The 15th Annual Puppetry Conference at the Eugene O'Neill Theatre Center in Waterford Ct seemed more concentrated on current performance trends in professional puppetry with less avant garde activity. There was still a touch of anarchy in the opening show, "Pigeon-Holed", written by the conference's regular dramaturg, a Sesame St. writer and produced playwright, Annie Evans. The show was directed by the conference's original anarchist, sculptor Martin P. Robinson, the creator of Audrey II, a longtime Sesame St. puppeteer with extensive NY Theatre credits. Actress Leslie Carrara took the central role of "Miss Poppy", the star of an educational T.V. show dreaming of playing "Lady Macbeth" at Lincoln Center. The rest of the extensive cast, operating puppets created and built by Robinson included many of the Conference participants, including Evans, Robinson, and Artistic Director, Pam Arciero as off-stage voices from "the booth". Even Marty's pet bantam rooster got into the act. Notable roles included Patrick Holmes as "Pidge", a giant body puppet performed backward (so the legs bent correctly), "Z" Briggs' "Chubby the Gerbil" an over-the-furniture character, and a large puppet "Junk Dude" created from discarded objects manipulated by Spencer Lott and Edward Einhorn. Artistic Associate (general factotuum) Cathy McCullough was the stage manager with attitude and Honey Goodenough was the omni-present puppet wrangler. Other puppets included scary looking "safety" puppets, an animatronic owl and a chorus of poppies in the window boxes. The show was a loving if somewhat jaundiced look at the backstage world of producing puppet television. Caveat puppeteers.
Video Anarchy was again instigated this year by Tim Lagasse, who got some unique moments out of his eight videographers. The most striking marionette from Philip Huber and Jim Rose's week-long workshop was a modernistic Caliban-like troll figure. Ronald Binion, a long-time participant who was this year's Artist-in-Residence, had an interesting piece entitled "Crossing Boundaries". The largest of the Emerging Artists' pieces was a portion of Megan McNerney's "Balloon", adapted from a play by Padraic Colum. This piece used direct contact figures on a circular "table-top" which constantly changed its slant. Derron Wood's Flock Theatre, a New London group which has been a mainstay of the Conference for the last eight years, showed their accumulated skills in this performance. Resident composer Larry Siegel created and performed an appropriate background.
Emerging artist Leslie Smith from New Hampshire continued her "Lost but Found" exploration of a puppeteers life begun last year, this time with four additional puppeteers to bring her extended puppet family to life. UConn grad Carole Simms was back with a largscale shadow show "Zen Parable" employing a spilt-screen and varying points of view, and more music by Siegel. Other Emerging artists included Hartford's Rolande Duprey and New Yorker Yvette Edery. Two interesting pieces from the participants were "Z" Briggs sketch on yet-another bodily function, this time featuring Silly String and sure to become a PuppetSlam favorite, and Aki Shinozaki's hand mime about two opposing soldiers. Conference Managing Director, IPA grad Bobbie Nidzgorski, was behind it all with the support of Production Director, IPA founder and head of the UConn Puppetry program, Bart P. Roccoberton Jr.. Saturday night's performance was a solid three hours of interesting contemporary puppetry. Hopefully, the ongoing behind the scenes drama at the O'Neill Center will allow for an equally successful week in 2006. This year's session was dedicated to the memory of long-time Boston-area puppeteer and past Conference attendee, Caleb Fullam.