Puppets bring joy. They make you feel, even more than they make you think. So do the puppeteers, particularly those who have made it their goal to avoid the cerebral bend of so much of modern theater.

I met a whole bunch of them, a collective of 7 passionate, devoted, talented young people who are in town to perform their puppet show about Chilean miners. In conversation they talk about their disenchantment with too much technology and their interest in the relationship between man and nature, with a focus on how capitalistic extraction of resources damages both, people and land.

The troupe devised their play some 6 years ago, based on a novella El Chiflón del Diablo by one of Chile’s foremost authors, Baldomero Lillo, a son of miners himself. To get a sense of the people affected by the dangers of coal mining, of the silence that rules those communities within and outside of the mines, they spent 6 month in Lota, site of the last active coal mine in Chile, now closed. Talk about dedicated field research.

The puppets are made of paper and glue, with only hints at facial features, and an astounding arsenal of micro-movements. They are plain, and silent, the perfect projection screen for the interpretation of the viewers who all seem to see themselves reflected in the narrative, according to the puppeteers’ reports. They transcend cultural and language and age borders by linking directly to emotions; I certainly found myself reacting to these small personages with a sense of wonder, and that was not even within the play. I was just sitting next to a gifted puppeteer, Felipe, who held his puppet for the time of the Q&A with a lively audience at the Central Library (and who owns one of the most infectious laughs I’ve come across in a long time.) Photographing his creation felt like photographing a living thing – I can think of no better compliment for this company.

Well, maybe I can. I can compliment them for having found a cause, of having found an artistic voice, of having found a medium that matches their ideals, in an environment that is surely not easy for young theatre collectives. Can’t wait to see the play. For those of you who did not act on my earlier recommendations – alas, the performances are sold out.

And here are the players:

Dominga, one of the founders of the company, on the left, and Astrid, who recently joined after finishing her degree in theatre studies.

Felipe, with the company since its founding, also involved in the creation of their upcoming play about fishermen.

Antonio, actor, singer, sound engineer combined…

Consuelo and Rodolfo, if my recall still works – sorry if I mess up the names!  She carried the single trunk that holds their entire company of puppets….

Santiago, founder and artistic director of the company. He wants to connect to the heart, but he does have a smart head – the political themes are just delivered in silence, not with endless chatter.

Restless Ruth – never resting until she gets the next act to town…… 

So far this week we’ve discussed cheerleaders, animals on stage, ballet dancers, puppets and such. It’s time, then, to turn to another form of performance: old fashioned magic. Or not so old fashioned, since the link provides information of one of the sole female magicians who has managed to join the ranks of her male colleagues – decidedly a novelty in a field where”please applaud my lovely assistant” still rules.

http://narrative.ly/conjuring-up-a-career-with-one-of-nycs-only-female-magicians/?utm_source=Narratively+email+list&utm_campaign=47e47784a4-Narratively_1_5_2016&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f944cd8d3b-47e47784a4-66322689

If you google best magic or some such you come up with this:

https://www.theguardian.com/culture/gallery/2013/may/04/the-10-best-magicians

Note, that the people mentioned are all of one gender (or t least they look like that….) – however, they do also, in the short descriptions of their trade, offer an incredible variety of what counts as magic.

Honestly, I have never found magic tricks or magician’s performances particularly fascinating. I rather read books – and if they are about magic that’s a different matter.  For all book lovers of my acquaintance here is a magical little clip of one author, writing about magicians, enlisting numerous other authors and seemingly a number of his friends, to introduce the last volume of a nifty trilogy; they all read one sentence each. Lev Grossman’s fantasy novels are wonderful escape literature, and I cite,”It’s Narnia meets Hogwarts but in grad school, so with profanity, sex, and drugs. ” What could be better?

(Photos courtesy of Lorenzo Mella)

In honor of Boom Arts’ upcoming performance of  CHIFLÓN: EL SILENCIO DEL CARBÓN (The Silence of Coal), created and performed by the Chilean group Silence Blanco, I thought I’d look at some puppet performance. (http://www.boomarts.org for details) The performances of this play about the fate of coal miners are free, by the way, but you need to make reservations. Promises to be a thought-provoking engagement, as always with this company.

