The final performances of the biennial International Puppet Festival, held in New England every other fall, took place on the Storrs campus of UConn during the last week in September. Earlier in the month many of the same artists from performed in Portland ME and around Brattleboro VT. Dartmouth in New Hampshire did not participate this time around. Some participants were delayed by the catastrophe of Sept.11, but most scheduled performances went on.
Australian shadow puppeteer, Richard Bradshaw, who kicked off the National Puppetry Festival in Tampa in July, worked his simple magic for family audiences across New England, played to capacity at Storrs, then went on to the Perishable Theatre in Providence, Rhode Island the week following. This small performing arts organization raised enough local money to offer his shows free to the community as a healing gesture, a suitable climax to the festival in spite of the circumstances. Bradshaw's style is a direct continuation of the line of itinerant shadow puppeteers, "galanty men", who stretch back to Elizabethan times. His last stop on this visit to the US will be with The Heart of the Beast troupe in Minneapolis, before returning to "Oz" for the summer.
The Velo Theatre, from France, had an especially poignant show, "Appel d'Air", an object theatre piece. A lonely man stares out his window at the towers of a modern city while sitting on a large bed conjuring up fantastic journeys. On the floor in front of the stage, tiny lights simulated the same scene seen from the air at night. Charlot Lemoine, the visible actor/puppeteer supported by two invisible manipulators, created a surreal world where toy planes are kept in bird cages and model ocean liners fly, where penguins war on the counterpane. There were no words, only sounds and vivid imagery, celebrating imagination in the face of alienation.
Credo Theatre, a husband and wife team from Bulgaria, retold Gogol's short story, The Overcoat as a clown show. Drawing on their circus training, the Dimitovs, in baggy paints and ridiculous moustaches, explain how the ghost of a government clerk came to haunt the winter streets of St. Petersburg after his new overcoat, his only possession, was stolen. Using a bamboo cage, some bits of cardboard, a puppet head looking rather like a potato, and a lot of Velcro, the duo romped through this tale by one of the forefathers of the Absurd, in accented English. They can also do the show in French, German, Italian, Czech, Polish, Russian, and of course Bulgarian.
Hua Hua Zhang, a recent M.F.A. in Puppetry from UConn and a member by birth of a traditional Chinese puppet troupe , represented the University with her new production "Butterfly Dreams". Ms. Zhang was joined onstage by a fellow MFA graduate, David Regan, part of her Visual Impressions troupe. This full-stage dance collage, directed by Bart P. Roccoberton, Jr., head of UConn's Puppetry Arts Program, used large scale, often abstract figures to explore the conundrum of the sage who dreamed of a butterþy, and upon awakening, could not decide whether he was a man who dreamed of a butterþy, or a butterþy dreaming it was a man. An original score, performed live by composer Bruce Gremo assisted by David Cossin, combined Eastern Music traditions and electronic sound in a haunting mix, supporting the general theme of transformation which ran through the show. The evening was filled with moments of compelling imagery. The show should continue to develop into a significant production. Watch for it.
Other troupes participating this time included Das Meiniger Theater from Germany, who performed a shadow show which surrounds the audience, Compagnie Lulubelle from France who create shows for infants and their parents, and English Punch Professor, Martin Bridle, accompanied on the hurdy-gurdy by his wife, Sue Eaton. These last two, both accomplished illustrators, not only played Punch, but showed a medieval parody, Piggery Jokery, using a walking stage, that has received kudos world-wide.
American puppetry, so strongly identified with children's television benefits greatly from infusions from theatrical puppeteers visiting from abroad. The biennial Henson International Festival, whose continuation in New York a year from now is in some doubt, has been the major supporter of such touring. It is heartening to see the combination of regional puppet companies, including The Sandglass Theatre near Brattleboro VT, Figures of Speech from Freeport ME, and the Puppetry Program at UConn, pick up the ball. Other companies are tentatively committed to joining in the next time around, circumstances and the economy willing. The entire American Theatre would benefit from more exposure to the efforts of small theaters from around the world.