Recent Work
At a Glance
“Kill Shelter”
at Theatre of Note
Puppet Design, Construction, & Coaching
Recipient of 5 LA Drama Critics Circle Awards
Including:
BEST PUPPET DESIGN
BEST PRODUCTION
Reviews
“…crafted with much creativity and superb emotiveness by puppet designer Emory Royston…. Each animal, loving, ferocious, or wounded, has a story…”
“…the puppet’s movements are actually very realistic, and Coleen’s internal dialog with the pets brought a tear to my eye a couple of times.”
“…especially in Colleen’s scenes with designer/coach Emory Royston’s dog puppets), the ensemble presents devastating moments.… cast members proffer exceptionally lifelike maneuvering of the puppets… ”
“…three canine puppets imaginatively designed by Emory Royston, each one manipulated and voiced to deeply touching effect”
Loretty
Puppet Commission for Manny Oakley



“Nimrod”
At Theatre of Note
Special Character Design
“Bravo to Emory Royston! (I won't spoil it, but you know what you did.)”
Grayson
A Sweet Sock Puppet
“Weaver of Dreams”
Co-written and Recorded with Jack Pullman
-
Had you a dream that has spun you around?
One that seemed so surreal and yet somehow profound?
A whirlwind of whimsey with whispers of woe,
A tug at your heartstrings that pulls you in tow?
Or maybe you woke from no dreaming at all,
just faint fading glimpses too hard to recall.
Remnants of visions swept up and away,
or fresh surfaced memories insistin’ to stay.
Well, gather you well and we’ll spin you a tale
Of a spirit so steadfast and true
That soul who has gone near a century on
Beckoning dreamers like you
Up in the those ridges that touch the sky,
she sits and she sews until sunrise is nigh
Stitch after stitch, she carries along,
constantly humming her heart’s endless song
She lived in those hills before ‘pavers’ and drills
Had ripped that poor peak up in twain
Though she wasn’t the first,
and some had far worse
That’s the cost of crossin’ the grain
Singing old soul, carrying all
That which you thought you would be
Take a deep breath and let go of what’s passed
If it’s weighing you more than should be
The Weaver, they call her, whenever her holler‘s
heard echoing over the glen
With all that she’s stored, and who knows what’s more
Her hope's in her needle in thread
So - sew - sew it along
Whisper your dream to me
That which is lost isn’t always all gone
Stitched into memory
She takes pieces of her mem’ries, stitches them in line.
Prayin’ that with this act, she can stall time.
She carries a load and if truth, it be told
Its unknown how far on it goes
She found there her callin’ by hemmin’ not hawin’
No matter how large her haul growed
With what once had been crumpled, tattered, and torn,
She found she could make something fully transformed
A patchwork of hist’ry, this myst’ry unfolds
As it covers the valleys and hills
Each piece in each space holds a time and a place
A moment in time stood still
So - sew - sew it along
Whisper your dream to me
That which is lost isn’t always all gone
Stitched into memory
The strangest thing of all, though,
is when she’s singing while she sews,
With each stitch in tidy rows,
As the notes all start do-si-do,
Magic then begins to flow,
Up above and down below,
and somewhere else that we don’t know
But one thing that is plain to see
Is it makes for quite a jubilee
Countless as the needles pine
They enter your dreams just like mine
Every night a new display
But here’s the ones we’ll share today
An engineer in his reclining chair was a-drifting into dream
He dreamt him up a big garage that held a big machine
It churned and choked great clouds of smoke, yet seemed to hum a tune
It was rolling out the biscuit dough with Maggie’s apron on
Then it was gone, gone, gone with the dawn to be sewn into memory
Out stretched an old gardener to slumber off her toils
As in the day she finds her way to dream of seed and soil
Down where weeps the willow tree, she spied a strange new plant
Though small as a pea, she could plainly see its leaves were underpants
Then it was gone, gone, gone with the dawn to be sewn into memory
All tuckered out from schooling and from vigorous hours of play
Young Jimmy Lee found in his dreams himself a castaway
His island felt so much like home, with oak and dogwood trees
But the clouds up above were a drifting drove of ragged old dungarees
Then they were gone, gone, gone with the dawn to be sewn into memory
A painter sneaking snoozes at her easel late at night
Was meeting with her muses when arrived a strange new sight
The subject was a turtle, who performed a pirouette
He wore a fine silk girdle and has not stopped spinning yet
Then he was gone, gone, gone with the dawn to be sewn into memory
A banker in his nightgown, a-bedding down to sleep
Would tend to count dollar bills instead of counting sheep
He counted up a thousand, and then a thousand more,
But what he never counted on was what came through his door
It was a biscuit excavator in an apron humming tunes
A plant of underpants and a cloud of dungaroos denim blues?
and a turtle in a girdle turnin’ like a tilt-a-whirl
Then they were gone, gone, gone with the dawn to be sewn into memory
So - sew - sew it along
Whisper your dream to me
That which is lost isn’t always all gone
Stitched into memory
Windswept with wonder, they'll wake from their slumber
Her call echoing into their ears.
No one quite knowing just what they'd seen
But how they all felt could mean only one thing
The weaver had called them, her visions enthralled them
She called them while deep in their dream
These pieces we hold, some tattered, some torn
Remind us what we’ve gathered since our first morn
That which you long for or sing a sad song for,
May some day pop out of the blue
So no use begrudgin', or growin' curmudgeon
When all you ought mend for is you
Remember the good and selvage the bad
Weave in the weft, and take what is left
So - sew - sew it along
Whisper your dream to me
That which is lost isn’t always all gone
Stitched into memory
So If'n you wake in the dark of the night
And you hear a faint call on the breeze
Look to the sky and you may see the lights
In search of lost memories
Or the visions that soar, up and into and o’er
That wonderful weaver of dreams