https://www.danhurlin.com/projects daily 1.0 2025-10-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545673338945-DELRL627MISE7FOWGY1D/_B5N0240.jpg Selected Projects DISFARMER (2009) Disfarmer is inspired by the forty-year career (1917—1956) of portrait photographer Mike Disfarmer, who for decades shunned his family and neighbors while operating the only portrait studio for miles around Heber Springs, Arkansas. The play recreates a sense of the photographer’s interior and exterior worlds, illuminating the contradictions in the life of this American hermit whose intimate and revealing portraiture documented an entire mid-twentieth century, Dust Bowl community. Using glass plate photography long after it was obsolete, Mike Disfarmer left his subjects to decide for themselves how to act in front of his lens. When 4,000 of his negatives surfaced in the 1970s, Disfarmer’s portraits were recognized as a stunning achievement, with their exquisite artistry, profound empathy and invaluable documentation of a vanishing way of life. Five puppeteers show Disfarmer alone but not despairing, longing but not lonely, in his studio as he categorizes his every possession, barricades himself from the outside world, and compulsively measures constantly expanding distances between things. During the course of the play, Disfarmer shrinks like the rest of rural America, until he is completely gone, and we are left with the quiet and nervous expectancy of standing perfectly still for a long exposure. Designed, fabricated and directed by Dan Hurlin Original text by SylvanOswald Original music by Dan Moses Schreier Lighting design by Tyler Micoleau Cast: Matt Acheson, Chris Green, Tom Lee, Darius Mannino, Eric Wright Premiered at St. Ann's Warehouse Toured nationally A project of Red Wing Performing Group, produced by MAPP International Photos: Richard Termine https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545677087200-KXRZLBK7X7PFDKFLF9VR/DSC_0073.jpg Selected Projects HIROSHIMA MAIDEN (2004) Hiroshima Maiden is inspired by the true story of the Hiroshima Maidens – a group of about twenty-five women who survived the nuclear blast at Hiroshima in 1945. Ten years later these women were invited to the United States to undergo reconstructive surgeries. The women managed to get to the United States despite official objections, with the proviso that when they made public appearances they were to be seen only in silhouette. During the course of their surgical treatments, the climax of their American odyssey occurred when they were invited to appear (in silhouette) on the television program "This is Your Life," where among other people from their past, the producers arranged for them to meet face to face with the pilot of the Enola Gay – the plane that dropped the bomb on Hiroshima. Hiroshima Maiden piece borrows extensively from traditional Japanese Bunraku forms and is performed by a company of nine puppeteers. A Narrator sits to the side (as in a traditional Bunraku performance), and Robert Een, in an ensemble of three plays original, jazz inspired music, becoming an American version of the samisen player. Visual images are culled from the works of Hiroshige and Yoshitoshi, Edo era master print makers, as well as from the mid-century American designers Charles and Ray Eames. Puppets and objects designed and fabricated by Dan Hurlin Original music by Robert Een Set designed by Dan Hurlin Lights by Tyler Micoleau Performed by Deana Acheson, Matt Acheson, Chris Green, Tom Lee, Yoko Miyoi, Eikazu Nakamura, Dawn Akemi Saito, Lake Simons, Eric Wright, Nami Yamamoto Music performed by Jeff Berman, Robert Een, Bill Ruyle Premiered at St. Ann’s Warehouse, Brooklyn, NY Toured nationally A project of Red Wing Performing Group, produced by MAPP International AWARDS: UNIMA Citation of Excellence (Union Internationale de la Marionnette); Village Voice Obie Award for musical score. All photos: Richard Termine https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545681657332-OIYDRZ86VL1XS2N4BVQF/new_small_and_beds_01.jpg Selected Projects SMALL AND BEDS (1982) Two companion pieces. Small is a solo for a performer (Hurlin) and eight synchronized cassette tape recorders. Emitting everything from imagined dialogue between a naked Barbie and Ken, to a scene from “The Miracle Worker” in which Helen learns to fold her napkin, to music from the punk group “Trio,” the tape recorders and the performer celebrate the minuscule and allow each of the arts to become greater than their sum. Beds