My invitation to perform in July at the Great Lakes Festival
of Puppetry in Madison, Wisconsin, USA was due to the success of
my first visit to the USA in 1999, when thanks to the efforts of Gigi Sandberg,
I performed & ran workshops at the Puppeteers of America Festival
of the Millennium in Seattle. Dorlis Grubidge, Artistic director
of the Madison Festival, saw me in Seattle, and asked me to perform at
their smaller regional Festival, which was a great privilege for me, as
the only other international performers at the festival were the Vietnamese
Water Puppets. Like Seattle, the Great Lakes Festival was mainly devoted
to puppetry, with all those attending being puppeteers delegates. This
meant one was performirig to a critical audience. The show I took was my
production about the English painter Turner, Mr Turner gets steamed
up, and I was pleased that the American audience laughed at the
'English jokes' as well as enjoying visual effects.
I performed my show at a late night 'double-bill' with Brother John Bankert, an Anglican friar of the Franciscan order, from New York, who performed Euripides' Greek Tragedy, The Bacchae. His show was in complete contrast to my way of playing, with a simple set of Greek columns & Figures in Ancient Greek style. He did all the voices in the play 'live' with the original idea of giving the voices of the doomed Royal Household a 'Southern states drawl'. The serenity of the set was dramatically changed near the end of the play, when the God Dionysus appears and the black background turns green. Brother John, dressed for the only time in his brown monk's habit, also gave a very funny performance in the festival, telling the creation story, by singing it in plainsong, whilst at the same time producing from the folds of his habit an inflatable planet earth, moon, sunhat, bunch of flowers, & various animals & birds made out of balloons.
The large room used for our performances was also the setting for the workshop sessions which I gave over 4 days. All the 8 participants were experienced puppeteers, who had never attempted to make model theatre show before. Thanks to Gigi Sandberg, who had made up a whole set of small theatres with grooved stages & lights, those taking part could start creating their own shows, that they asked for the workshop sessions to be extended, & some of them took their productions back to their sleeping quarters, where they worked on them late into the night!
On the final day of the festival performances of the workshop shows were given before an audience. The style, content & artwork of each production were very different & of a very high standard. Subject matter included: A Japanese ghost story, a Jewish folk tale, a funny feminist piece featuring La Cucuracca the cockroach (definitely not suitable for children), an Aesop fable, Hiawatha, & a hilarious version of Pinnochio.
I proposed that all the performers did their voices 'live' with backing music on tape if needed. This resulted in two of the performers getting the audience to take part - one had them singing a song, the other had them making farmyard animal voices! Although I would love to give details of all the performers & their productions, and how quickly they all understood the potential of the medium, time will allow me to mention just one show in particular. This was the work of Jim Rose, a 3rd generation professional puppeteer from a well known family of American puppeteers; his version of Pinnochio must be one of the funniest 'Toy Theatre' shows ever made. With beautifully drawn simple figures that changed poses at great speed, Jim's wise-cracking American style of delivery, had the audience roaring with laughter throughout its 5 minute duration. There were also some good underwater effects when Pinnochio is inside the fish, & Jim had also learnt my method of throwing figures & scenery on the floor when no longer needed - a first at a workshop!
The sessions did a lot to raise the status of 'Toy Theatre' amongst the puppeteering community in America, and as well as the performances & workshops, Don Abramson, a 'Toy Theatre' collector from Chicago, presented an exhibition of traditional English & European Toy Theatres, wich helped put the whole event in context.
I am very pleased that I will be able to make a 3rd visit to the USA, in November, where the other great champions of American Toy Theatre: Great Small Works, have invited me to perform at their New York Festival, which will be totally devoted to model theatre.
In addition to Robert Poulter are Joe Gladwin, GB, Frits Grimmelikhuizen, NL, Alain Lecucq, F, and Dirk Reimers, D, all bound for the New York Festival in November. The European Paper Theatre will be well represented in the New World!