Good News York by Growth Mode Content - GNY EP.201 | feat. Andrea Dotto with The Dusty & Dott Company

Episode Date: July 17, 2026

Andrea Dato on The Dusty and Dot Company, Puppetry, and The Hurt Monster Premiering in Syracuse On Good News York, host interviews Andrea Dato, president and co-founder of The Dusty and Dot Company, a central New York multidisciplinary creative studio focused on theater programming, education, and puppetry. Andrea shares the company’s origins with her husband and co-founder Brendan Malafronte, including their characters Dot and Dusty, and discusses their recent work on Syracuse Stage’s Frozen, where Brendan played Olaf and Andrea understudied and performed twice. She previews The Hurt Monster, a Jim Henson Foundation Family Grant–supported world premiere at Red House Art Center on September 12–13, about a girl, Kaya, in a starless world who partners with the Hurt Monster to transform hurt into healing light. The production includes a healing-sound soundscape by Tyeesha McNeal and engineered remote-controlled illumination by Think Variant, plus a post-show talkback; details at thehurtmonster.com. 00:00 Community Powered Creativity 00:27 Meet Andrea Dato 00:42 What Is Dusty and Dot 01:17 Frozen Puppetry Stories 02:58 Hurt Monster Announcement 03:25 Story Themes And Audience 04:57 Creative Team And Sound 06:46 Engineering And Light Effects 07:42 Puppet Design And Operation 08:43 Building A Creative Career 11:09 Broadway Debut And Drive 11:22 Advice For Creatives 13:31 Show Dates And Tickets 14:58 Wrap Up And Sponsors

Honestly, I think how a show like the Hurt Monster is coming together is community. It's because we're here and we're rooted that now all of the ideas don't have to just come between me and Brendan. They're coming from outside collaborators. And also it's, I think it's a curiosity of, I don't know how this will serve me, but I wonder what I'll learn from experiencing it. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Good News York today. My guest is Andrea. Andrea, welcome to the show. Hi, nice to be here.

Absolutely. Can you go ahead and introduce yourself? Yes. My name is Andrea Dotto, and I'm the president and co-founder of the Dusty and Dot Company. The Dusty and Dot Company. Can you tell me about what that is? Okay, so we are a multidisciplinary creative studio that's rooted right here in Central New York. And we focus on theater programming, theater education, and really,

all roads lead to puppetry at the dusting dot company. So we focus on bringing puppetry to places that have maybe never experienced it before. Awesome. I've heard that you just wrapped up with a big show that many people might be familiar with. And then you also have something on the horizon here too coming up. Yes. So I don't know, you can talk about whichever one you would like. Which one do you think would be more fun to talk about?

My husband, Brendan, Malafronti, is the co-founder with me of the dusting dot company. We actually got the name because our first kind of characters to really take shape were my last name's Dotto, so I was Dott. And a puppet dog named Dusty, who Brendan, puppeteers and voices. So that's where our company got at start. And we both were actually just in Frozen at Syracuse stage. Brendan was Olaf and I was his understudy. So I got to go on for two shows. So I got to make my puppetry debut, which was.

was thrilling. And, I mean, having watched him and his work for so many years, he makes puppetry look easy and nuanced and incredible. And so I had really big shoes to fill. But I got a good grade. So, I mean, I got a good score from him. So I felt pretty good about that. Wonderful.

Yes. Is that like, are you doing the lines too when you're puppeteering? Yeah. So that was a musical. Can you give us one of the lines? Like, here we go. I'm sorry. I don't want me to put you on the spot.

Okay. What, what, oh, um, oh, gosh. What were my lines? No, evidently I can't. Got it. Okay. Do you have a song, though? Oh, yes, yes.

If you put me in summer, then I'll be a puddle, right? That's right. Bees'll buzz, kids will blow dandelion fuzz, and I'll be doing whatever snow does in summer. Nice. Love it. Beautiful. Right now. actor. Once the show closes, you have to like release all of that.

For sure. Yeah. Get it out. I love that. That's hilarious. Cool. Okay. So what is coming up? You said that you have a new show coming up premiering soon. Tell me about that. So the Destiny and Dot Company got the Jim Henson Foundation's family grant for 2026. And we are bringing a world premiere of a show called The Hurt Monster to Red House, which is actually right down the road. And we're bringing that in September, September 12th and 13th at Red House Art Center. Beautiful. Could you give us a teaser about what the Hurt Monster is about? Yeah. So the Hurt Monster, the story is about a girl named Kaya, and Kaya lives in a world where there are no stars. The stars have disappeared, and it is her

internal mission to figure out how to bring them back. And she does this in partnership with this mystical creature that she finds, and that's the hurt monster. And they go on this journey to kind of take a world that's full of darkness and bring it back to light. And so kind of like what our social and emotional threads are is like how do we, when we carry hurt, how can we transform that into light? How can we take the shadowy big feelings and somehow heal them and let them pass through our bodies?

