Annie Katsura Rollins is an American artist,

scenic design Scenic design, also known as stage design or set design, is the creation of scenery for theatrical productions including Play (theatre), plays and Musical theatre, musicals. The term can also be applied to film and television productions, wher ...

er, and puppeteer. She specializes in traditional

Chinese shadow puppetry Shadow play, also known as shadow puppetry, is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment which uses flat articulated cut-out figures (shadow puppets) which are held between a source of light and a translucent screen or scrim. The cut-o ...

Early life and education

Rollins grew up in

Minneapolis Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the state's List of cities in Minnesota, most populous city. Locat ...

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

. Her mother is of Chinese and Japanese ancestry. Rollins spent a semester in China during high school. She earned a BFA in music theatre from

Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...

in 2002 and earned her MFA in scenography from the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

in 2010. During the summer of 2008, Rollins apprenticed with Master Wei of the Hua Xian Shadow Troupe in

Shaanxi Shaanxi is a Provinces of China, province in north Northwestern China. It borders the province-level divisions of Inner Mongolia to the north; Shanxi and Henan to the east; Hubei, Chongqing, and Sichuan to the south; and Gansu and Ningxia to t ...

province. There she learned techniques of carving and animating figures, publishing a blog about her experiences. Rollins was awarded a

Fulbright Fellowship The Fulbright Program, including the Fulbright–Hays Program, is one of several United States cultural exchange programs with the goal of improving intercultural relations, cultural diplomacy, and intercultural competence between the people o ...

in 2011 and spent a year in China apprenticing in traditional Chinese shadow puppetry. She had read a 2010 ''New York Times'' interview with Chinese shadow puppetry masters Cui and Wang. Rollins visited Cui and Wang's shadow figure museum in Beijing as well as seven provinces that had historically specialized in shadow puppetry. She took lessons in manipulating shadow puppets from the master of the Zhonghua Shadow Company along with many others. While in Beijing, Rollins created and performed two shadow bike tours. She apprenticed with Master Shi of

Gansu Province Gansu is a provinces of China, province in Northwestern China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeastern part of the province. The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibetan Plateau, Ti ...

and Master Liu of

Tengchong County Tengchong () is a county-level city of Baoshan City, western Yunnan province, People's Republic of China. It is well known for its volcanic activity. The city is named after the town of Tengchong which serves as its political center, previously k ...

. After her return to the United States, Rollins created the full-length work ''There's Nothing to Tell'' (没有什么可说) and performed it at the In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre in Minneapolis. It combines Chinese shadow play with North American style and presents the story of a Chinese grandmaster shadow puppeteer whose life story, spanning the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

through modern times, is told by his granddaughter.

Career

Rollins has worked with the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, Taiwan's Taiyuan Puppet Company, and the Droomtheatre in the Netherlands. Rollins was artistic director for the Continental Divide Festival's Puppet Pageant for its first two years. She created the set for Carl Flink's dance piece ''Black Label Movement''. Rollins did costume and set design for Ananya Chatterjea's ''Moreechika: Season of Mirage'' where her shadow puppets were projected onto the rear wall during performances at The Southern Theater. She also designed puppets for a puppet adaptation of the

Harlem Renaissance The Harlem Renaissance was an intellectual and cultural revival of African-American music, dance, art, fashion, literature, theater, politics, and scholarship centered in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City, spanning the 1920s and 1930s. At the ti ...

play ''The Purple Flower''. She has also taught DIY Shadow Puppetry workshops at Open Eye Figure Theatre in Minneapolis and the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. During her time in Los Angeles, Rollins had a brief acting career, appearing in the 2006 film '' Americanese'' and the series ''

Curb Your Enthusiasm ''Curb Your Enthusiasm'', also known colloquially simply as ''Curb'', is an American television comedy of manners created by Larry David that premiered on HBO with an hour-long special in October 17, 1999, followed by 12 seasons broadcast from Oc ...

'', ''

Big Day ''Big Day'', originally titled ''A Day in the Life'', is an American television sitcom that first aired on ABC from November 28, 2006, to January 30, 2007. The series was co-produced by Josh Goldsmith and Cathy Yuspa and directed by Michael S ...

'', '' Threshold'' and the musical short ''Damn the Past!'', among others. Rollins lives in Montreal where she is pursuing an interdisciplinary PhD in the Humanities at

Concordia University Concordia University () is a Public university, public English-language research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College (Montreal), Loyola College and Sir George Williams Universit ...

. She is the creator of the informational website chineseshadowpuppetry.com.

References

External links

Rollins' Chinese Shadow Puppetry websiteIn the Dark Again
Rollins' fieldwork blog
Personal website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rollins, Annie Katsura Living people American puppeteers Carnegie Mellon University College of Fine Arts alumni Concordia University alumni Artists from Minneapolis University of Minnesota alumni Year of birth missing (living people) Shadow play Female puppeteers American artists of Chinese descent American artists of Japanese descent