Mindy Escobar-Leanse
Mindy Escobar-Leanse (born January 5, 1988) is an American actress and puppeteer based in New York City. Although originally from El Paso, Texas, Escobar-Leanse has performed all over the country and several parts of Europe. She is an alumna of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, class of 2009.[1]
Mindy Escobar-Leanse | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 5, 1988 El Paso, Texas, United States |
| Occupation | Actress, puppeteer |
| Language | English |
| Alma mater | American Academy of Dramatic Arts |
| Notable awards | 2012 Eugene O'Neill Puppet Pandemic Scholarship 2018 Outstanding Moment of Puppetry |
| Spouse | Georgina Escobar |
| Website | |
| www | |
Early life
Escobar-Leanse was born in Dallas, Texas, in 1988. She moved to El Paso, Texas, when she was a year old. Raised by a mother who owned a party decorating company, Escobar-Leanse grew up in a household that always emphasized creating things by hand and reusing materials around the house. This greatly influenced her eventual career in puppetry, which focuses on utilizing recyclable material.[2]
Escobar-Leanse began acting at the age of four at the El Paso Jewish Community Center. At the age of six, she joined Kids-N-Co, a theater company geared towards hands-on production training for young people.[3] She stayed with this company until she was 12 years old.
Escobar-Leanse remained in El Paso until she was 19, when she moved to New York City.
Education and training
After receiving a scholarship through the University Interscholastic League, Escobar-Leanse attended the University of Texas at El Paso in the year 2006, where she studied theater for a year.[2] In 2007, she moved to New York City to attend the American Academy of Dramatic Arts.[1] There, she learned a wide range of acting techniques, including the Alexander movement technique, which has contributed to her puppetry. She graduated in the year of 2009.
In the year of 2012, Escobar-Leanse was the recipient of the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center's Pandemic Scholarship, allowing her to attend the annual National Puppetry Conference. She continued to attend the conference for two more years. Under the guidance of Chinese rod puppeteer Hua Hua Zhang[4] and Sesame Street performer Martin P. Robinson, Escobar-Leanse's acting career began to incorporate puppetry.[2]
Career
Acting work
After graduating in 2009, Escobar-Leanse began work in various acting roles. In the year of 2011, she began work with playwright Georgina Escobar on her play The Ruin. Other works with Escobar include roles in the plays The Ash Tree, Sweep, The Unbearable Likeness of Jo, Semity, and Jones, Species Human, Then They Forgot About the Rest, and Alebrijes.[5] It was her performance as Sybil Rosenblum in Then They Forgot About the Rest that earned Escobar-Leanse her Actors' Equity Association card.
Other selected acting credits include The Tibetan Book of the Dead, Egg Layers, and A Ribbon About a Bomb.[5]
These works have been supported by various theater companies, such as INTAR, Milagro, Lincoln Center, the Bushwick Starr, Exquisite Corpse Company, Dixon Place, and many more.[6]
Puppetry work
Maniacal Works
Escobar-Leanse is the cofounder of the company Maniacal Works, a puppet company geared towards connecting artists around the world.[7] With this company, she toured Europe for six weeks in 2012, performing with self-created puppets and collaborating with various other artists in different art forms.
Puppet Shakespeare
Escobar-Leanse's work with the company Puppet Shakespeare Players began in 2012. Her work with the Puppet Shakespeare Players includes Puppet Hamlet in 2012, Puppet Romeo and Juliet in 2013 and 2017, and Puppet Titus Andronicus in 2014.[8] Escobar-Leanse was lauded for her work in Puppet Titus Andronicus in the New York Times article "Shakespeare with Strings, the Silly Kind":
As Titus’s daughter, Lavinia — usually a subordinate victim role — Mindy Leanse does wonders. Lavinia may lose her hands and tongue, but Ms. Leanse turns her puppet, an innocent red countenance surrounded by curly blond locks, into a marvel of movement and guttural utterances who sticks up for herself.[9]
Her role in the Puppet Shakespeare Players has grown from performer to puppet wrangler to puppet captain over the years.