Awesome. That's really cool. Who is the show for? Is it targeted probably children? You know, everything with Dusty and that, we feel like it's for the young and the young at heart. And especially with the hurt monster, I think it will be a wonderful, like,

a tool for young people to understand their emotions. But then it also lets their parents and their grandparents and the culture around them kind of recognize, like, oh, I feel that too. And that's a conversation for when we drive home, you know. Or even when the big feelings show up on the playground, you can be like, well, let's think about, on this thing about the hurt monster.

And so hopefully it's for the whole family. Yeah. Awesome. Very cool. Did you guys write the show? So Lane Coons wrote the show, and Brendan and Lane actually did theater over a decade ago. And Lane had this idea for a children's book,

and he shared it with Brendan, and Brendan just kind of held onto it in the back of his brain. And then when we wanted to make something new that didn't really center Dusty and Dot, in particular, the Hurt Monster. was just like kind of kept showing up. And so then we took this as an opportunity to bring it to life.

Cool. And we're bringing on Taisha McNeil. She is a sound wellness practitioner here in Syracuse. And she'll be making kind of the soundscape of the show. So the hurt monster is about processing emotion. So we're going to be using healing sound instruments to kind of amplify whatever noises he makes and when he's healing the instruments that are used underneath him will have resonance that can hopefully kind of bring a healing experience to the audience as well. Oh, how cool. Yeah. That's

awesome. You've got a soundscape artist. The first soundscape artist I ever met was from Syracuse and I was at a really cool event and he was like, yeah, I'm a soundscape artist. What is that? I mean, the first time I had the experience done around me, there was, this is maybe, oh, strange detail. But I, like, had, like, my ear was clogged, and Taisha made these chimes ring around my ear. And I literally could hear again. I was like, okay, I'm a believer. I'm sold. Cool. Yeah. Let's work together. No, I don't know. I always hear stuff about that, right? Like, the certain resonant frequencies. I really want one of those flutes that has, like, the two, like, what is it, like, the bifasal flute or whatever, I think or something. And it, like,

resonates at two different. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The dissonance, like, is, like, supposed to be good for you or something. I don't know. I really want to. So we have like the sound therapy that's going to be happening. And then we're also working with an engineering firm up in Phoenix, New York, called Think Variant. And they are working with us so that all of the illumination of the Hurt Monster, when he starts to, one of his powers that I think we can all have is to help others who are in pain. So when the Hurt Monster potentially touches a wilted flower, he can heal it back to life. But in doing that, he gets fatigued. The team at Think Variant, they're going to help us when he's healing the plant or there's

going to be this light effect that kind of runs through his body that's remote controlled by the puppeteer. And so that the puppeteer can manipulate not only the physical features of the puppet, but like his emotional ecosystem as well. How cool. It's going to be awesome. What does the public kind of look like? Is it like a human sized or is it small?

Yes. It started off like the things in our workshop, they kind of become dot size. So like five feet and bigger or five feet and smaller. I'm the like ruler. Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, I'm like the yardstick kind of. And the hurt monster.

How many dots large is this fun? That's awesome. Honestly. I love it. So the hurt monster was around five feet tall and now he's for this next version. he's going to be a little bit smaller so that he can be operated by one puppeteer and also an assist puppeteer when needed. But bringing it back to Frozen, the way the Olaf puppet was constructed where the puppeteer had manipulated the puppet's feet with his own feet, we're going to do a similar kind of thing with the hurt monster. So Brendan will kind of step into the shoes and then there will be a harness.

that will hold the upper body. How cool. Very cool. How does one get into this line of work? I mean, because it seems, I mean, you're telling me you're working with a creative engineering firm. You're working with a soundscape artist. You're producing a show at the Red House. Yes.

