This year's opening Friday night of Final Projects at the O'Neill Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center down in Waterford CT seemed somewhat subdued. The number of participants was down a bit and the marionette masterclass was canceled due to Jim Rose's sudden serious illness. Richard Termine announced that he is stepping down as Artistic Director after twelve exciting years, though he will still be part of the program. He passed the baton for the renamed conference to Pam Aciero, another UConn grad, another Muppet stalwart, and director of this year's Emerging Artists Projects.
The evening started off with "Puppet Anarchy", instigated for a third time by Martin P. Robinson, assisted by Cathy McCullough, a brand new MFA in Puppetry from UConn, and Scott Hitz. Their efforts were more content oriented and generally more serious this time around. The nine participants created a baker's dozen sketches employing object theatre techniques for the most part, to explore the reach of the discipline. No central theme emerged, though loss seemed to dominate.
The single guest artist this summer was our Preston Foerder, who used a dozen participants in a romp through Lewis Carroll's dramatic poem, "The Hunting of the Snark - an Agony in Seven Fits" The show featured a large sailing ship whose sail became a shadow screen for the climax, a collection of puppets in progress representing the curious crew of said vessel, including the Butcher, the Baker, the Banker, and the Beaver - not to mention the Bellman as Captain. And since, of course, the Snark was a Boo-Jum after all, the end had a tragic note, backed up by Larry Seigel's original score. Though anything I tell you three times is true, I'll only say once that I'd like to see this show in a more finished state, though where Preston will find a willing pirate crew, capable of creating weird animals from their neckerchiefs, I can't say. Perhaps some college program will take the project on as a residency.
The four emerging artists were Ken Berman, Deborah Hertzberg, Ceili Clemens, and Paul McGinnis. Hertzberg's piece, part of a larger work she's received funding from both the Henson Foundation and the Puppeteers of America to complete, was a Vampire Melodrama, "Nosferatu" done in a style suggesting Dreyer's silent movie original. Three triangular scrim-covered screens which can be rearranged form the set for this piece which uses direct-contact puppets and shadows. The use of flickering subtitles was a nice touch. [Note: This project was later a prize-winning participant on the International Fringe Festival in NYC,] Clemens' mini-drama, "Medean Minds", was performed by two of Flock Theatre's finest, Derron Wood and Elizabeth Rannenberg as masked performers with simple object puppets and children's toys to suggest a bleak postpartum tragedy. This effort was an example of the continuing exploration of the border between puppetry and experimental actors' theatre.
Slightly more conventional, Berman's piece, using large rod-puppets in free space plus projections, was inspired by LeFanu's "Schalken". It too is part of a longer work, one which explores artistic obsession. The Obratsov-style figures offer unique possibilities when freed from behind the playboard. Music by GOBLIN also seems to be in development. Finally, McGinniss' sketch lightened things up as a well-articulated direct-contact dancing girl designed by Ron Binion taught a lumpish nerd actor from Flock how to boogie to an original tune by the Sisterhood of Convoluted Thinkers. The puppet manipulation was superb. All four projects were staffed by members of New London's Flock Theatre under the direction of Derron Wood, which has some exciting shows upcoming this summer. Visitors to the New London area should look them up in late July and August.
In the interest of time and potential sleep, this year's participant pieces were only performed on Saturday, and then as a five part after-piece. The actual full bill was done at 10:30 on Saturday morning for anyone willing to attend. and pieces selected to represent the group, which must have given Bart Roccoberton, the head of UConn Puppetry program and the Conference's long-time production manager, another headache. He was aided and abbetted by Nikki Tilroe, Movement/Manipulation Coach this session. In any case, die-hard puppetry fans will have to plan ahead for next June and get up very early. Selections and further developments from this year's O'Neill Puppetry Conference will be again presented sometime early next year as another "From There to HERE" program in Manhattan. Watch for it.