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Dalrymple MacAlpin
Where Do The Stories Come From?
"The enduring language of fairy tales, folklore and myth has become increasingly
relevant today; for these stories have the power to connect us to who we are and why we are.
They are the golden threads which create the bridge between waking reality and the intuitive world of dreams.
​When we find the hidden stories that lurk in the shadows of our unconscious,
the world around us begins to grow and suddenly there are infinite possibilities to explore.
​I believe these stories come out of our imagination for a reason. Something greater is at play here.
I have found no better way to translate these ideas in front of an audience than with
writing stories and singing songs and exploring the glamoury of puppetry.
Puppetry, by its very nature, unhinges the door to the fantastic and reveals the instinctual need we have to:
Believe In Magic.
Immediately we suspend disbelief and embark upon an immersive, interactive and participatory journey together.
I believe the elevated quality of this shared experience has the power to transform our world for the better."
~Dalrymple MacAlpin
Collaborators
Angela Holm
Producer/Manager
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Jill Kelly
Costumes/Textiles
Benjamin Milner
Sound Technician
Audio Engineer
Pamela Hodges
Stage and Set Design/Graphics
Camen Hodges
Stage Technician
Videographer
Jesse Krautkramer
Saxophone/Vibraphone
Stephanie Molleman
Lighting Tech/Special Effects
Dalrymple macalpin
From the dawn of his career in Detroit Michigan, singer, puppeteer, composer, storyteller, playwright and multi-instrumentalist, Dalrymple MacAlpin has been creating works stepped in the culturally rich heritage of mythology, folklore, faerie tales and the mystical traditions surrounding them.
MacAlpin's body of work consists of eight studio albums and five multi-media musical theatre productions. Throughout his various creative disciplines, MacAlpin continually reinvents his characteristic approach to singing, song-writing, puppetry and the unconventional interpretation of his signature instruments, the piano, harp and guitar.
RECORDINGS
After recording his first album, March To The Sun in 2001, MacAlpin moved from Detroit to the historic gold-rush town of Nevada City, California where he founded the medieval/psych-folk ensemble, Lasher Keen. MacAlpin wrote, recorded and released six Lasher Keen albums between the years 2006 and 2015 on record labels, Pesanta Ur-folk and Crystal Cave Records. His 8th studio album, Make Believe was released in 2019 under his own name.
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STAGED WORKS
MacAlpin wrote, directed and scored his 1st production, The Middle Kingdom, in 2015. The Middle Kingdom is based on a 12th century love story from Irish mythology, Tochmarc Etaine and was inspired by Irish poet/playwright W.B. Yeats’ stage works.
His second production, Make Believe, debuted in 2019, based on the Sisters Wild, a real family of six sisters who lived next door to the preeminent folklorists, the Brothers Grimm. These often overlooked and uncredited sisters were responsible for many of the Grimm’s most enduring fairy tales.
​MacAlpin debuted his 3rd stage production in 2019, Illumination Tales: Poetic Magic From Ancient Ireland, Stories and Songs of Finn mac Cumhaill. This intimate bardic odyssey caters to a more personal facet of MacAlpin's artistic spirit, culling together his story and song craft into a cohesive and exhaustively researched program of harp ballads and dramatic interpretative tale telling over the course of three acts.
MacAlpin’s 4th staged work The Cauldron Crone, debuted in 2019. The Cauldron Crone is a retrospective, featuring previously produced selections from Illumination Tales, Make Believe, and The Middle Kingdom. The show then showcased a new work entitled, The Cauldron Crone.
​MacAlpin debuted his 5th stage production, The Golden Thread in 2024. This production incorporates marionettes MacAlpin designed and built after studying with Czech puppet master, Miroslav Trejtnar. The Golden Thread is partly based on the Greek Myth of Er by Plato and the Welsh, Hanes Taliesin by Elis Gruffydd.
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TOURING/LIVE PERFORMANCES
Throughout Europe and America, MacAlpin's live shows have found him sharing the stage and working with artists such as: Terry Riley, John Ames, Motoko, Antonio Rocha, Bonnie Prince Billy, Faun Fables, Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, In Gowan Ring, Dawn McCarthy, The Edmund Welles Quartet, Mellissa Auf Der Maur, Oz Fritz, Jeremey Cohen and many others.
MacAlpin has performed throughout the US and internationally at notable festivals and venues including, The Skupova Plzen Puppetry Festival in the Czech Republic, The Northwest Folklife Festival, The Sierra Storytelling Festival, Noise Pop Festival, Café Du Nord in San Francisco, The New Parrish in Oakland CA, Center for the Arts in Grass Valley, CA, The Star Theater in Portland Oregon and the oldest running play house west of the Mississippi, the historic Nevada Theatre in Nevada City, CA.
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STUDIO
MacAlpin, along with his wife, son, six cats and 84 puppets (and counting) has made a home for himself in The Hollow Hill, a private studio located in the Sierra Foothills of Northern California.