Puppet Slam
Dec. 8th, 2002 10:57 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
magidLast night I went to a puppet slam at the Puppet Showplace, in Brookline. (Two cool events in two nights; I feel so cultured (not like a pearl).)
I'd not been to this theater before. The space is interesting. The lobby has lots of puppet-related posters from around the world, also big puppets here and there on the brick walls, and by the octagonal window to the ticket booth, plus a tiny slip of a shop where you can buy all sorts of (smaller) puppets. I resisted the urge to look at everything for sale. Perhaps if I convince myself someone on my list needs a puppet, I'll end up with an excuse to go back...
Open seating when we were allowed in, on (lightly) padded benches that are not incredibly comfortable for sitting on for hours. More puppet-themed pieces on the walls, so interesting to look at when the lights were up. Also a ceiling fan that worked well to keep the space from overheating.
I wasn't sure what to expect (poetry slams are competitive, I think). This turned out to be nine pieces by eight different people/groups. Each was introduced by an "elf" who said that these products had been rejected by Santa for one reason or another, and did we think Santa was wrong. It was cute briefly, then went on too long, unfortunately.
The first piece was Jaye (by Larry Hunt), who came up on stage wearing black and a mask that covered his face except for his mouth and below. He was "nervous to be on stage" (as shown by the nervous face on the mask), and it was funny to see him deal with it. At some point, he had an alien puppet join him, and the puppet kept trying to hit on a woman in the front row... Of course, it didn't hurt that the woman encouraged him...
There were two shadow puppet pieces: one illustrated the song Innocent When You Dream by Tom Waits (puppeteer Sarah Scheuble), which was ok (though had the attraction of having some things in color); while the other was a retelling of The Three Pigs, also called It Takes a Woman (the third pig, of course, is a girl, just as in the southwestern retelling of the story in The Three Javelinas.). I liked this one a bit more: there was more of a story, and the puppeteer (Judith O'Hare) did a great job with the voices.
There were two pieces I didn't find so interesting. One was Selections from A Fable by Jean Claude Van Itallie, which was done by a group of students (Tufts?). It was mostly non-puppet, though some food was pressed into service (part of a pomegranate (?), a gourd) at times. The story didn't seem to hang together at all. Ah, well. The other piece was kinda strange: a playing of Moxy Fruvous' The Gulf War Song (which I knew because some friends covered it on their limited release CD I'm glad to have snagged a copy of), with shoes on a platform sort of acting it out. Except that there seemed to be less paralleling of the song than I'd've expected. Still, it was nice to hear the original song, hear how it differed.
The Lives and Loves of Jacques Perroquet (by Fantoche) was a colorful French parrot doing stand-up comedy ("The Girl from Ipanema" playing in the background) with more bird puns than I could shake a stick at (describing the walk of a chicken he was dating: "poultry in motion." It got worse, far worse. Perhaps it is better I can't remember much more...). Who was later interrupted by some British rock musicians, there for some gig (some heavy metal playing). They were later joined by a body-building cow (in a sports bra)(the theme from "Rocky"), all of whom ended up singing (and getting the audience to sing to) "We Are the World." Not a favorite song of mine, but ok. Pretty funny. (These were the only puppets-worn-on-hand in the show.)
The Plane (Shoddy Puppet Company, which seemed to be the same two people who did the next piece) had pictures-on-cardboard slotted into a piece of wood. Some political commentary, with Tattoo reappearing in most scenes to yell "The plane! The plane!" which sometimes turned out to be a US military plane, bombing some unnamed Arab city in order to get gas prices down, or spraying chemicals on fields in Columbia, or ... rather political, all around.