The Puppet Kitchen
Escobar-Leanse began work with The Puppet Kitchen in 2015, on the LG Corporation Twin Wash National Commercial. This involved handling two fifteen-tall puppets performing in Times Square seven times in one day.[10]
In 2016, Escobar-Leanse was one of three ensemble members in The Puppet Kitchen's production of A Soldier’s Tale at The Bushwick Starr.[5]
In 2017, Escobar-Leanse was an ensemble member in The Puppet Kitchen's production of Little Red Fish at Theatre Row. Later on in the same year, Escobar-Leanse worked with The Puppet Kitchen in their production of the Carnival of the Animals for The Little Orchestra's Society, a part of the New York Philharmonic.[5]
Other notable works
In 2014, Escobar-Leanse toured nationally for nine months with Dinosaur Train Live under direction of John Tartaglia, as the role of Tiny.[5]
In 2016, Escobar-Leanse was the assistant stage manager, puppet wrangler, and understudy of the Off-Broadway production of The Very Hungry Caterpillar. The show broke box office records, and has been nominated for a Drama Desk Award.[2]
Some of Escobar-Leanse's most recent works include Mouse King and The Last Rat of Theresienstadt. Both have been touring since 2017, with The Last Rat of Theresienstadt taking her to Maine, Poland, Bulgaria, Israel, and more. Her work as a puppeteer in The Last Rat of Theresienstadt has won Escobar-Leanse the 2018 award of Outstanding Moment of Puppetry at the Lalka Festival in Warsaw, Poland.[2][11][12][13]
Activist work
Escobar-Leanse states that she is always looking to utilize the arts to creatively shine a light on the issues in our society that need to be rectified.[2] Her work in The Last Rat of Theresienstadt is a perfect example of this:
While the subject matter is the Holocaust, whose victims we honor through remembrance of that time, our themes are very relevant today, with anti-Semitism on the rise and bigotry and racism creating chasms between people struggling to live as neighbors in countries all over the world.[13]
Escobar-Leanse has also been an actress and puppeteer with the Wildlife Conservation Society since 2015. She helps bring environmental education to children throughout New York City. Also in 2015, Escobar-Leanse performed at the Bronx Zoo in Reusable the Musical, a play written by John Tartaglia.[2]
Outside of performances, Escobar-Leanse also holds workshops on how to create puppets out of recyclable material. These workshops stress the importance of providing another life to things once thought of as trash.[2] She has held such workshops in New York City, Portland, and Mexico City.[2]
Personal life
In 2016, Escobar-Leanse married playwright Georgina Escobar. The two have co-founded One Blue Cat, collaborating Escobar's writing and directing skills with Escobar-Leanse's performing and puppetry skills.[5]
References
- Yumpu.com. "AADA Alumni Kim Cattrall and David Eigenberg of Sex and the City ..." yumpu.com. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
- "About". Mindy Leanse. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
- "Kids N Co. Reviews and Ratings | El Paso, TX | Donate, Volunteer, and Review | GreatNonprofits". greatnonprofits.org. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
- "Beijing-born puppeteer Hua Hua Zhang at Asian Arts Initiative". Knight Foundation. Retrieved 2019-12-16.
- "m.s.e.l._resume_2019" (PDF).
- "About". G E O R G I N A E S C O B A R. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
- "Maniacal Works". www.facebook.com. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
- "Puppet Shakespeare". Puppet Shakespeare. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
- Webster, Andy (2014-08-16). "Shakespeare With Strings (the Silly Kind)". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
- "History". puppetkitchen. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
- "THE LAST RAT OF THERESIENSTADT". Ko Festival of Performance. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
- "Last Rat of Theresienstadt". Center Stage Israel. Retrieved 2019-12-17.
- "Last Rat of Theresienstadt". Hilary Chaplain. Retrieved 2019-12-17.