This performance is a part of a work in progress. The company is interested in the history and the future of the 9th Ward and we would like to be in touch with you. If you have stories related to Mother Catherine’s legacy, if you live or have lived in the area where this performance is taking place, we would appreciate your thoughts on the show, any memories about the neighborhood you'd care to share, and what you'd like to see happening in the area going forward. We would like to make this celebration of Mother Catherine’s work an annual event. Our goal is to add a ‘living voices’ segment to the show and we want to hear from you. 

To share your experience and get involved please take a moment to respond to the survey attached here OR

You can write to us at Neworleansgiantpuppetfestival@gmail.com

Please use the subject heading: ‘Mother Catherine in the Park’

Much love and thanks! - Pandora and The Mudlarks

Playwright, Director- Pandora Andrea Gastelum , Sound design- Jack Norcross , Lighting design- Steve Gilliland

Puppeteers 

Samille Ganges, Pandora Andrea Gastelum, Monica R. Harris, Giani Jones, Elizabeth Seleen  and Sean Walsh 

The Mother Catherine Band

Salvatore "Sally Baby" Geloso (BL guitar/ vocals), Zach Valentine ( Sousaphone), Malcolm "Sticks" Morris ( bass drum), Izzy Chase ( Piano), Nicholas Harrison ( Clarinet), Banjo Bergfeld ( Trumpet), Gregory Moon Veals ( Trombone)

‘Mother Catherine and The Temple of the Innocent Blood’

Written and Directed by Pandora Gastelum

a work in ongoing development

The latest puppet operetta by New Orleans’ own Mudlark Puppeteers, this work is a celebration of the life and legacy of local folk hero, activist and spiritual leader Mother Catherine Seals. This is the story of a black woman’s ascension to glory through a life dedicated to healing through spirit.

In the Jim Crow South, Mother Catherine Seals came to hold sway over an interracial flock numbering in the thousands. Her spiritual tenets would be the foundation for one of the largest American religious organizations of the early twentieth century. Her unique style of  musical worship, blending Gospel with African drumming and Jazz, would give life to music previously unimagined. But who was Mother Catherine? And why did so many people of different races, classes, genders and ages follow her word as wisdom? Through large scale rod and shadow puppetry and the music of the day, “ Mother Catherine and The Temple of the Innocent Blood” plays out these questions and the threads of life at which they tug, in vivid sound and color.