Jonny ClockWorks
Jonathan Edward Cross, {A.K.A. Jonny ClockWorks}, is the Artistic Director of The Cosmic Bicycle Theatre and The ClockWorks, Experimental Puppetry Studios.
He founded the Cosmic Bicycle Theatre in Boston on August 1, 1989. Early productions included: S.I. Witkiewitz's "The Madman and The Nun", Molière's "The Miser", and by J.E.Cross, "Stories From the Four Corners of The Wheel". On March 1 of 1995 the company opened "The ClockWorks" experimental puppetry theatre, at #508 East 12th Street, NYC, as a home for the company. There, Cross and Co. created such works as; "the mechanical", "The Marriage of Mother Earth and Father Sky", "NetherWorld, A Morality Vaudeville", "The Alchemical Work", and "Dr. Kronopolis and the TimeKeeper Chronicles- A Space Opera".
The Company also developed miniature works, including; "Clockwork Universalis or The Marvels of the Universe", "Venus Envy- A Puppet Peep-Show", and "Thanatopsis". These pieces were performed together as "An Evening of Miniature Masterpieces". "The ClockWorks" on 12th Street, East Village, NYC, closed on October 31, 1999. The company was in residence at The World Financial Center during 2000.There they created and developed "ASSEMBLAGE of Souls ; Circus at the End of the Earth". "The Cosmic Bicycle Theatre" has been presented thrice at The Henson International Festival of Puppet Theatre, at New York City’s Downtown Arts Festival, The“P.I.F” in Zagreb, Croatia, The “Lutke Festival” Ljubljana, Slovenia, “La Fin de Siecle Festival” in Nantes, France, and were the sole U.S. Representatives at the 15th International Congress of Arts for Young Audiences in Montreal, Canada. The company has received The Off-Off Broadway Review Award for Best Production of 1996. Treceived an Award of Excellence for the Music and Sound Design of "the mechanical" at P.I.F. in Croatia.And in 2001 The Cosmic Bicycle and Director, J.E.Cross won an UNIMA International Citation of Excellence in Theater, for "Doctor Kronopolis and the TimeKeeper Chronicles". Recent works include, "ObJete’", "Edward Lear’s ABSURD-Ditties", and the forthcoming "Scenes from the Puppet FREAK-Show". "The ClockWorks" {Re-}Opened its' doors April 30, 2011 in the Columbia Waterfront District, Brooklyn, NYC.
He is an actor in The Mettawee River Company, and served as Building Assistant for Puppet Artist / Director Ralph Lee for five years, in productions that garnered two American Wing Theater Design Awards. He has performed in five productions with Janie Geiser and Company, in both NYC and LA, {including a collaboration with musician Vic Chesnutt}. He is a member of the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre, working with 100 Year-Old Marionettes, touring the USA as well as Czechoslovakia and Poland. He was a company member of HEADS, under the direction of Danny Mydlak, co-writing and performing in works at La Mama, ETC, and in CUCARACHA Theater’s UNDERGROUND SOAP. On Television, he was a Puppeteer on Disney’s “The Book of Pooh”, and COURT TV’s and on CARTOON NETWORK'S ADULT SWIM, Smoking Gun TELEVISION. In his own work appeared on MTV and M2, in Commercials and Music Videos. In 1990 he was a Guest Artist in Poland, specializing in the work of S.I.Witkiewicz, focusing on his theory of Pure Form in Theater, and meeting with internationally renowned Directors, including the late Tadeuz Kantor of the Cricot 2 Teatr. His original music for Accordion, Toy Piano, Harmonium and homemade instruments has received critical acclaim, and been the recipient of an Award of Excellence at the Puppetry International Festival in Zagrab, Croatia. His work has been seen at P.S.122, Arts at St.Ann’s, La Mama ETC, HERE, CBGB’s, Boston Center for the ARTS, and internationally in Croatia, Slovenia, Poland, The Czech Republic, Canada and France.