Backstage at Kismet

Posted on May 15, 2013 by ccbooks

Each performance of Cabinets of Kismet moves quickly and there is little time to stand still or relax. Everyone is constantly picking up puppets, shifting set pieces, prepping puppets or props or lights and getting into place. But I did manage to sneak my phone backstage last week and take a few snaps of the silliness that ensues in our idle seconds. Amie loves Text Monster, as you can see in these photos:

Amie indicating that all puppets are ready to go.

Amie making a face at paperfish.

Waiting with Widget behind a unit.

Waiting for the video sequence to finish, in the light of the projector.

Kismet Photos

Posted on May 13, 2013 by ccbooks

Only one weekend left to see The Amazing and Marvelous Cabinets of Kismet! We recommend buying tickets online–we have a relatively small number of seats and would hate to have you miss out. I’m excited to be able to share some of our beautiful production photos today, taken by C. Stanley Photography!

Kismet, discovering that his world has been destroyed.

Puppeteer Amie Root, with Lightbulb Head.

Matt Reckeweg and Genna Davidson, with Kismet and Jellybird.

Puppeteers Amy Kellett, Cecilia Cackley and Genna Davidson, with Nurse, Zoom and King Lamp.

Kismet Audiences React

Posted on May 11, 2013 by ccbooks

A few of the comments we’ve been hearing (or overhearing) after performances of Cabinets of Kismet:

Press Mentions

Posted on May 7, 2013 by ccbooks

Kismet hitches a ride on Jellybird. Photo by C. Stanley Photography

The Amazing and Marvelous Cabinets of Kismet has been getting attention in both print and online media, thanks to interested writers and some very kind reviewers! Below, a selection of mentions from the past few weeks.

Jacqueline Lawton, one of D.C.’s most accomplished dramaturges and playwrights, was kind enough to profile us on her blog.

Stephanie Merry of The Washington Post Weekend section, wrote a fantastic preview article about Kismet.

Reviews have been coming in over the past week from DC Theatre Scene, Maryland Theater Guide, DC Metro Theater Arts and The Washington Post.

Check back soon for a post on some of the comments we’ve been hearing from audiences!

April Grab Bag

Posted on April 24, 2013 by ccbooks

I fell down the rabbit hole of the TED website recently, with the result that this month’s grab bag is a mix of TED videos. Some are directly related to puppetry, others are more tangential. But they all made me think, wonder, and get excited about being a working artist in the world today. Enjoy!

1. I was intrigued by the descriptions of arts festivals in this talk by producer David Binder; I was reminded of Ping Chong’s series Undesirable Elements as well as the upcoming Figment. And I REALLY want to get a closer look at those giant puppets!

2. In conversation the other day, a puppeteer friend and I were discussing how many people now immediately think of War Horse when you mention puppets. Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler of Handspring Puppet Company talk about their amazing creations for that show in this talk.

3. Amanda Palmer is a musician, but she used to work as a living statue, a form of street performance that I’ve always loved. In this talk, she explains the art of asking and value of connecting with an audience. Lots of food for thought.

4. Traditional Chinese hand puppetry performed by Chen Xi Huang, with an amazing fighting sequence.

http://talentsearch.ted.com/video/Chen-Xi-Huang-The-ancient-art-o;TEDShanghai

5. This I think was the first TED talk (actually, TEDx talk) I ever saw, by one of the design editors at National Geographic, Oliver Uberti. I remember thinking that his comment that many of his projects “have a high risk of being terrible” sounded a lot like building a puppet. He also sounds like he’s had similar awkward conversations with employees of hardware stores who don’t quite understand what you’re trying to do!

http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/TEDxNASA-Oliver-Uberti-Smash-Th;search%3Aoliver%20uberti

These are five TED videos that intrigued me, but there are many, many more that I love and that I’m sure you will love. If you have some free time, check out the site and watch some videos. I’m sure you’ll find some interesting ideas!

March Grab Bag

Posted on March 26, 2013 by ccbooks

See item #2.

