3 Puppet Pieces -1

OK, LOVE YOU, BYE
actor puppeteer: Gavin Cummings
music Gwendolyn Rooker
Studio Theatre UCONN
24 March 2016

The initial entrance by Gavin Cummins, carrying a bright light on a piece of wood, brings us immediately into the piece. He enters through the back of the house muttering to himself, the character seems insane, homeless, ragged  and we feel we are in a dangerous place. The character, Cummins, then mounts the stage and begins the body of the work. He uses shadows well and creates a stage on his chest against which is another shadow puppet.

The voice and intonation of Cummings leave us with a sense of emptiness and loss. It is a false cheer that we sometimes adopt in the face of tragedy that opens the heart of the audience to what is about to take place. There are several astounding images. The work would have been more dense if the spoken words had been a bit richer, although the repetition of the title phrase took on layers of tragic, and forlorn meaning as they were spoken over and over again. 

This performance was a preview and one expects that on opening night the elements of the piece were more tightly woven together.

Puppetry Slam at the Ballard Institute

Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry

1 Royce Circle, Mansfield, CT

The level of preparation for performance in a particular space is often a reflection of the level of respect a performer has for the venue.   There are no small venues only small performances.

The puppeteer is part of the performance.   

      I would even go so far as to say that the puppeteer is part of the puppet.  The physical and emotional disposition of the performer is as important as that of the puppet. Placement of feet and angle of head are as significant as the placement of the hands.  To ignore this is to invite disaster.

      If you are manipulating a marionette you must, of course, think about how the sweep of the arms will affect the movement and expression of the marionette.  But how one is centered, how one is balanced on the feet (maybe the balls of the feet) and the epaulement of the shoulders, all play into the final stage picture.

     This is all the more important if the puppeteers are visible to the audience.

Sometimes a puppeteer is inside the puppet and the center of gravity of the puppet is not the same as the puppet itself.  And certainly if the puppet is not warn by the puppeteer then the there are 3 centers of gravity to consider.

They are the center of gravity of:

·                                                             the puppet

·                                                             the puppeteer

·                                                             the combined figure of the puppeteer and the puppet when considered as a unit.  

       It doesn’t matter if the puppeteer is wearing traditional black, or baggy overalls and mismatched socks.  What matters is that once the performance begins the performer must be aware that everything counts, there are no time outs, and that everything is part of the performance. 

Whatever you choose to do or say is okay, but everything you do is saying something.

The Ballard Puppet Institute was busy on 11 July 2015. 

 There was an opening of a new exhibit curated by Anna Fitzgerald:

"The Work That Follows: 50 Years of UConn Puppeteers"

As part of the Saturday Afternoon Puppet Show series there were two performances of "The Nature of Nature" by Anna Fitzgerald and Gavin Cummins.  In the evening there was a more adult oriented UConn Alumni Puppet Slam.

At the Slam:

            Anna Fitzgerald presented a humorous meditation on the game of rock paper scissors.  She used those items as performing objects and provided the voices.  She is also curator of the performances at the slam, of the large retrospective exhibit, and was the creator of the longer performance that was presented twice earlier in the day.  WOW ! Anna Fitzgerald has stamina, creativity, and knowledge of both the history and current trends in her field.  I bet she was tired at the end of the night.

           Karen Huizingh manipulated her creature with humor and skill in a “Now you see monkey now you don’t” marionette show.  The small stuffed animal up stage left was difficult to see for those who were not in the front row.  The piece has great potential.

           Sarah Nolen presented a video that she created at the O’Neill Center reminiscent of a Busby Bekeley dance number.    It was beautifully lit and staged for the camera.

          

            Hua Hua Zhang offered us a view of  “Mothers Love” that was gently humorous and touching.  She worked her body as much as her puppet.  She was dressed in black and every movement of her body and every part  of her body was interacting with the hand puppets in her piece.  Hua Hua Zhang gave us an object-lesson in how a performer must pay attention to the most minute detail.  She is aware of and every part of her body from the tip of her toe to the top of her head.

