The Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center, home to a summer playwrighting conference established 30 years ago on the O'Neill family farm near New London CT, (the original setting for "A Long Day's Journey into Night",) has been home to puppetry as well for many years as well. Through the efforts of Margo & Rufus Rose, longtime neighbors in Waterford, and the efforts of Bart Roccoburton, now head of the Puppetry Program at UConn, puppetry developed along with the other theatrical programs, leading to the creation, 10 years ago, of an annual week dedicated to the development of contemporary and avant-garde theatrical puppetry, initially funded by the Henson Foundation with the enthusiastic support of Jane Henson. Recent guest artists have included Albrecht Roser, Larry Reed, Andrew & Bonnie Periale, Peter Schumann, Eric Bass, Janie Geiser, et al.
This year's featured artists represent two diverse aspects of professional puppetry. Phil Huber most recently came to public notice, after a performing career spanning three decades, as the lead puppet artist for the film, "Being John Malkovich". Two year's earlier, he was working with Tommie Tune on the ill-fated Broadway-bound musical "Buskers". His main audiences, however, have been in nightclubs and on cruise ships as he tours his acclaimed solo marionette variety shows. At this year's conference, he worked with aspiring marionetteers on the technical aspects of their personal projects.
Anne & David Powell, a Canadian brother and sister act, have been performing for schools, art centers, and festivals around the world since their teens, as well as working with other theatre companies throughout the Provinces. Their unique tightly-scripted shows, including "Tea with the Czar", two Russian folk-tales in which the Powells play the servants to an amazing array of puppets of all sizes, "Walid the Grass Cutter", a modern comedy based on pre-revolution tour of Iran, and even, "The Brick Bros. Circus", a tour-de-farce(sic) where all the performers are simply - bricks.
The Powell's spent the week on The Pirate Widow Chang, a docu-drama based on the early 19th century China. This show has been in development for some time. At the O'Neill they used the luxury of additional actors and puppeteers to experiment with scenes and effects which they will reduce for their two-person show, set to premiere in June 2001 at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. To check on their progress surf their Website; http://www.pathcom.com/~pmongers. The show includes traditional-style chinese shadow puppetry, done across multiple screens, a full-sized narrator puppet, and a large model of a sailing junk, complete with cast, crew, and rats. As with their earlier shows, questions of might and its effect on the little people lies just below the adventure.
Phil Huber's student string-pullers each presented vignettes using puppets they had brought with them, reconstructed during class, or created fresh for the evening. Most used unclothed figures, evoking surreal situations. Seasoned puppeteer Kurt Hunter finished the bill using a new soft-sculpture figure with an expressive megaphone mouth performing to an vaudeville love song.
Martin P. Robinson's experimental workshop, Puppet Anarchy concentrated on abstract forms, using found-object puppets supported by special lighting and sound effects, with a moment of comic relief exploring live-action synchronized to previously taped video. His workshop last year involved clear objects and smoke. Such imaginative exploration sets the tone for much of the student work which ended the evening.
The Emerging Artists Program featured four playwrights this year, with Annie Evans as dramaturg and Pam Arciero as Project(s) director. Heather Asch worked on a children's script The Closet Monster. Stacy Havens developed a table-top production based on Kurt Vonnegut's Harrison Bergeron, a futuristic fable where the able are handicapped to allow others to "compete." Gretchen Van Lente wrote The True Alice, exploring the complex relationship between Prof. Dodgson, Alice Lidell, and the works she inspired. Derron Wood, director of the Flock Theatre of New London, whose actors join conference participants in developing many of the projects, played the eccentric mathematician with intensity. Liebe Wetzel tackled the dilemma of child-abuse by members of the clergy in Snake in the Basement: The Prosecution of Rev. Bill Pruitt with a compelling show using extremely simple puppetry, some figures created on the spot. Each of these scripts benefitted from the opportunity to explore forms of presentation with as many performers as needed, and with the combined experience of the veteran production staff, overseen by Bart Roccoburton from UConn.
This year's participants program , directed by Lenny Pina, was divided between the two theatre spaces, running concurrently. These vignettes included pieces by staff and students alike, such as Painter??, another gem by artistic director Richard Termine, Bobbie Nidzgorski, the general manager's Snake , an intense poetic moment, and A Letter from Aubrey Beardsley to A.W.King", a Toy Theatre piece by Caleb Fullam, who assists with the week's frenetic puppet building. Marcie Klein's light-piece Traffic Light, as this ubiquitous signal goes mad from boredom and Katie Adam's erotic metamorphosis into a full-body puppet were quite striking. It was a long and full evening.