Chicago Reader: The 6th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival swept through Chicago as vigorously as the cold front that accompanied much of it, and puppets dominated venues all around Chicago for ten straight days from January 18 to 28. With lots of last-minute add-ons for sold-out shows, theatergoers responded eagerly to the multicultural feast.
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There were a couple reasons I found this to be interesting. The first thing that caught my attention was the photos of the puppets themselves. Most of the time when I think of puppets I think of silly little arts and crafts and children. Which is absolutely wild because I am a theater maker and I know that is not true. I was really impressed by the quality of the puppets and the level of style the artist was able to incorporate into them. I would really love to learn more about the process of making puppets; or maybe even see a time lapse of it. I cannot even imagine how long it would take and the patience necessary to finish a puppet like these. The other thing that caught my attention was the shadow puppetry. I think it's another thing I often neglect to think about but funny enough I was talking with the lighting designer for Macbeth today about shadow puppetry. I think it is a really simple way to elevate a show to a whole new level.
Puppetry is a really cool branch of theater and entertainment that unfortunately we don’t get to touch on a lot in this program. I grew up near the University of Connecticut, which has a very highly ranked puppetry program, so I was able to be exposed to and appreciate the art of puppetry. They’re a really good way to help an audience relate to something or someone that isn’t a human or otherwise relatable character. Case in point, all of Wakka Wakka’s animal trilogy performances. They sounded really interesting and powerful, and I would love to be able to see one. Another performance that stood out to me was Loco7’s Lunch with Sonia, I think because of its topic of assisted suicide. It’s a unique topic and I think it’s one of those things that theater is just great at addressing, so I’m really intrigued by it. It would be cool if we were able to integrate more puppets into our shows here, but I guess there’s really no room for it in the program.
Oh, I love puppets. They are such a personal art form, crafting something with wood, paper mache, glue, and paint, then using skill to orient the piece to be alive is so cool to me. It turns into something so personal and entertaining. I have taken puppeteer classes before and it really makes you think about the joints of something and how it moves. Kimzyn Campbell, Irene Hsiao, and Kerry Reid discuss cool puppets they saw in Chicago. Wakka Wakka’s Dead as a Dodo, stood out to me, creepy and eery– very up my alley. It also looks simple to make which interests me. I also really like this Song of the North puppet. Shadow puppets are very effortlessly beautiful to me, using negative and positive space, shadow puppets beautifully juxtapose their surroundings. There was also a lifesize Lunch with Sonia puppet. This was an awesome puppet to look at– sitting on a chair, and two puppeteers fluttering butterflies around her.
Puppets are so cool. I am constantly blown away by the artistry and technology that can be found in puppets, and one of my favorite things is how the word “puppet” can turn into so many different puppets that all look so different. The form of a puppet can be anything, and that creativity is something I find really cool. It’s kind of like sci-fi people developing alien species for their books and movies. It’s so cool what people can think of, and even cooler how they are able to craft them. That’s definitely something I saw in this article, where I was fascinated by the details and intricacies of the puppets mentioned in the article. They’re all so different, and become essentially all a unique piece of sculpture work, but they’re all puppets, and that’s really cool. Someday, I hope that I’m able to attend one of these puppet festivals, as I think they are a fascinating way to get to see a lot of a fascinating art form.
I personally love puppets. I have been going to puppet shows since I was about 7 years old. The Center for Puppetry Arts is a place I hold dear to my heart, as that is where I saw many puppets shows in my childhood. Since then, I have continued to love puppets, and enjoy watching them but at this point I also enjoy learning all about them. I have crafted some puppets and learned how to craft them myself, however, I still have a lot more to learn about effective puppetry and designing an effective puppet. My favorite Puppet I designed and built so far was Audrey 2, but I have made other ones on a smaller scale. Given the chance however I would design Audrey again and again as Little Shop of Horrors is one of my favorite shows. Overall, I enjoyed reading this article and learning about all these puppets, and their different features. It reminded me of my childhood going to the Puppetry Museum and seeing their shows, it was a nice trip down memory lane.
I’ve only made puppets like once or twice, and they’ve always been quite badly made, and even the ones that my friends have made were also quite bad, and to be honest, I haven’t seen many shows with puppets in it, so I haven’t really seen well-made puppets. I have seen warhorse before, and those horses were AMAZING! I’ve also seen the horse puppets in real life when I was touring a theatre in London, and those were really cool to see in real life, because it looks so intricate despite how big they are. The puppets shown in this article are so cool and meaningful, and there so much interactions that goes into it. Seeing this article makes me think about my basic design projects, and how I can use different elements to make what I want, or ways I can use different materials to create art.
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