            Amy Rush’s Wondertoast wore a cape made of a Wonderbread wrapper with red and blue dots.  Her script was well written and was exactly right for the piece.  With assistance from Sarah Nolen (who has a liltingly ironic Texas drawl) she kept us attentive to the plot and the movements of her performing objects.
            Jean Marie Keevins video of a girl with a problem of liverwurst in grade school had a not-for-school-kids flavor to her piece.  
            Jim Napolitano closed the show with some very nice cut outs and shadows and language that would have parents pulling their children from the room if it were done in a different venue.

This was the first puppet slam in the new space and is an auspicious beginning of a long line of slams to come. Funding for this event is made possible in part by the Puppet Slam Network.  The exhibit in the museum will be open through November first 2015.                       

Don't Yell FIRE In A Crowded War

Speak Up. Speak Out. Bread & Puppet Theatre

Benton Museum  CT

May 28, 2015 to Oct.11 2015

reviewed by
Edmond Chibeau

Large Puppets, posters, and prints take up your personal space and crowd your intuition when you first walk into the show that opened tonight at the Benton.

Executive director Nancy Stula has a reputation for bringing in smart shows and collaborating with smart people.  She worked with John Bell, the creative and knowledgeable Director of the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry to arrange a great “Bread & Puppet” exhibit at the museum on the UConn campus. 

Peter and Elka Schumann along with several Bread and Puppet regulars were present at the opening of the show at the Benton. 

Peter gave a moving talk.  By that I mean he moved around the room while he was speaking.  He walked with his fiddle and gave an impromptu free screech about each of the elements of the show.

Many of the pieces recalled important moments of oppression and social insurrection.  As well as Bread & Puppet stock characters such as the Washer Woman and her consort, and the Garbage Man, the works remembered:  Chico Mendez, a rubber tapper and union organizer, who was murdered in Brazil in 1988; Bishop Oscar Romero who was murdered in El Salvador in 1980; Attica Prison in 1971; MOVE, the Philadelphia based black liberation community founded by John Africa that was firebombed by the police in 1972.  There was also a piece from perhaps the most beautiful and compelling work by the collective, FIRE, about the self-immolation of three Americans to protest the war in Vietnam.  Buddhist monks in Vietnam had been setting themselves on fire as a form of protest and these three Quakers took up the cause.

In the gallery next to the Bread & Puppet exhibit is a show of posters and other material recalling the Vietnam conflict. 

Iraqi Women

An art lover who had recently seen the premiere exhibit at the new Whitney Museum (designed by Renzo Piano) in the meat packing district of NY could not help but notice the difference between the “love-me-I’m-liberal” political pieces at the Whitney, and the ongoing commitment to engaging the military-industrial complex at its root, that has long been the project of the Bread & Puppet Theatre.

New Wave Rocks Jorgensen

Elvis Costello
Jorgensen Auditorium
21 November 2013
by Edmond Chibeau

 Of flailing arms and the bad man, he sings!  New Wave rocker, more than a decade deep in a New Century, makes the words sing.  He writes the history of desire with a poet’s soul, chooses just the right word, then crushes it between his teeth.

 Tone is not a simple matter of frequency.  Tone is that elusive vibe that keeps us listening even when we aren’t sure what we are listening to.
Elvis Costello sings the song he is singing, not the one we are listening to. 

The fingerprints on his reputation are all his own.
 

The music has a narrative and the words have melody.  He translates his synesthesia so that we can partake of that transformation with him.  He helps us taste the bitter sound of love gone cold.  Communicates in living color the aural disaster inside him and makes us feel it.  He says the theme for the evening is, “Love… betrayal, deceit and shame.”

 He’s a bad man with a bad attitude and he makes good performance.
They say all you need it three chords and an attitude.  He keeps the attitude but he doesn’t stop at three chords.
 

Two hours and fifteen minutes.  One performer. No intermission.The show started strong and got better and better.  His aim is true.
 