Man, times have changed since I saw the traditional Kasperle Theater as it is called in Germany or Punch and Judy shows, the British version. Hand puppets are still around, as are marionettes and shadow figures, but things have become quite sophisticated.  

I am linking to some Australian shadow puppet performance.

And for my next excursion:

watch the story below (Adults only!) if you have time and inclination for a real  20 minute break;  it uses animation of clay puppets in a different fashion, and is sly and funny about a train ride. As the blurb says: Jungian thriller? Hitchcockian suspense ? Artistic tour de force ? All aboard, the night train is waiting…

Further, there is much pleasure to find in Basil Twist’s version of La bella dormente nel Bosco, an opera in three acts by Ottorino Respighi. It basically tells the story of sleeping beauty and in it he still uses puppets as actors.

Twist is a master, third generation puppeteer who is now pursuing even more complex and inventive forms of story telling. Fabric, light, moving parts have taken on the role of story teller in the link below and it all matches Stravinsky’s music perfectly. This was a true art performance, if I had to choose between them all.

I have not been lucky enough to see a live performance of War Horse, but I was always intrigued by the puppetry that I saw in video clips. Quite an accomplishment to create something that almost makes you forget that it is not alive. Horse and avian companions alike.

All the more impressive, when it’s actually the REAL THING on the stage. (And if you thought I’d manage to spend a week without mentioning birds, you are mistaken.) In my hope for the ultimate distraction from world woes, I discovered this little gem, a Parisian equestrian theatre that hired Mongolian singers and trained geese….. isn’t your day already a bit brighter seeing them all waddle behind the horse??? Tuvan throat singing included?

Closer to home, a Boom Arts performance that featured pigs was equally enchanting.  I’D RATHER GOYA ROBBED ME OF MY SLEEP THAN SOME OTHER SON OF A B*TCH by Rodrigo García was performed here in 2015 and was an astute political accusation of the ravages of blind capitalism. Ebbe Roe Smith nailed the role of narrator in this one man – two piglets play.

And here are the handlers that provide animals for performances at the Met – who’d have thought….. http://www.metopera.org/discover/video/?videoName=the-animals-of-manon-lescaut&videoId=2540402945001

Ebbe did much of his own!

Shrove Monday was celebrated with large carnivals and costume parades where I grew up. Heuer the drama queen (or pirate, as the case may be) was in her element, particularly if allowed to hold a toy gun, strictly taboo in our household for the rest of the year. My sister, the Hungarian Bride, or whatever she was supposed to be, will hopefully get a good laugh out of this photograph….)

This theatrical picture led me to this week’s topic: performance.

A month from today will be World Theatre Day, which was created in 1961 by the International Theatre Institute (ITI). An international non-governmental organization, ITI was founded in 1948 by UNESCO and the international theatre community. Various national and international theatre events are organized to mark the occasion, but many events are local with the purpose of drawing attention to theatre and international harmony – or so they say; maybe in 2017 we should extend that notion to national harmony as well…

I came to  real theater late, really as a volunteer photographer for local non-profits; sort of felt like Miranda from The Tempest, Act V, scene 1  – “O wonder! Howdy goodly creatures are there here! How beauteous mankind is! O brave new world that has such people in’t!  

This week, then, I’ll explore some theatre, performance and dance news, with a steady reminder that I am no expert whatsoever. Photographs will be random portraits from rehearsals of Jewish Theatre Collaborative (oh, do I miss thee!) Boom Arts, and the occasional Dance Performance.

The photograph below is from JTC’s production of A Pigeon and a Boy some years back – no effort was spared to get a decent pigeon shot.…we were sitting in the park blocks waiting for them to take the bait.

And to cheer us all up, the first theatre event, attached below, is the true community kind – a high school cheer leading team in 2016. Instead of coming in with glittery costumes, pompoms and rah-rah-rah music, these girls chose to dance to a poem – a very old form of theatre. The poem What room does fear have is by Jon Jorgensen – when I read it in its entire length it was a dedicated religious missive; the way the girls perform it,in contrast, is inclusive for all, religious or not. Even Betsy deVos would approve of this public school of Mahomet in Illinois – which will probably disappear under her reign….