A Moral Aroma (Ramshackle Enterprises; see Shoddy Puppet Company, above) was about palindromes (I kept wondering if "amoral aroma" might be more interesting...), and after an intro about palindromes in history, used largish cardboard people (and a dog) with mouths cut out. All the people came with a variety of problems to Dr. Awkward's office, and had their problems dealt with (or not). Some wonderfully silly palindromes, including "senile felines," " go hang a salami; I'm a lasagna hog," and "do geese see god?" Lots of others, too. At one point the doctor actually appeared, one of the puppeteers still in a lab coat, but wearing an enormous grotesque blue head with one eye, shaking some bells. In the end, everyone's problems were dealt with, some in rather creative fashion.
And the last piece was Three Books in the Garden (by John Bell, Trudi Cohen, and Isaac Bell of Great Small Works; I kept thinking they were a family), about how three religions lived together peacefully in Andalusia centuries ago, with the obvious questions of why we can't seem to do that now. The story was ok, but the fantastic part was the presentation. This used a little stage, rather like the one from The Sound of Music that the kids use to present their marionette show. There were multiple sets, each of which had many pieces to go in different slots, giving the illusion of depth. Each time the little curtain went up (it was a bit sticky), there was an "ooh" from the audience, seeing first the field/garden, then the arches upon arches upon arches of a Muslim mosque, then the rows upon rows of bookshelves in a great library. Characters were figures on sticks, some jointed to be able to move an arm. One of the coolest effects was how they ran a long piece of paper with diagonal black and white stripes on it behind the garden backdrop, which was perforated, and had clouds drawn above. It really looked like rain falling. Pretty impressive. The performers followed a script, singing some parts, saying others. They accompanied themselves between acts on an instrument made of four lengths of PVC pipe, one end hit with sponges. Really cool sounds (a la Blue Man Group, though much quieter). The other fun part was watching the boy deal with some of the performance, getting (his dad's?) help with getting the curtain up/down, etc. I enjoyed this rather a lot.
And then it was time to go. The show had run late, the second show people were already waiting in the lobby.
The next puppet slam is February 22, and there are lots of other puppet performances before then. Perhaps I'll go to some of them....
Off to Pheromone's birthday party, fun at the beach.
I'd not been to this theater before. The space is interesting. The lobby has lots of puppet-related posters from around the world, also big puppets here and there on the brick walls, and by the octagonal window to the ticket booth, plus a tiny slip of a shop where you can buy all sorts of (smaller) puppets. I resisted the urge to look at everything for sale. Perhaps if I convince myself someone on my list needs a puppet, I'll end up with an excuse to go back...
Open seating when we were allowed in, on (lightly) padded benches that are not incredibly comfortable for sitting on for hours. More puppet-themed pieces on the walls, so interesting to look at when the lights were up. Also a ceiling fan that worked well to keep the space from overheating.
I wasn't sure what to expect (poetry slams are competitive, I think). This turned out to be nine pieces by eight different people/groups. Each was introduced by an "elf" who said that these products had been rejected by Santa for one reason or another, and did we think Santa was wrong. It was cute briefly, then went on too long, unfortunately.
The first piece was Jaye (by Larry Hunt), who came up on stage wearing black and a mask that covered his face except for his mouth and below. He was "nervous to be on stage" (as shown by the nervous face on the mask), and it was funny to see him deal with it. At some point, he had an alien puppet join him, and the puppet kept trying to hit on a woman in the front row... Of course, it didn't hurt that the woman encouraged him...
There were two shadow puppet pieces: one illustrated the song Innocent When You Dream by Tom Waits (puppeteer Sarah Scheuble), which was ok (though had the attraction of having some things in color); while the other was a retelling of The Three Pigs, also called It Takes a Woman (the third pig, of course, is a girl, just as in the southwestern retelling of the story in The Three Javelinas.). I liked this one a bit more: there was more of a story, and the puppeteer (Judith O'Hare) did a great job with the voices.