The stage set is spare.  There were always 5 guitars behind him on stage, but they were often switched out with the help of two roadie/stage managers. There was also an electric keyboard but that wasn’t used until the encores.  How many encores?  I lost count but at least half an hour’s worth.
 Six down-lights on the cyclorama, and two signs: an “On Air” sign mid-stage right, and a lighted arrow pointing to the wing mid-stage left. Two large video screens mounted to the left and right that were fed by three cameras.  Nothing special by way of sets and lights.  This show is one performer alone on stage, or it is nothing at all.  Elvis Costello played a wide range of songs and styles and kept us rocking throughout.

 If you want to know the name of the songs he sings, or the cords he uses, check his website.  It’s all there.  If you want to know how his music feels then you’ve got to press your chest against his sound, let it vibrate against your sternum.  He’s on tour, go listen.

Penzance at CRT

Tell your friends about this one!

The Pirates of Penzance

Writer: W.S. Gilbert

Composer: by Arthur Sullivan

Director: Terrence Mann

Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre

7 June – 22 July 2012

What’s a director to do?

If he is given a play that has been flop-proof for more than a hundred years and has a cast that is talented and willing to take direction then what is the director’s job?  The answer that is offered by Terrence Mann in this production of The Pirates of Penzance is that the director can integrate all of the performances into a unified dramatic whole, and then get as granular as possible so that each performance is as nuanced and complex as possible.  From the opening salvo to the curtain calls Mann keeps us interested and attentive.  He knows how a musical is supposed to work. The shared experience and practice of the CRT repertory company gives depth and texture to the interplay among actors.

Children and adults will love this whirlwind production of a Gilbert and Sullivan classic.

Alex Gibson has an astounding face, limbs made of rubber, and an impeccable sense of timing; his tap dancing, a la Irish step dancing, is one of the highlights of show.  He is currently a Junior at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts.  See this young performer now and you will be able to say you knew his work before he became famous.

The choreography and movement by Cassie Abate is not only exciting to watch but also reveals character and moves the plot forward.  The Dance and Musical Theatre Program at Texas State University will be getting a movement treasure to head up their program in September.

Diane Phelan’s operatic voice, compelling acting, and graceful movement have been seen before at CRT and she continues to grow as a performer and a musician.

Sean Martin Hingston does it all.  To say that he can act sing and dance would be to undersell his talents.  For all his charisma he still fits into the larger ensemble.  He is an exceptional performer but he uses his considerable talents to serve the larger show.

Lynn McNutt is a laugh-a-minute Ruth.  “There are the remains of a fine woman about Ruth.”  Her burlesque sexuality is always funny and never inappropriate.  (During the curtain calls she gestures for the handsome men in the audience to “call me.”)

In 1884 Sullivan wrote of his music that, “It has hitherto been word-setting, I might almost say syllable-setting, for I have looked upon the words as being of such importance that I have been continually keeping down the music in order that not one should be lost.”

Seasoned pro, Steven Hayes, who is the very model of a modern Major General, has a great sense of humor and a feel for high camp.  The articulation of the lyrics of some of his songs and patter did not always reach the ears.   Sometimes the syllables that Arthur Sullivan worked so hard to foreground were lost in a blur; no matter, the audience loved him. 

Many of these actors have worked together both at CRT and in other venues.  One of the advantages of a repertory company is that the actors get a chance to know one another and learn each other’s style, timing and approach to interpretation.  In a rep company actors can learn how their style plays against another’s and then use that knowledge to the advantage of the production.  It allows them to give depth of interpretation within a limited rehearsal schedule.  It doesn’t matter if the play is all surface and gloss; any scene between the actors can have depth and detail. CRT not only has actors who have worked together on several productions this season, but have also worked together in the past.

The acoustics of the Harriet Jorgensen are not perfect but the sound reinforcement system is usually excellent.  Opening night the sound reinforcement that is often transparent at CRT was a bit more noticeable than usual.

The exhibit of Women’s “Dress from the Industrial Age” in the Jorgensen Gallery curated by Laura Crow, Director the Costume Design, Department of Dramatic Arts and Curator, at the UConn Historical Clothing and Textile Collection is an eye-opening look at styles of a bygone time.  It is in the gallery attached to the theatre.

