks the questions: Where do stories come from? Something that happens? A fascinating character? A meaningful idea? Sure, but what else? Abstract images may conjure a response more complicated than the facts of a story. Watch storytellers bring to life the art of local visual artist Deb Seif.

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King” will be presented December 11 to 20 at 7 p.m. each night at SolArt Center. In The Off Center‘s series of children’s stories that maybe shouldn’t be children’s stories, Marie gets mixed up in a dangerous game between a toy soldier used to shell tree nuts and a seven-headed rat.

“We’re so grateful to everyone who has joined us for our off-centered performances. And this year is going to be wild. There’s a kind of unintentional theme to these plays, of someone arriving someplace they don’t belong. A kind of exploration of the idea of home. And we’re hoping to continue to develop our visual and musical playfulness throughout the season,” White said.

Auditions will be held Monday, February 3, 2025 at Staunton Augusta Art Center from 5:30 to 9 p.m. for anyone interested in performing, being puppetry artists and story-tellers for the 2025 Season. The Off Center seeks creative, bold and collaborative adults to join its ensemble for one or more productions in 2025. Puppetry experience is not required. The Off Center considers each piece an opportunity to experiment and redefine, so willingness to explore is more important than resumé experience. Creative artists of every background, gender, religion, race and demographic are encouraged to audition. You Belong Here. All performances are paid, non-equity. More information is available online.

Founded in 2023, The Off Center is a Staunton-based organization that gathers people together to experience curious stories through theater, puppetry, literature and storytelling. The organization champions the intrinsic value of gathering and exploring, encourage novelty and disruption and believes that when the world is seen askew, we can be eye-level with one another.

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Rebecca Barnabi

Rebecca Barnabi

Rebecca J. Barnabi is the national editor of Augusta Free Press. A graduate of the University of Mary Washington, she began her journalism career at The Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star. In 2013, she was awarded first place for feature writing in the Maryland, Delaware, District of Columbia Awards Program, and was honored by the Virginia School Boards Association’s 2019 Media Honor Roll Program for her coverage of Waynesboro Schools. Her background in newspapers includes writing about features, local government, education and the arts.