Report PuppetLOVE! 2000

Report from PuppetLOVE! 2000

peter king	red eye puppet collective	art & revolution

This years festival, held March 31-April 2 at Cellspace was packed from start to finish, with good attendance at all three nights of performance, 6 small but highly sucessful workshops and a lovely artists dinner on Saturday evening before the show. The weekend felt like a fabulous beginning to renewed energy for puppetry on the West Coast. Join us in April 2001 for more!!!!

Thanks to all the artists, volunteers and festival atendees who made PuppetLOVE! 2000 a great success. And BIG special thanks to the Zellerbach Family Fund and Heather Henson whose financial contributions made it possible to pay everyone!! Yay!!

GALLERY

Entering Cellspace was like entering a magical wonderland on the PuppetLOVE! weekend. Crammed with puppets of all styles and sizes, from a huge sculptural dragon made by the residents of Continuum to paper mache vultures on high (Peter King), complete pupept environments (K.Ruby, Jo Jo LaPlume) shadow boxes (Kim Brown) and soft puppets (Whitney Combs, Sam Bower) the gallery exhibit represented a range of artistry from rough to sophisticated. Other artists represented were Emma Coleman, Trevor Tuttle, Jonathan Youtt, Giant Puppets by Homeless Youth, Art & Revolution, David Morley, and Charlie of Cellspace.

trevor tuttle

emma coleman

homeless youth

WORKSHOPS

Though workshop attendance was fairly low, each one had it's own wonderful flavor and the attendees enjoyed themselves immensely. In Moja (of Shadowlight Production's) workshop people created shadow headdresses and costumes and got to work with them behind the scrim. The 8 women who attended K.Ruby's workshop learned the intricasies of 3D cardboard construction and worked together to create a giant sculptural lion. "Pierre" was later shown in the gallery. David Morley had a good sized group for his workshop on counterbalance marionettes. By the end of the weekend he had 4 or 5 people signed up for a longer class. Johnathan Youtt held a small but playful workshop on percussive puppetry where the participants learned rythyms, played games and made music. The two kids workshops (with Diana Shmiana and Jo Jo La Plume) were a big success. Both were packed with kids and parents making marionette snakes and rod puppets with lots of feathers, googly eyes, glitter and glue.

cardboard construction

kids' workshop

shadow puppetry

PERFORMANCES--Content and Controversy

The three nights of performance were diverse in content, style and level of artistry. Represented were shadow puppets (Me 1st! Collective, Bonesetter's Shadow Theatre, Red Eye Collective), mask work (Teatro ng Tanan), rod puppets (Michael McLaughlin), hand puppets (Scott Levkoff), giant puppets (Art & Revolution, Emre & Lev Yilmaz), object theatre (Liebe Wetzel/Lunatique Fantastique, Max/a passing fancy), toy theatre (The Hand Shakes), bunraku puppets (Up A Tree Collective), marionettes (Darren Way/Folly's Fables), percussive puppets (Monkey Thump), video puppetry (Protozoa) and a slide show (Hank Hyena). Themes ranged from biotechnology, environmental issues, global politics, human misery and human folly, child abuse, and social responsibility. Highlights on the level of overall theatricality and artistry were Liebe Wetzel's "Prosecution of Bill Pruitt" and Scott Levkoff's work as the MC Diabolo and his Punch and Judy. Both of these artists showed their comitment to detail and a fine balance between visual imagery, humor and poignancy in their highly theatrical works. Michael McLaughlin's "No Exit" and Emre and Levs short piece on life's misery were both hilarious, with their strength in the humor and style of their scripts. Red Eye Collective and a passing fancy offered exquisitely visual pieces, showing a high level of attention to aestetic consistency in line, color and form. The work of Bonesetter, Me 1st and The Hand Shakes offered a balance between puppet visuals and humor in their scripts. Art and Revolution did a great job with their highly poilitcal, community based work-in-progress about the IMF, World Bank and the WTO and their crimes against humanity. Though the level of artistry uneven, everything had something good about it. The only real bomb turned out not to be a bomb at all, but did create a huge controversy.

On the "Adult Night" Darren Way of Folly's Fable's, who makes incredible marionettes carved from Manzanita, presented a piece that was not only poorly executed, but was also perceived by many as sexist, racist and offensive. He hadmeant in someway to highlight this, as he had planted a fight between a man and a woman in the audience. "This is not art!" said the guy, after we sat uncomfortably through several "over -the-top," crude child molestation jokes, "Give me the keys!" He stormed out and with him over 1/3 of the audience. A few people called out that the producers should stop the performance. Making a split second decision, myself (K.Ruby) and Jonathan Youtt as presenters claimed we would not censor the artist, nor would we censor those opposed; we would not stop the show, nor prevent others from stopping it if that's what they needed to do. A discussion began in the lobby which continued after Darren's performance, as several people confronted Darren, who was shocked that his work could engender such strong responses or that anyone would think he condones child abuse. Julie Sparling of Cellspace took the microphone and started a speak out. Many women got up to say that felt abused by the work, especially as those who had suffered such abuse in the past. Others felt the work was harmless but that the artist had done a poor job in getting his point across. Many agreed that there should be a warning before such material is presented. Though others felt this warning was explicit as it was already stated as an evening of "Adult" work. As producers we were confronted with the issue of what we might do in the future.Are we responsible for quality control of artistry and content of the works we present? and to what extent? We had known that Darren's work was raunchy, but knew that many also found it funny. We had no idea he would take things in the direction he did and were offended but refused to censor his work. In the end I think that most people felt good about what happened. The outrageousness of the work offered an opportunity for dialogue and growth on many sides and the people who stayed through the dialogue surely went away with new ideas about the power of puppetry (read the letter below for one person's response to the event).

scott levkoff's punch

up a tree collective

lunatique fantastique

April 2, 2000

Dear PuppetLOVE!,

Thank you for producing the April 1st show at Cellspace. I especially want to thank you for handling the deeply affected emotions put out by the audience. You have earned my utmost respect. You validated everyone's opinions, which is exactly what was needed. I wonder if you do send out some sort of mailing or mention the event (to raise awareness) if you could include this letter (I was too chicken to speak in front of a live audience, but I'm dying for all those people to hear me!). Maybe you could publish some sort of reaction. Here's mine:

Many women got upset because they were forced to watch something so horrid and callous (maybe something they experienced in life themselves). And there was no warning. The artist's intention was to portray real life. Thus, he made the molester as evil as he could possibly be. He was in no way condoning it. He was showing it to make people aware this really happens.

Many people think there should have been a warning. There is no warning in real life molestation. If Darren put in a warning how could he have ever made the show realistic/ Is there a rule in puppetry where only unpainful themes be presented? If so, why? Did any of these people se Pulp Fiction? Did they call Quentin Tarantino to say he had forced them to watch the rape scene? Why is it that when presented in a puppet show, half the audience leaves, yet when presented in a movie it's nominated for 6 Academy Awards? Talk about hypocritical!! I was raped. I was glad the theme was in the show. People can go on pulling the wool over their eyes and not want to see, hear or feel anything that deals with the matter--but it still exists. Why not make people aware? WHY NOT in a puppet show?

Name Withheld

michael mclaughlin

bonesetter shadow theatre

the hand shakes