ENGLISH WEBSITE
MINI BIOGRAPHY
A solo street and stage artist, Genifer Gerhardt has been working with miniature puppet theater since 2005. She is a clown, puppeteer, writer, actress and audiovisual creator. A wanderer.
And a mother.
She has performed in all 26 Brazilian states and has also presented her shows in Argentina, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Bolivia and Portugal. From streets to penitentiaries, from schools to major festivals. Encounters. Real and profound encounters.
THEATER / PERFORMANCE
visual poetry • miniature puppet theater • urban intervention
theater and circus in movement and sound
WOMAN-BIRD
A woman who takes flight. She enters neighborhoods, squares, schools and doorways, bringing visual enchantment as both strength and capture the greatness and the minuteness,. Without the use of words, how can visual stories be told through flights and sounds?
A performance, theatrical piece and urban intervention using miniature puppets and small stories, turning the streets into a meeting point to speak about freedom and enchantment. The freedom of women, the beauty of small things Of what seems big but is in fact tiny. Of what appears small yet reveals itself as immense.
Woman-Bird. Where do flights go? Where do stories blow?
*Wordless performance. Suitable for presentation in any country and any language.
TECHNICAL CREDITS
Direction, puppets and performance: Genifer Gerhardt
Costume design: Márcia Seibel and Genifer Gerhardt
Original soundtrack: Sérgio Bai and Nina Nicolaiewsky
Small guitar: Guigo Alvarez
Contact juggling consultancy: Laura Fernandes
Photography and filming: Fábio Zambom
Four nominations at the 2025 Açorianos Theater Awards
Best Direction
Best Actress
Best Playwriting
Best Costume Design
Winner in the category
“Best Costume Design”
TINY BRAZIL
THEATRICAL PERFORMANCE
There are stories from Bahia, and there are also stories from Tocantins. North, South, Northeast, Center-West, every corner of Brazil. All woven together like a grandmother's patchwork quilt: back and forth.
"Tiny Brazil" is a Miniature Puppet Theater show that tells the stories of people. People that Genifer met during her travels across Brazil—a deep and profound Brazil. People she encountered through eyes, ears, and emotions.
Inhabiting her pockets, the miniature articulated puppets carry the stories of each person and each feeling. They carry the grandeur that resides in the details.
A show that speaks, almost in a whisper, of our immense smallness.
*A theatrical performance presented in Portuguese or Spanish. Possibility of presentation in other languages with the assistance of translators.
Direction, miniature puppet creation, and performance: Genifer Gerhardt.
Script: Genifer Gerhardt, based on real stories.
Costume Design: Marciana (Marciana Atelier).
Musical Coaching (accordion): Renato Müller.
Mask: Viviana Schames.
Photography: Fábio Zambom and Rafaela Piccinin.
CREDITS:
2013 Açorianos Theater Awards
Best Show
Best Actress
Coordenação de Artes Cênicas -
Prefeitura de Porto Alegre
WORKSHOPS AND COURSES
From short workshops to in-depth courses on creating miniature puppets. For adults or children, with or without experience in arts and crafts.
Workshops offered in Portuguese or Spanish. They may also be offered in other languages with translation into Portuguese.
Creating Articulated Miniature Puppets (adult audience)
This workshop introduces the study of miniatures, from the smallest theater in the world, known as Lambe-Lambe Theater, to possibilities of using miniatures on stage or in video through real-time animation. Through games and clay modeling, participants are invited to experiment with creating, crafting and animating tiny puppets. The workshop seeks to recognize in each participant's universe an inexhaustible source of artistic creation.
Puppet theater experience (children)
A short workshop where children experiment with puppet making by modeling small heads or finger puppets. Through games and creative participation, the puppets are presented in a pleasant and playful environment open toimagination. At the end, each child takes home the puppet they created.
LITERATURE
Book “Small Brazil”
(adult literature)
A travel diary of a woman artist and a boy crossing Brazil in a motorhome.
272 pages. Libretos Publishing, 2017.
Book “Barquinho Menino”
(children's literature)
Can distance or grief dance within us to the point of making us fall silent? This book approaches this delicate theme with enchantment and lightness so that we may move forward with eyes full of new beginnings, affection andhonesty.
Written and illustrated by Genifer Gerhardt.
Saíra Editorial. São Paulo, 2024.
Creation, filming, scriptwriting and editing of video art, especially in connection with puppets and original poetry.
AUDIOVISUAL
“girl"
“porto alegre"
Winner of the Motif Award 2018 for Best Mobile Production in Alaska
“Seu João”
Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul
Brasil
genifergerhardt@gmail.com
+55 51 98177 2525