DUMBSTRUCK takes viewers to Ft. Mitchell, Kentucky, the ventriloquism capital of the world, to attend the annual Vent Haven Convention, the world’s oldest and largest gathering ventriloquism gathering. For over thirty years, the art of ventriloquism has been celebrated at this festival, where professional ventriloquists from all over the world come to expand the art and keep it alive and well by teaching it to those who are interested in learning about it or looking for ways to improve their skills. DUMBSTRUCK focuses on five different performers who attend the convention and follows them as they pursue their ultimate goal of becoming a professional ventriloquist.

The music for DUMBSTRUCK is composed by Daniel Licht. Upon graduating from Hampshire College in Massachusetts, where he studied composition, jazz, and world music, Daniel Licht moved to New York City and established himself as a musical artist in the Lower East Side creative music scene. Using New York as a base, he traveled to Germany, Holland and Northern Europe, performing and composing music for theatre and dance companies. His studies took him the other direction around the globe traveling to Japan and Indonesia, where he studied the music of the gamelan orchestra on the islands of Java and Bali. In New York City, he could be seen playing jazz with Don Cherry, Jaki Byard, and David Amram or performing new music for the gamelan orchestra (indonesian traditional instruments) with Barbara Benary’s group “Gamelan: Son of Lion”.