puppetry | New York Theater

Symphonie Fantastique: Basil Twist’s innovative abstract puppet concert returns to HERE!

April 5, 2018 Leave a comment

You can say that Harriet Smithson, a famous Shakespearean actress, is the star of the Symphonie Fantastique by composer Hector Berlioz; she is also in a way the star of the Symphonie Fantastique by MacArthur Foundation “genius” artist Basil Twist—although in the Berlioz, Harriet exists only as flirtatious notes from violins and a flute, while in the Twist, she’s a bed sheet. Or, more precisely, she looks like a white bed sheet, but she’s actually a puppet, one of the many puppets in Twist’s show, none of them conforming to any recognizable animal or vegetable or even mineral….The twentieth-anniversary production of Twist’s innovative abstract puppet concert is being presented at HERE, the theatre where it debuted in 1998 to great acclaim.

Pianist Christopher O’Riley

Backstage with the puppeteers

Symphonie Fantastique 2 (c)Richard_Termine

Full article on HowlRound

Mabou Mines Fiddles with Tennessee Williams: Pics, Review of Glass Guignol

December 7, 2017 Leave a comment

In its forty-seventh year, Mabou Mines is inaugurating its first permanent home, the ninety-nine-seat Mabou Mines Theater in the East Village, with a newly devised piece called Glass Guignol: The Brother and Sister Play, a riff on Tennessee Williams that presents passages from four of his plays, most prominently The Glass Menagerie. But to summarize the piece in such a straightforward way fails to capture the elusiveness of the work by this celebrated avant-garde theatre company. Glass Guignol makes the recent, critically bludgeoned, experimental The Glass Menagerie directed by Sam Gold on Broadway feel like a production for the Hallmark Hall of Fame.

Full review on HowlRound

the ensemble of Mabou Mines’ Glass Guignol fitting actress Maude Mitchell with gigantic arms and feet and turning her into a giant living puppet

Cast: The Brother: Greg Mehrten The Sister: Maude Mitchell Inmate: Eamonn Farrell The Warden: Jessica Weinstein Blue Guitar: Alex “Tiappa” Klimovitsky Musicians: Jay Ansill, Marie Incontrera, John Kruth Ghost Children: Ruma Valentina, Macauley Farrell Del Vecchio The Inscrutable Stagehands: Jessica Smith, Sam Gibbs, Anthony Leung

Filed under Howlround, New York Theater, Off-Off Broadway, performance art, Photographs, puppetry, Theater Reviews

Made in China: Review and Pics of Bawdy Political Puppetry

January 18, 2017 Leave a comment

Wakka Wakka, the theater company behind Made in China, says the show is “inspired by true events.” I suspect the true part doesn’t include Mary and her neighbor getting sucked down her toilet and winding up in the People’s Republic of China, where a dragon eats them.

This puppet musical – equal parts surreal fantasy, bawdy romantic comedy, barbed political satire, and hilariously inventive visual spectacle — does include at least one true event, sort of. In a verified story that occurred in 2012, a New York shopper discovered inside the packaging of the boots she bought from Saks Fifth Avenue a handwritten note from someone seeking help, because he said he was a captive in a Chinese prison factory.

Full review at DC Theatre Scene

Made in China, a satirical puppet musical, was “inspired by true events,” according to Wakka Wakka, the theater company that produced it. I suspect the true part doesn’t include an American named Mary and her neighbor getting sucked down her toilet and winding up in the People’s Republic of China, where a dragon eats them. In any case, one of the most memorable moments occurred before that event, when Mary’s household appliances came to life, explaining that they were made in China – such as a toilet plunger. A gun sings: I was made by children in Hunan! Fifteen hours each day, they’re having fun! Safely tucked away from awful sun make for you the cheapest All-American gun! Pointed satire about worker exploitation and gun violence all in one verse. It was…memorable. Opened in January.