Meghan Healey, “Subterraneo: A Cruel Puppet’s Guide to Underground Living” (2010)

“…The piece is a puppet mash-up of Dante’s Inferno and real-life subway stories gathered by Ms. Healey and a half-dozen student volunteers at Queens College, where she is an assistant professor of costume and scenic design.
Plans call for Homeless Bob to guide the Commutrix — an earnest rider not unlike Ms. Healey — through the subway the way Virgil led Dante through the nine circles of hell, from Limbo to Betrayal. Along the route, they will be serenaded in Spanish by the Undead Mariachi Trio and watch beggars like Legless Joe bewail their afflictions to tug on the heartstrings and purse strings of weary commuters.
Depending on the scenes, to be written by Ms. Healey and several collaborating playwrights, Homeless Bob will be funny, friendly or furious. ‘I think of him as a modern-day New York Virgil, if Virgil was homeless in New York,’ Ms. Healey, 34, said. ‘He’s not as benevolent. He’s angry.'” [. . .]    –David Gonzalez, The New York Times, September 17, 2010