EVOLVE PUPPETS has been creating innovative puppet theatre in NYC for more than two decades. In 2024, Co-Artistic Directors Tanya Khordoc and Barry Weil were invited to present the fully-revised version of their high-energy vaudeville show Secrets History Remembers in the La MaMa Puppet Festival. Their previous show They Were Called Trees was presented in developmental form in 2023's La MaMa Jump Start, and their play Home opened at The Tank NYC in 2019. Home received support from the Jim Henson Foundation, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council and the Linda & Isaac Stern Foundation, and was part of Jane Henson's Puppetry at the Carriage House program.

Evolve's puppet creations for Bated Breath Theatre Company's Chasing Andy Warhol -- including a 10-foot-tall fully walking and moving incarnation of the celebrated pop artist -- became popular tourist attractions on the streets of downtown NYC in 2022. In 2023, the giant Andy puppet (with Tanya & Barry puppeteering) was invited to walk alongside Grand Marshal Laurie Anderson in NYC's famed Greenwich Village Halloween Parade.

Evolve served as puppetry designers and associate producers for Theater East’s Devil and the Deep, a musical co-written by multi-platinum recording artist Graham Russell of Air Supply. They contributed seven unique animal puppets (made from recycled materials) to New York City Children's Theatre's The Pocket Park Kids Off-Broadway at Theatre Row, an environmentally conscious show co-created and directed by Anika Larsen (Almost Famous the Musical, Tony nominee for Beautiful: The Carole King Story).

Tanya & Barry created a giant Phoenix with 15-foot wingspan (among other puppets) for UTC61's opera/play/seder Exagoge at La MaMa. Their puppetry work was also featured in UTC61’s musical adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s Cat’s Cradle, and Dell'Arte Opera Ensemble's world premiere production of the opera Princess Maleine at La MaMa. Way back in 2006, Evolve created the world premiere production of former Czech President Vàclav Havel’s play Motormorphosis for UTC61’s Havel Festival, where they were visited backstage by President Havel himself.

During the pandemic years, Tanya & Barry pivoted to creating several short puppet films, including Light as Paper (an Official Selection at the Vienna International Film Awards, Canada's Festival of Animated Objects and the Coney Island Film Festival), as well as Once Upon a Plastic Forest (presented by La MaMa Kids Online).

Evolve has performed many other original works (written, designed and directed by Tanya & Barry) that include The Most Radiant Beauty: An Einsteinian Collage (Theater 3), Becoming (La MaMa and others), Evolution: A Tale of Friendship (La MaMa, the Lincoln Center American Living Room Festival at HERE and others), Mercy (St. Ann's Warehouse and others), and The Wizard of Ounces (written by Edward Einhorn; at La MaMa, HERE, Vermont's historic Latchis Theatre and others). They are currently developing several new works.

TANYA KHORDOC (Co-Artistic Director) (she/her) has performed, designed, built and directed puppet theater at venues such as HERE, St. Ann’s Warehouse, the Puppeteers of America National Festival, the Eugene O’Neill National Puppetry Conference, and the Children's Museum of Manhattan. She has worked with UTC61 in the 24/7 Festival and on Unauthorized Magic in Oz, and directed, designed and performed Edward Einhorn's one-woman show about synesthesia, The Taste of Blue.

She collaborated with Obie and Lucille Lortel winner Jared Mezzocchi (Vietgone) on stop-motion animation sequences for the NYC premiere of Robert Lawson's Hiroshima: Crucible of Light. Tanya also performed and voiced the character of "Phoenix" on the children’s web series Rosie’s Place, and is the creator of the upcoming children's show Meow Meow & Friends. She serves on the board of the League of Professional Theatre Women, and was formerly Vice President of the Puppetry Guild of Greater New York. In her free time, Tanya is a collage artist and songwriter.

BARRY WEIL (Co-Artistic Director) (he/him) is an actor, playwright, director, filmmaker and graphic designer in addition to his work as a puppeteer and puppet designer. Outside of Evolve, he has created puppets and masks for many theatre productions, including Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (in NYC and for Sacred Fools Theatre Co. in L.A.), The Steampunk Haunted House, Funny as a Crutch, Hope & Anchor, Unauthorized Magic in Oz, Screaming Shrubbery, Uktena, The Dance of the Praying Mantis and Feast of the Dead.

He has constructed (and occasionally inhabited) the man-eating plant "Audrey II" for multiple productions of the musical Little Shop of Horrors, and played the role of Frank Hoenniker / Puppeteer in UTC61's adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s Cat's Cradle at Soho's Walkerspace. In addition, Barry is director of Levels, Long Island's acclaimed cultural center for teenagers.