How do you blow the mind of a five-year-old? And why do we adults build such hard shells around the forces that were so active in us as kids? The Assassins Chase Pinocchio was conceived as an avant-garde performance piece for children and adults and combines the surreal world of Carlo Collodi’s 1883 coming-of-age tale “The Adventures of Pinocchio” with the formal techniques of experimental theater to examine the process of growing up and those childlike aspects of ourselves that we assassinate in our mad dash to become “real boys.” Inspired by the read-along story albums of the late 1970s and early 1980s and rooted in the belief that even very young children can process complex works of art in unique ways, the piece uses live video, found objects, masks, gibberish, and psychedelic music and soundscapes to fracture the oral storytelling tradition and expand it into an immersive, multidiciplinary story experience for young and old.

The Assassins Chase Pinocchio was first presented as a work-in-progress in October 2010 as part of the IRT 3B Development Series. A full production was presented at Clemente Soto Velez Cultural & Education Center in April/May 2011.