I mean, to me, that's like, okay, cool. That sounds like it takes money, time away from, like, working at an office, right, that you've carved out, you know? Yes. Yes. That's probably a difficult endeavor to begin. So can you tell me about that? It's, I, I feel like I'm a stitcher in like stitching together a creative living and a creative experience of life. So my office looks different than most cubicles, you know, there's a lot of ideas thrown around. But honestly, I think how a show like the Hurt Monster is coming together is

community. It's, it's because we're here and we're rooted that now all of the ideas don't have to just come between me and Brendan. They're coming from outside collaborators. And also, it's, I think it's a curiosity of, I don't know how this will serve me, but I wonder what I'll learn from experiencing it. You know, when I met Taisha, for example, the goal was not for her to work on the hurt monster, but by knowing her and knowing her authentic passion to create positive change through the arts, then when it's time to produce a show, you're like, oh, I know someone.

I know who to call. Exactly. It's the best, yeah, cool. And before, as far as like the path that got me here, I'm from Syracuse, and I heard this expression once that, like, people that are from upstate have an upstate burn where, like, they can, they can, they were close to the city,

you know, New York City. And it wasn't too far away, these, like, big ideas. I mean, you were sharing before we started that one of your guests was an S&L writer. It's like, you know, that proximity to the pulse, I think, made us very focused people. I'll speak for myself. And so I knew I wanted to go to Broadway, go down to New York City, try it for Broadway show. I was lucky enough to make my Broadway debut and have those experiences. And I think it just kind of instill the backbone and a tenacious energy, tenacious energy.

that keeps me curious yeah and to make it happen cool how wonderful what was your broadway debut i made my debut in bandstand in 2017 and got to perform on the tonies and wow really yeah it was such a throw that's awesome yeah very cool do you have any words of advice to young people who and let's even say not like young young people right but let's say like people who are they they see your creative career here in central New York and they're like, I have a choice. I'm going to, which college do I pick? Do I pick the cool creative school or do I go and I, you know, become a plumber like my dad wants me to do. Well, okay, speaking of dads, my dad, when I went to school for musical theater, he was in insurance. So he was literally like mitigating risk for his career. And here I am doing this

very risky thing. And he wanted me to have a backup. And I said, like, if I have a fallback, I will fallback. Now that was because like I had to kind of put my blinders on and and climb the mountain and I think that's important for everybody. I mean maybe the thing you want to do is being an electrician and where those kind of jobs that make the world go around are so vital. And I think whatever is calling from inside like that is the thing you have to experience. You have to see it through in some way. And I don't think that just takes like whimsy and passion. I think even something like musical theater took a lot of scheduling, a lot of managing, like kind of making it your own career, you know, even though it's kind of this left-sided right-side brain, like you have to have

both to really make it work, I think. Yeah. Yeah, you got to show up. You got to have the logistics to, you know, here's my experience. Here's my resume. I'm going to show up to the auditions. I'm going to apply for the right audition. I'm going to find the right auditions to go show up to. Right. And I think it's like, yes, luck is so much, but you have to be prepared for when that moment. I actually got to work with Andy Blankinbuehler on bandstand.

And he said some advice to me that like you don't have to try for everything at 100%. But when you really want something, you have to be ready for it. And that readiness comes with preparation. Cool. Awesome. I love that advice. That's really nice advice. Beautiful. What can people expect? Who should come to the show? And when is it? Where can they learn more about it? Please. So you can come to theherpmonster.com to find out more information.

And the shows will be on September 12th and 13th. We're going to do two shows on Saturday and one show on Sunday with a talk back from all of the creative team. So you'll hear from the engineers, Taisha, and, um, then the creatives involved with the show. You know, I really think it's a show for everyone. I think families that have one little kid that will be really fascinated by the puppetry and maybe they have that older brother

who is crossing his arms. Like I still think that brother will be fascinated by all of the steam engineering that goes into the show. And yeah, I think there's going to be takeaways for everybody in the family. That's so cool. I love that there's an engineering firm here in, like, upstate New York that specializes in, like, stage production and stage production? Well, you know, they've made props for, you know, American High and other artistic ventures up here, but then they also make, like, pest control products.

So they do everything. Bridges and other things, like, infrastructure and things that are. In a different way, important to culture. Sure, yeah, of course. Yeah, they deliver medicine. Exactly. But I need that, too. So that's good.

Wonderful. Well, Andrea, thank you so much for your time and thank you for coming by and telling us about your projects. I mean, that sounds really cool. And I'm excited to learn more about the show because that sounds really cool. Yes, you'll have to come. Yeah, I want to. September. It sounds great.

Thank you so much for having me. Absolutely. Guys, thank you for watching. Ladies and gentlemen, Good News York is a production put on by ClickStream Studios. We are here in the new spaghetti warehouse location. And we are a full-service video marketing agency. if you need some help figuring out what you need to be posting on your social media, you can book some time with me.

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