Meet the Sneakers
Yellow Sneaker creates original shows and music with aim of connecting with our audiences and creating a sense of community. Yellow Sneaker's performers and writers are professional puppeteers, educators and musicians. Since 2008, we have been performing to enthusiastic audiences in New York and beyond. Our weekly sing-along at Blue Marble is packed with dancing kids and their caregivers, returning week after week to sing along to original songs, oldies and traditional kids’ songs and to high five the puppets. We bring our shows and sing-alongs to schools, camps, museums, birthday parties and more!
Below meet some of the regular performers and writers at Yellow Sneaker. We also work with other guitarists and artists in and around NYC.
Ora Fruchter is a Brooklyn-based puppeteer, performer, director, writer and educator. She is the director of Yellow Sneaker Puppets the co-artistic director of Doppelskope. Doppelskope has brought original work to Dixon Place, The Tank, and The PIT (New York), Muhlenberg Summer Music Theatre (Pennsylvania) The Cell Theater and Penasco Theater (New Mexico) and the New Orleans Fringe Festival. Ora's puppeteer credits include performances at HERE Arts Center, La MaMa and St. Ann’s Warehouse.
Yoshie Fruchter is a guitar and bass player whose band, Pitom (Tzadik Records) has received critical acclaim from Jazz Times magazine, the Wall Street Journal, Guitar Player Magazine and many more. Yoshie is also a sought after freelance musician in New York City and has performed with John Zorn, Frank London, Pharoah's Daughter, David Krakauer, SoCalled, Matisyahu, among others.
Stoph Scheer has been picking things up and making them talk since they were very short (and they are very tall now). In college they worked with Figurentheater Wilde and Vogel, a German puppet company. When they are not making silly voices and writing off-kilter jokes for Yellow Sneaker, they divides their time between acting, dialect coaching, performing magic, and clowning.
Toby Singer is a composer, playwright and producer based in Brooklyn. Toby's recent compositional work includes Debate Team (which debuted at the 2016 Fort Worth Fringe Festival); Wicked Frozen (w/ Zoe Farmingdale, a Time Out New York critic's pick in 2014), and South by South Death (w/ Jared Saltiel, debuted at National Sawdust in 2016). Other recent work includes the music for a trilogy of musicals, Gruff!, Grimm!, and Growl! (known as the Grilogy), written in collaboration with Brooklyn experimental and physical theatre company Doppelskope. Toby was trained at the University of Michigan School of Music.
Ali Dineen is a musician, songwriter, visual artist and teacher based in NYC. She has been performing in New York and across the United States for the past several years, drawing upon music ranging from 1920s American jazz to Eastern European polyphony. Her lyrics are poetic and deeply personal, using narrative to draw connections between personal experience and larger histories. When not performing her original music, Ali makes linoleum prints and illustrations, puppeteers with Bread and Puppet Theater, and sings with Feral Foster. www.alidineen.com
Melissa Gordon is a performer, musician, and teaching artist in New York City. With a background in improvisational comedy and songwriting, Melissa loves playing guitar with Yellow Sneaker Puppets as it allows her to have the maximum amount of fun! She has worked with the McCarter Theatre, Kean University, The PIT, NYC Children's Theatre, Queens Theatre In The Park, Story Pirates, & the Del E Webb Performing Arts Center. You can catch her playing with Melissa & The Mannequins around town.
Caroline Lux is an actor, singer, improviser, and animal lover living in Brooklyn. You can find her performing for kids all around the city (and tri-state area) with the Story Pirates or improvising for adults weekly at the Peoples Improv Theater! She graduated with degrees in Theater and Media & Communications from Muhlenberg College. Let's have some fun!
Jordan Elman is an actor/musician based in New York City. Most recently, he performed in the National Tours of PAW Patrol Live, the Great Pirate Adventure (Nickelodeon and Vstar Entertainment) and Daniel Tiger's Neighborhood Live (PBS and Mills Entertainment). He has also performed in Doppelskope's Grimm! and Growl! and accompanied their production of Gruff! as a guitarist. Jordan earned a B.A. with a double major in Theatre and Psychology at Muhlenberg College. He freelances as a guitar/music instructor and is so happy to be a part of the Yellow Sneaker Puppets fam! www.jordanelman.com
Yonit Spiegelman is an NYC based Bassist, Producer, Composer and vocalist who is working her way up the American Music Industry. Founder and leader of the music group Foreign Hues, Spiegelman has achieved widespread success amongst her fellow musicians with intimate and unique compositions, accurate bass lines and whole-hearted productions. Spiegelman is currently working with her band and others in the NYC and the Greater Boston areas, performing, teaching privately, and teaching in selected programs of Berklee College of Music. www.yonitspiegelman.com
Testimonials
"That was a really funny band. That kangaroo has a really big mouth."
-Katherine, age 3
"You make me laugh!"
-Trixie, age 3
"Yellow Sneaker is my favorite band!"
-Rohan, while doing a somersault