On Storrs Road there is a kiosk that lists the productions that are being done by the Theatre program at UConn. It always has a compelling graphic and the name of the upcoming production, but the dates of the production are always too small to read while driving by in a car.  Making the dates on the sign large enough to read from a passing car would make it easier for people to know when a play is opening and how many days they have left to catch the show.

My Fair Lady

My Fair Lady

Book and Lyrics:  Allan Jay Lerner

Music:  Frederick Loewe

With Terrence Mann and Eileen Fulton

Director: Vincent J. Cardinal

Music Director: NDavid Williams

July 7 - 17, 2011

Harriet S. Jorgensen Theatre

Review: Edmond Chibeau 7/8/11

Shortly after it opened in 1956 My Fair Lady became one of the most successful musicals in American musical theatre history.  It was adapted from the 1914 straight play Pygmalion by George Bernard Shaw, but it has a long pedigree.

The story we enjoy as the Lerner and Loewe musical comes to us from many sources including Ovid’s Metamorphosis, the 1762 opera Pygmalion by Jean-Jacque Rousseau, a play in blank verse by W. S. Gilbert which premiered in 1871, and of course George Bernard Shaw’s 1916 Pygmalion.  One wonders how the arc of this production would have been different if W. S. Gilbert had been working with Arthur Sullivan on operettas when he wrote his version of Pygmalion? 

Early in the show Professor Higgins sings his indictment of the British Class system with the wonderful, “Why Can’t the English Speak English” and shortly thereafter proceeds to say of poor Eliza, "She's so deliciously low. So horribly dirty."

This enables the script to bite the heels of aristocratic and middle class prejudice and also to deepen the character of Professor Higgins by showing us a contradiction in his character. 

Terrence Mann delivers the line with a frisson of excitement and an air of superiority that makes us look forward to the comeuppance that he so richly deserves; and that we are sure Elisa will provide.  When Mann, as Higgins, delivers the line it opens up the Fabian themes of the play and whets our appetite for the coming emotional conflict with Elisa Doolittle.

Lerner and Loewe are not Fabian democratic socialists and they write for the pure joy of entertainment.  But the underlying Shavian philosophy in the George Barnard Shaw Play cannot help but seep through into the Musical Comedy of 1950s Broadway Americana.

Terrence Mann, who plays the professor of phonetics Dr. Higgins, is know for originating the Broadway roles of Rum Tum Tugger in Cats, Javert in Les Miz and the Beast in Disney's Beauty and the Beast.  My suspicion is that he will be remembered in the theatre community for his generosity of spirit; a generosity that is manifest in several ways in this production.  He often gives support and throws the focus to Alix Paige who plays Eliza.  When he does a turn of his own he commands the stage, but when another actor is speaking he leads us to other actor with his eyes and body posture.

In the final moment of the play Mann says, “Bring me my shoes” and then makes a disarming shrug and smile that belies the 1950s male chauvinism that might be carried in the line.

Alix Paige who plays Eliza Doolittle has a terrific sense of comic timing and holds her own with her experienced co-stars.  Her voice is beautiful and her range is broad.

Richard Ruiz as Alfred P. Doolittle shows us how quickly a common dustman is willing to adopt the morality of the petite bourgeoisie when given the chance.  His acting style for this production is broad and serves the needs of both his character and the production.  He is an audience favorite.

Eileen Fulton, famous for her long tenure on As the World Turns, is poised, professional, and compassionate as Higgins' mother.

Timothy Gulan as Colonel Pickering has a wonderful sense of comic timing.  Conner Moore as Freddy Eynsford-Hill is all starry–eyed innocence and puppy love.

Vincent J. Cardinal’s Direction does a good job integrating the different levels of experience found in the heterogeneous cast while allowing the actors the freedom to find their own performance.

A reviewer who was fortunate enough to have seen Rex Harrison reprise his role as Higgins in the 1981 revival at the Uris Theatre on Broadway would notice that Cardinale’s interpretation is less arch and more compassionate the earlier one.  Cardinal’s  production hews close enough to the various Rex Harrison versions but manages to keep the moments fresh and surprising.

The attentive Musical Direction by NDavid Williams keeps the show moving and always supports the actors.