co-written with the late Laura Ernst, takes place in a giant bedroom/hospital ward, in which overwhelming inertia prevents all the inhabitant Lazy-bones from getting up. The patients split the Sunday Times among themselves (avoiding the “Help Wanted” section) while their caretaker, “Nurse Cunningham” (Hurlin in drag) appears with a 20 pound Roast Turkey and cheerfully announces “…Oh no, Don’t get up!” before serving the performers and the audience. Performed by Billy Barnes, Laura Ernst, Patricia Henritze, Dan Hurlin, David Warren Premiered at ReCherChez Studio for the Avant Garde, NYC Photos: Matthew Jones https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545690215452-IM46UGSGH5C8MYQMVN25/sight+-+08.jpg Selected Projects EVERYDAY USES FOR SIGHT Nos. 3 & 7 (2000) Everyday Uses for Sight is a pair of puppet pieces that examines the personal, emotional, political intellectual and sociological ramifications of the sense of sight: How and why we see, do not see, or choose not to see the world around us. The Home of Bill and Sandy Kelly is #3 in the series. In The Home of Bill and Sandy Kelly, The Young American Boy fantasizes about the sexual escapades of his glamorous neighbors Bill and Sandy Kelly and later, gets the home-town bullies to build him a club-house so they’ll take their shirts off for him. Richard Nickel is killed in 1972 while photographing Louis Sullivan buildings as they are being demolished. Looking at people and buildings is a dangerous occupation. Performed by Dan Hurlin, Roy Nathanson, Christopher Williams Objects and puppets created by Dan Hurlin Music composed by Dan Froot Lights by Tyler Micoleau Premiered at The Kitchen, NYC Toured internationally A project of Red Wing Performing Group Photos: Tyler Micoleau https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545679870318-4PF3TXCQM7HSSKTJQWV9/SUMMERSCAPE_BER_6774.jpg Selected Projects DEMOLISHING EVERYTHING WITH AMAZING SPEED (2016) Discovered during a fellowship at the American Academy in Rome in 2013, Demolishing Everything with Amazing Speed is a collection of four wordless scripts written by Italian Futurist Fortunato Depero in 1917. The first play, “Safe” is simply a numbered list of abstract actions. A man in a small room makes gestures or stomps and with each action, stuff in the room (a table, a painting, geometric objects) moves around. “Acrobatic Suicides and Homicides” starts as a series of unrelated vignettes, and somewhere in the middle (bizarrely) the play suddenly develops a plot involving multiple mass murders and suicides. In “Automatic Thief,” the thief uses hypnosis and a giant magnet to steal everything from watches to pastry, violently does away with the cops on his trail, and escapes in a “wonderful elevator.” “Electric Adventure” tells of a love triangle between an engineer, a stationmaster and his wife. Through a series of accidents, they all end up dead. But when their coffins get tangled up in some high tension wires, they are electrified back to life and return to their jobs and electrically wreak havoc. Although written in a playful tone, the plays’ political and social undertones—ideals framed by the Futurists, one of Europe’s fringe cultural movements of the early 20th century – have become frighteningly current in today’s world of school shootings, police brutality and neo-Fascist rants. Futurist puppet plays by Fortunato Depero Translated, designed and directed by Dan Hurlin Performed by Jennifer Kidwell, Eric F. Avery, C.B. Goodman, Catherine Gowl, Takemi Kitamura, Rowan Magee, Josh Rice, Chris Carcione Original music and sound design by Dan Moses Schreier Projection design by Tom Lee Lighting design by Tyler Micoleau A project of Red Wing performing group, Produced by MAPP International Productions Commissioned by and developed in residence at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College Premiere at the Fisher Center at Bard College Toured Internationally Photos: Stephanie Berger https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1709387029598-359GWAQ9WBZ1LA63WH0B/image-asset.jpeg Selected Projects MOTEL is an installation/sculpture. On entering the exhibition space, one sees a large wooden box. This view gives nothing away. But from steps on either side of the piece, one looks into the box from above and sees a 1/2 scale, seedy motel room rendered in full detail. In it, there is a woman waiting. From the clock radio on the bedside table comes a mash up of the Watergate hearings (1973), and the January 6th hearings (2022). These two events bookend Roe v. Wade, making MOTEL a response to the recent Supreme Court Dobbs decision. This woman could have had to travel across state lines to procure an abortion. Perhaps when she got there, the clinic was closed. Or perhaps, more terrifyingly, the motel room is the clinic. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1760036185077-G7P0L4MKI13JS326484W/_69A8040-u.jpg Selected Projects - Walden (2024) Walden is a two person adaptation of the book by Henry David Thoreau. Designed, fabricated, co adapted and co-directed by Dan Hurlin with Simon Boberg, the work was commissioned by, and premiered at the Boat Theater in Copenhagen, DK. (performed in Danish) https://www.danhurlin.com/new-page daily 0.75 2018-12-26 https://www.danhurlin.com/bio daily 0.75 2025-12-05 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1546039294070-JATITQPZFNWB3QWG4MCY/DSC00479.jpg Bio https://www.danhurlin.com/educational-work daily 0.75 2019-03-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545789015384-RK5C7LN2D7JRJ9YI3IEO/Erratics+1.jpg Educational Work Erratics (2017/18) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545787331383-ZEB71BV9X6LSAA2CLNT7/tag_right_teaching_04.jpg Educational Work Quintland (2009/10) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545787692485-Q1DYHJK1XGOBJ7P0FH4Y/double_aspect_top_01.jpg Educational Work Double Aspect Bright and Fair (2012/13) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545787356330-J6FPNW05DA5ZM38FXEZC/tag_right_teaching_03.jpg Educational Work The Queer Dutchman (2007/08) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545787758518-RFHXKXL30CLFG36LMMCF/doubleaspect_01.jpg Educational Work Double Aspect Bright and Fair (2012/13) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545788976271-KF7C60LU04SB08ZLKBEV/Erratics2%2B2.jpg Educational Work Erratics (2017/18) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545787259721-JTU5C79C82EYMVO6N7E3/tag_right_teaching_01.jpg Educational Work Quintland (2009/10) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545789139436-U7YOJGNQ2IOJ2RZH116S/Erratics%2B7.jpg Educational Work Erratics (2017/18) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545787299562-PEFBIKG2Y310GLSVJOY8/tag_right_teaching_02.jpg Educational Work The Queer Dutchman (2007/08) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545792770079-TEBMQCOVII6LUX1E16AY/Erratics+10.jpg Educational Work Erratics (2017/18) Photos: Shane Tilston, Quyen Nguyen https://www.danhurlin.com/exhibitions-and-publications daily 0.75 2024-02-09 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545843868276-8Q1VZB9WUA2JFDIMIQZ2/Untitled.jpg Exhibitions/Publications Katonah Museum of Art (2010) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/69abdd7f-2c9e-459e-b192-36bc83b3dbc9/ZSH_2322.jpg Exhibitions/Publications - Make it stand out 1053 Main Street Gallery, Fleischmann’s, NY (2022) https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1618269696409-P9YG83H79XYPD33DL7TZ/IMG_4889.jpeg Exhibitions/Publications Heimbold Gallery (2020) Photos: Margaret Fox, Zach Hyman, Dan Hurlin https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545845256251-SO8WN1PMQR04D45JCQ06/PUPPET_DVD_WEB2.jpg Exhibitions/Publications https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545846343409-RQVNCB7G0N1QF8OEOSS5/Picture1.png Exhibitions/Publications https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545846674942-T0Z80AK886QLJGEFBRTC/catalogue_thumbnail.jpg Exhibitions/Publications https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545847253233-MMJ68PQ0UKH5XD77UHSW/heart_of_the_andes.jpg Exhibitions/Publications https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545847465605-GYW5Q2RQCC7DKJXFWWA1/hiroshima_Maiden.jpg Exhibitions/Publications https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545847840641-66Y8G4985W8E12Y84WCP/the_shoulder.jpg Exhibitions/Publications https://www.danhurlin.com/new-page-1 daily 0.75 2026-03-10 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/1545795517671-LD5ZZFKPE6VPZ4ANC79H/IMG_0993.jpg News https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/cba2e9f0-5fa7-480e-84a5-bc7a83e72332/IMG_5611.jpeg News - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://www.danhurlin.com/in-development daily 0.75 2025-02-28 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c2022421aef1d49b297583f/ddcb44f1-acac-40f3-a704-54ca4f5445c2/IMG_6282.jpeg In Development - Make it stand out Puppets from BISMARCK