A few pictures from the rehearsal process of Fabulas Mayas at GALA Hispanic Theatre:
The setup behind the shadow screen, with projector and puppet tables.
One of the backgrounds for shadow puppets, drawn by Amy.
Cast member Jose Pineda, trying out one of our percussion instruments.
Playing with a shadow puppet on the projector.
The cast, director and stage manager who somehow all managed to wear blue on the same day.
We’ve been hard at work building lots and lots of puppets for our show Fabulas Mayas, which opens next week at GALA Hispanic Theatre. Here are a few pictures of the process:
Lots of paper mache mice waiting to be painted.
Snail’s base, getting a first coat of paint from Genna.
There are SO MANY shadow puppets in this show.
The head of a child puppet, waiting for hair.
The Light Princess, a new musical with puppetry at the National Theatre in London.
A quick note here with a VERY short September grab bag. We are in the midst of building puppets for Fábulas Mayas and battling illness as well as stubborn cardboard and dull X-acto blades. However, I wanted to highlight two puppet projects from the UK; one of which I saw in Edinburgh this summer and another which just opened at the National Theatre in London.
1. Bunk Puppets is a one-man operation with several shows in repertoire. Slapdash Galaxy, which I saw as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe, tells the story of two brothers who leave their home planet in search of a new home. The puppets are shadow puppets, but projected from the front onto a screen, rather than from behind, the way all our shadow work has been created. At the end of the piece, 3D glasses are handed out and the shadows turn three-dimensional in an impressive display. If you find yourself at a festival or in a city where Bunk Puppets is performing, be sure to check them out.
2. A much larger project is The Light Princess, an original musical by Tori Amos and Samuel Adamson based on the 19th century fairy tale by George MacDonald, which just opened at the National Theatre in London. Part of the creative team worked on War Horse at the National Theatre and this new play also includes puppetry. The story of a princess who cannot cry and is in danger of just floating away, this sounds like a magical new piece that I would definitely see if I were lucky enough to be in London this fall! Amos talks about the process of writing the show in an article here.
Mariona, the mascot of TOPIC.
We are back! Did you miss us? It was a fantastic summer of work, travel and getting to see some amazing puppetry in four different countries. But now that it is fall, we are hard at work in DC, designing, building and rehearsing for the world premiere of Fábulas Mayas with GALA Hispanic Theatre. You can find out more about the play here, and there will be posts coming soon with pictures of our work and the puppets as we finish them. Not to mention more information about our upcoming collaboration with Arts on the Horizon, puppet workshops in schools and getting started on research for our next full-length show…SO MUCH GOING ON.
Puppet created by Basque company Txotxongillo Taldea.
I saw many beautiful puppets on my wanderings this summer and I wish I had been able to take better pictures. I probably had the most success in Tolosa, a little town in northern Spain outside of Donostia-San Sebastian. The Tolosa Puppets International Center (TOPIC) is located there and it’s also just a beautiful place, between green hills and a blue river. The puppets in these photos were made by the company Txotxongillo Taldea, a Basque puppet company that performs plays in Euskara, the Basque language. They have been involved with TOPIC since the founding of the center and created Mariona, the puppet character that acts as the building’s mascot. If you are ever in Spain, check out TOPIC and their wonderful exhibits!
My new circus show, ready to go on the road!
It has been a wonderful busy year here at Wit’s End Puppets and I hope that anyone who stumbled upon this blog and our work has enjoyed a look at our process and stories. Now it’s time to take a little break. For the next two months, I will be traveling (mostly to places where I don’t speak the language), in search of puppets and adventure. This blog is going on hiatus while I am gone (although Genna or Pat may possibly be persuaded to write a guest post now and then). When I get back, there will be photos, stories and many new ideas. But for now, enjoy the summer!
–Cecilia Cackley
We have three amazing projects in development right now, two for the fall and one for next spring. Not much to see yet, but here are a few of the stories that were seeds for these ideas.
Looking ahead to the fall and next year, we are thrilled to be able to announce two collaborative projects we will be working on next season with two different DC area companies.
First, we will be creating puppets and objects for Under the Canopy, a theater piece created for children age 0-2 by Tia Shearer and Matt Bassett for Arts on the Horizon. This project will have a workshop in early August and a full production next February. Tia and Matt have done some lovely work for little ones in the past and we are excited to get to work with them on this rainforest inspired, multi-sensory experience for families. We are looking forward to learning lots about how to best reach our youngest audiences!
We will also be designing and building shadow puppets for Fabulas Mayas, the first show of the GALita season for children at GALA Hispanic Theatre. Written by Cecilia Cackley, this bilingual show is adapted from Guatemalan fables of the Maya tradition, and features the Creator and Shaper of the world along with various animals who play tricks on each other and in general cause trouble. We are also looking at possibly touring this production to area schools in November. We are excited about sharing lots of new puppets and stories with DC this year! See you at the theater!
Katherine Fahey’s amazing crankie. See #1.
1. I was lucky enough to catch the work of the marvelous Baltimore artist Katherine Fahey at a Puppet Underground cabaret this week. She creates beautiful shadow puppet ‘crankies’ for music videos and other stories. Check out some of her work here and here.
2. One of the places that has long been on my ‘To Visit While in NYC’ list is the Museum of the Moving Image in Queens. Now that they have announced the upcoming Henson Gallery, devoted to all things Muppet, I think it should move to the top of the list.
3. Baby Universe is a play opening next week at Studio Theatre, that combines puppets with a variety of other media. I won’t be able to see it, but it looks amazing, so you should all go and then tell me about it!
4. Our friends at SCRAP DC have announced their Summer Carnival! Cake walks, lemonade, face paint and games and best of all, all the proceeds go to helping this fantastic crew continue to bring us unique, affordable and recycled arts supplies. Tickets available here.
Our Personal Puppet Show, whose point is to make you smile, and wonder a little.
This is Washington DC, so the first question you usually get upon meeting new people is “So, what do you do?” When I say I’m a puppeteer, two words are frequently heard: “Really?” and “Why?” A few weeks ago, performing the Personal Puppet Show at Fenton Street Market, a gentleman who sat down to see the show asked me afterward “What was the point of that?” At the time, I responded “To get you to smile–hey, look, it worked!” but I’ve continued to think about his question, as it’s one that I think many people seem to have about puppets and art in general.
Does art have to have a point? Can art exist on its own, free of any agenda or intention? Is that even possible? I wonder, because it seems that so much content created nowadays (digital and otherwise) is meant to make us THINK. Entertainment for children includes Important Information To Know and newspapers and websites abound with infographics and charts and statistics which will help you better understand the world around you. Not to say that any of this is bad. But sometimes, I think it’s important that art gives us a little break from all that. A space to smile, and let your mind wander. That, for me anyway, is the point.
Haven’t done one of these in awhile! I’m cleaning out the studio today, so here is a project that I put off for, oh, maybe a year and a half–organizing our stash of construction paper.
We don’t use it very often, so my habit has been to just buy a new stack if we need some and I can’t find the previous pack. Mixed in with all this, I found pieces of rubber foam, cardstock and a few blank puzzles. Hopefully I can keep it all separate from now on!
Wit's End Puppets 