This month’s grab bag has a decidedly paperish theme, perhaps because we spent so much time building paper puppets at the beginning of the month. Here are some videos, artists and events that caught my eye:

1. Artist Irving Harper is profiled on the website Etsy; take a look at his amazing paper creations!

2. The animated short Paperman by Disney won an Academy Award, proving that paper airplanes are the route you should take to find love! This is the same award won by Shaun Tan in 2010 for his short based on the picture book The Lost Thing. See the trailer for Paperman here.

3. Another spectacular combination of paper and video is the music video of this song by Josh Ritter. 12,000 pieces of construction paper were used!

4. Richard Sweeney is an artist from the UK whose paper sculptures have greatly influenced our designs for the environment and creatures for Paper World. You can take a look at his amazing creations on his Flickr page.

5. We were excited to see the dates announced for Figment DC 2013! After our fantastic experience last year, which you can read about in this blog post, we are starting to think about what we can offer audiences at this year’s event. Maybe it will involve paper! Who knows?

February Grab Bag

Posted on February 21, 2013 by ccbooks

PUPPET STANDUP! See #3 for all info.

1. An interview with Shaun Tan that made me slightly less grumpy that I missed his Keynote Address at the SCBWI Winter Conference earlier in the month. Favorite quote: “…we have to make sense of ourselves within a world that can shift and change radically…” That’s the story of Cabinets of Kismet in a nutshell!

2. Basil Twist, who is one of the most well-known contemporary puppeteers in the US, is creating a lobby installation as part of The Rambler by the Joe Good Performance Group. At the American Dance Institute, March 2 and 3; more info here.

3. Standup is a tough business, particularly when you’re a puppet. THIS Saturday, February 23 at 8 & 10pm, come support local puppets in Puppet Standup, a showcase of the best puppet comics working today. Get tickets here and if you use the code GRABBAG, you’ll get 20% off General Admission tickets to the 10pm show! Don’t miss this unique event (no ventriloquists here!) at the Warehouse Theater, 645 New York Ave, NW.

4. If you’re searching for a fun night out this week or next week, look no further than the Mead Theater Lab at Flashpoint and the show Canterbury, produced by our friends at the Pointless Theatre Company.

5. Our friends at Puppets in Prague still have a few spaces left in their March workshops on making marionettes, for anyone lucky enough to be in Prague this spring.

January Grab Bag

Posted on January 25, 2013 by ccbooks

Some interesting puppet-related links and videos from around the world that I came across this month:

1. Titeres Monini is a puppet company from Mexico. This video of their show telling the story of the Meso-American feathered serpent god Quetzalcoatl shows their truly stunning shadow puppets.

2. Salt & Poppet Theater from Australia created the shadow puppets in this video. The poem was written and read by Neil Gaiman. Note to self: new goal is to create puppets for a poem by a favorite author.

3. When I was performing in the Avignon Off Festival in 2009, one of my favorite shows that I saw was an Italian version of Sleeping Beauty called Rosaspina that included puppets. After a little digging, I found the show on YouTube! It still makes me smile.

4. Perchance to Dream is a theater company from New York that is now starting to produce in D.C! Welcome! Everyone should go see their production of Twelfth Night (it has puppets!!) at Fort Fringe that starts on February 8. More info and ticket sales can be found here.

5. Shaun Tan has a new book! It’s actually a museum catalogue called The Oopsatoreum and it details the (fictional) inventions of a fictional inventor named Henry Mintox. The book was produced for the Sydney Powerhouse Museum (I wish the Smithsonian museums had cool names like that) and goes with an exhibition that they are putting together this year. More information is on Tan’s website here.

When Faced With Darkness

Posted on December 17, 2012 by ccbooks

In trying to process Friday’s events in Connecticut, I found myself thinking of the text of The Red Tree by Shaun Tan, where the unnamed narrator states “…the world is a deaf machine without sense or reason” and “…terrible fates are inevitable…sometimes you just don’t know what you are supposed to do or who you are supposed to be…” Right now, I can understand that feeling. As an artist, people are important to me. As an educator, children are supremely important to me, and I cannot comprehend why anyone would want to hurt them. I create puppets because I want to share emotions and experiences with other people through story. When something like this happens, it is easy to be overwhelmed and question our world.

So I’m trying to work, and create and make art because that is what I know how to do. And hopefully, as in Tan’s story, things will get better in the end. Be well, world.

Wit's End Puppets

Category Archives: World