There were two pieces I didn't find so interesting. One was Selections from A Fable by Jean Claude Van Itallie, which was done by a group of students (Tufts?). It was mostly non-puppet, though some food was pressed into service (part of a pomegranate (?), a gourd) at times. The story didn't seem to hang together at all. Ah, well. The other piece was kinda strange: a playing of Moxy Fruvous' The Gulf War Song (which I knew because some friends covered it on their limited release CD I'm glad to have snagged a copy of), with shoes on a platform sort of acting it out. Except that there seemed to be less paralleling of the song than I'd've expected. Still, it was nice to hear the original song, hear how it differed.
The Lives and Loves of Jacques Perroquet (by Fantoche) was a colorful French parrot doing stand-up comedy ("The Girl from Ipanema" playing in the background) with more bird puns than I could shake a stick at (describing the walk of a chicken he was dating: "poultry in motion." It got worse, far worse. Perhaps it is better I can't remember much more...). Who was later interrupted by some British rock musicians, there for some gig (some heavy metal playing). They were later joined by a body-building cow (in a sports bra)(the theme from "Rocky"), all of whom ended up singing (and getting the audience to sing to) "We Are the World." Not a favorite song of mine, but ok. Pretty funny. (These were the only puppets-worn-on-hand in the show.)
The Plane (Shoddy Puppet Company, which seemed to be the same two people who did the next piece) had pictures-on-cardboard slotted into a piece of wood. Some political commentary, with Tattoo reappearing in most scenes to yell "The plane! The plane!" which sometimes turned out to be a US military plane, bombing some unnamed Arab city in order to get gas prices down, or spraying chemicals on fields in Columbia, or ... rather political, all around.
A Moral Aroma (Ramshackle Enterprises; see Shoddy Puppet Company, above) was about palindromes (I kept wondering if "amoral aroma" might be more interesting...), and after an intro about palindromes in history, used largish cardboard people (and a dog) with mouths cut out. All the people came with a variety of problems to Dr. Awkward's office, and had their problems dealt with (or not). Some wonderfully silly palindromes, including "senile felines," " go hang a salami; I'm a lasagna hog," and "do geese see god?" Lots of others, too. At one point the doctor actually appeared, one of the puppeteers still in a lab coat, but wearing an enormous grotesque blue head with one eye, shaking some bells. In the end, everyone's problems were dealt with, some in rather creative fashion.
And the last piece was Three Books in the Garden (by John Bell, Trudi Cohen, and Isaac Bell of Great Small Works; I kept thinking they were a family), about how three religions lived together peacefully in Andalusia centuries ago, with the obvious questions of why we can't seem to do that now. The story was ok, but the fantastic part was the presentation. This used a little stage, rather like the one from The Sound of Music that the kids use to present their marionette show. There were multiple sets, each of which had many pieces to go in different slots, giving the illusion of depth. Each time the little curtain went up (it was a bit sticky), there was an "ooh" from the audience, seeing first the field/garden, then the arches upon arches upon arches of a Muslim mosque, then the rows upon rows of bookshelves in a great library. Characters were figures on sticks, some jointed to be able to move an arm. One of the coolest effects was how they ran a long piece of paper with diagonal black and white stripes on it behind the garden backdrop, which was perforated, and had clouds drawn above. It really looked like rain falling. Pretty impressive. The performers followed a script, singing some parts, saying others. They accompanied themselves between acts on an instrument made of four lengths of PVC pipe, one end hit with sponges. Really cool sounds (a la Blue Man Group, though much quieter). The other fun part was watching the boy deal with some of the performance, getting (his dad's?) help with getting the curtain up/down, etc. I enjoyed this rather a lot.
And then it was time to go. The show had run late, the second show people were already waiting in the lobby.
The next puppet slam is February 22, and there are lots of other puppet performances before then. Perhaps I'll go to some of them....
Off to Pheromone's birthday party, fun at the beach.
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no subject
Date: 2002-12-08 09:40 am (UTC)like yoghurt?
no subject
Date: 2002-12-08 10:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2002-12-10 03:31 am (UTC)but that means you can only be present at every other meal... oh dear.
well, it can be seen as either a new fad diet, or you could go vegetarian.