The excellent Choreography is by the actress, dancer, choreographer Charlotte d’Amboise who is also performing on Broadway as Roxie Hart in the musical Chicago.

I am glad that I was encouraged to see this production by Amy Reusch who studied under Jacques d’Amboise and worked for many years with Christopher d’Amboise.  If you see it you’ll be glad too.

This Fair Lady is well danced, well costumed, well acted and well directed.  It is beautiful to watch and fun to listen to.

La lluvia en España cae principalmente en la llanura.

Catch it if you can.

Strindberg: A Dream Play

A Dream Play

Based on the play by August Strindberg

Direction & Puppet Design by Joseph Jonah Therrien

Studio Mobius Theatre

March 24 – April 3, 2011

Review: Edmond Chibeau

The Joseph Jonah Therrien production of Strindberg’s, A Dream Play is a work of genius. It is very hard for me to go out on a limb to write that, so I had to say it up front. I went to see the play because I like Strindberg in general and A Dream Play in particular. I had never heard of director Joseph Jonah Therrien but I am now an admirer.

In this production puppets, actors, movement and text carry equal narrative weight. The themes are carried seamlessly across different media. Imagine a stage play as a symphony and the director as the conductor. Although a composer might develop a theme in the strings then move it to the woodwinds and then the brass, it is the conductor’s job to make sure that the voicing, feel, and interpretation is coherent across those different sections of the orchestra. The unity of the interpretation rests in the skill and sensitivity of the conductor, or in the case of a stage play, the director.

In A Dream Play, Therrien takes themes of angst, compassion, enlightenment, or irony, and moves them across media, from words to movement, to puppet, to set piece, to puppet handlers. Not only does each of these elements do a good job and exist in the same space as the others, but each is an integrated part of the other. Imagine members of a family so close that they can finish each other’s sentences and each can express what the other means to say. That is how the parts work together in this production.

One of the dangers of this kind of production is that the piece becomes all surface, and the deeper human meanings are sacrificed for facile effect.

In this Dream Play the different elements serve the larger meaning of the work. But the meaning is closer to the meaning of a piece of music then to the meaning of a newspaper report.

The attitude of this presentation is early 21^st Century Goth, not early 20^th Century Expressionism.

Strindberg calls for a door with “an air-hole shaped like a four-leaf clover.” Someone familiar with the play might wonder why there is no air-hole in the door that plays such an important part in the play.

Large sections of the text of Strindberg’s play have been removed and the wordings of different translations have been adjusted by the director-adaptor. But the production is true to Strindberg’s sense of awe before the cosmos and sorrowful compassion for the vanities and conceits of humankind.

The movement of the performers and the many different kinds and sizes of puppets are fluid and extended to the fullest the reach.

The stylized movements of Bryan Swormstedt (The Lawyer) and Tom Foran (The Poet) are especially articulate and compelling.

David Regan (whose work can be seen often on New England stages) plays the author Strindberg. Regan finds the right tone and disposition to lead us into the mood of the play at the beginning, and to round off the corners and bring us back to earth at the end.

Mandy Weiss (Indra’s Daughter) is the motivating force of the story. If she is not pitch perfect the whole work suffers. She nails it. Bam!

Miron Gusso (Doorman) and Desmont Thorne as (The Officer) understand their respective roles and work well with the rest of the production.

Costume designer, Matthew Charles Peoples has created unbalanced Goth-post-Punk-anti-fashion statements that work as part of the action of the play. The left leg and foot of many of the performers is different from the right. The costumes contribute to the character.

Sound designer, Steven Magro reinforces the sound and drops in little changes in the presence of the voices without imposing his interpretation on the performance.

Lighting designer, Kwame Tucker keeps the playing areas clearly lit while maintaining the dark mood of the piece.

At the end of the play there are no curtain calls. A glaring work-light comes on over the audience for a short while and then the houselights come up. The audience is left thinking about what has just transpired on stage. There is no warm self-congratulatory group hug that usually takes place during the curtain call for most theatricals.

No smiling actors, no hugs, just think about it yo.