The Department of Theatre and Dance presents Sarah Fornace, co-artistic director of Manual Cinema, discussing the company’s work and mission on Nov. 21. Manual Cinema is an Emmy Award-winning performance collective, design studio, and film/video production company which combines handmade shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, and innovative sound and music to create immersive stories for stage and screen.

Using vintage overhead projectors, multiple screens, puppets, actors, live feed cameras, multi-channel sound design, and a live music ensemble, Manual Cinema transforms the experience of attending the cinema and imbues it with liveness, ingenuity, and theatricality. 

The free presentation begins at 4 p.m. in the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art.

The company was awarded an Emmy in 2017 for “The Forger,” a video created for The New York Times and named Chicago Artists of the Year in 2018 by the Chicago Tribune. In 2020 they were included in 50 of Chicago theater “Rising Stars and Storefront Stalwarts” (Newcity). Their shadow puppet animations were featured in the 2021 film remake of Candyman, directed by Nia DaCosta and produced by Jordan Peele’s Monkeypaw Productions. In 2022 they premiered Leonardo! A Wonderful Show About a Terrible Monster, an adaptation of two books by celebrated children’s author Mo Willems and a live adaptation of their 2020 streaming hit A Christmas Carol.

In 2023 Manual Cinema completed production on their first self-produced short film, Future Feeling, and will be touring with folk rock band Iron & Wine in 2024 creating live visuals on stage. For a preview of their work, view their sizzle reel. 

Fornace is a director, puppeteer, choreographer, and narrative designer based in Chicago. Outside of Manual Cinema, she has worked as a performer or choreographer with Redmoon Theatre, Lookingglass Theatre Company, Court Theatre, Steppenwolf Garage, and Blair Thomas and Co. Most recently, Sarah wrote the story mode for the video game Rivals of Aether. In 2017, she directed and edited the first episode of the web series The Doula Is IN. In 2016, she directed and devised an “animotion” production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet with Rokoko Studios for HamletScen at Kromborg Castle in Elsinore, Denmark.

This event is presented by the Department of Theatre and Dance and co-sponsored by the Manetti Shrem Museum. 

The Department of Theatre and Dance is part of the UC Davis College of Letters and Science. For information about other department productions, visit theatredance.ucdavis.edu.