Intermission Magazine: When I asked Ronnie Burkett if he considered himself a “queer icon,” the 67-year-old master puppeteer let out a boisterous laugh.
“Look at me,” remarked the incredulous Burkett while adjusting his loose-fitting beige cardigan. “I don’t think icons look like this.”
Self-deprecating jests aside, few would deny that Burkett’s unapologetically campy Theatre of Marionettes has helped elevate the art of puppetry to new heights
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I love the vibes of this man. I love that he is unapologetically doing his thing and he is creating art in a way that tells the stories and spreads the messages that he thinks the world needs to hear. And through puppetry!! I think that puppets are so cool because they need to look good but also need to interact with an operator well and also need to be able to get an audience into the character that they are portraying, and pretty often they need to be able to express emotions through nonverbal communication like facial expressions or body language, which just makes their construction and design that much more complicated or intricate. I also love his quote about making shit up and pouring some of your bullshit and some of your self into the things that you do. He also said something that I very much agree with, which is that the audience makes it real, and its so special for an audience to take something not real and pretty much breathe realness into it by believing in it and giving it meaning.
This was a wonderfully wholesome read. 67-year-old Ronnie Burkett, a master puppeteer and seemingly incredibly creative, ‘elevates the art of puppetry’ as the article eloquently puts it, with his beloved and campy Theatre of Marionettes. The article focuses on Wonderful Joe (now in Toronto) and its heartfelt lessons, taught through the story of an optimistic older man and his dog after being evicted from their apartment. I liked Burkett’s perspective on theatrical puppetry- though mainstream puppetry grows, he prefers a smaller audience and a more intimate show focusing on the art over the business in order to shrink the world and prompt thought in the audience. I absolutely loved the article’s statement inspired by Burkett: “Yet, even after a lifetime of achievements, there will always be more stories to tell”. A legacy is not just the idea of oneself after you’ve left - it’s the ideas and stories you leave behind.
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