 |
The Rumpelstiltskin Society |
|
The Rumpelstiltskin Society |
2010 Scholarship recipient Camilla Henneman had this to say about PuppetFest Midwest 2010:
Day One
The day is Tuesday, July 6th and I’m on my way Trenton Missouri. Why Trenton? Well
it happens that Trenton Mo has a great little festival that is still a well-kept secret. Other
regions have their festivals. Tomatina, Spain has “The World’s Biggest Food Fight”,
Sonoma has its “World’s Ugliest Dog Festival”, but Trenton may very well have the
world’s greatest little puppet festival. For five days, some of the best puppeteers on
the continent come to Trenton to share their skills by offering intensive workshops and
performances for a very lucky group of festivalgoers.
I arrived in the afternoon and found lots of old friends, as well as meeting new ones.
While we snacked on fruit and delicious cookies baked by the incomparable Doris, we
got an update from our host, Debbie about where festival events would be taking place.
I went off to locate my room and found an effigy of Marie
Laveau, Voodoo queen of New Orleans. Cool! Unpacked and
headed off to dinner.
The first evening show was “Suspended Animation”, by
Phillip Huber of The Huber Marionettes. Fantastic show! Pix
Smith as our MC is living proof that Vaudeville is not dead.
Pix has taken particular care to point out the etiquette and
safety concerns one must follow when visiting our puppet
museum, particularly pointing out when, where and how NOT to poke our resident
artist, Jim Napolitano, “Nappy” with sharp pointed sticks. No doubt, Nappy will sleep
better, knowing that Pix has his back.
The Wild Onion is no more, but since the festival hired Pamela Infranca as our caterer, we have a new after hours joint. Pam’s Place is a cozy set of rooms bathed in a rosy glow of fairy lights and lava lamps. I realized that I had not eaten for almost two hours, and I indulged myself on the incredible spread and washed it down with spirits hand picked by Paul Mesner, who seems to be seems to be the resident expert on spirits of the liquid variety. So far I have eaten 3 meals and I have only been here 5 &1/2 hours! I hope I packed some elastic-waist pants.
Day 2
Planned to get up at 7:00 for yoga, but went back to bed instead. At
8:00 I crawled downstairs to get coffee and breakfast and then off to
our workshop. I am taking Art Gruenberger’s Table Top Puppetry.
Art started us off with a theater exercise where the seven of us had
to work together to place a hula-hoop on the floor. It might have
been simple except that the tall people kept pushing the hoop up,
instead of putting it down. (Note to self, keep an eye on the tall
people, they could be troublemakers)
10:00 morning break and more of Doris’ cookies and then back to class where we brainstormed the “essentials of good puppet manipulation” We narrowed it down to: focus, clarity, economy of movement, variation of tempo, and deliberate movement for
some of the key elements. In tabletop puppetry puppeteer who controls the head leads the movement for the puppet while the other puppeteers supports that movement with the other limbs. It seems simple enough. I believe I am starting to get the hang of this. After lunch I spent some time in the raffle room where I put most of my tickets on the alligator. There were already too many tickets in there…. Hmmm, I wonder who my competition is? Afternoon snack, ( Do I really need to eat? I decide, better safe than sorry) and then we were off to the opening of the puppet museum. Phillip Huber has again created another incredible museum of puppets on top of teaching a class and performing. WOW! Jim Napolitano (Nappy’s Puppets) is on display at the puppet museum too. I wanted to pick his brain, but apparently so did everyone else. After dinner there was a little while to unwind and check Facebook before we head off to the evening’s show. Monica of Eulenspiegel’s Puppets performed her piece, ”Finding Home” which was a trilogy of pieces, about Monica’s parents and their immigration experiences. I was so touched by this performance that I was weeping by the end. I loved it and apparently needed a good cry. (So did a few others, as I wasn’t the only one wiping my eyes) Of course we ended the evening at Pam’s Place. I drowned my melancholy with Red Stripe beer from Jamaica. There were great marionette performances, & games (led by our new friend Marianne from Australia, in between songs) and more delicious food.
Day 3
Our class started with a field trip to Nick Barone’s class to watch them try the hula-hoop
exercise. Apparently Nick doesn’t have any of the troublesome tall folk and after a few
false starts his class was able to set down the hula-hoop in record time! Perhaps someone
let them in on the secret (gravity).
Today, as soon as we started to get the hang of the manipulation, Art put “obstructions” in our way. He added obstacles such as: Puppeteers must all close their eyes, or stand in one spot, or only use 2 fingers to move the puppet. Some puppet obstacles were: Puppet has been drinking too much coffee, puppet has a bad cold, puppet must perform actions in a wind tunnel, zero gravity, underwater, upside-down. We leave class feeling like we have had a great workout.
Tonight’s performance was Grey Seal’s “Tangle of Tales” which was a fun performance of three fractured fairy tales. Drew Allison wove some short scenes with wacky puppets through the show. Afterwards, we had another memorable evening at Pam’s Place with tempting food, margaritas and more great entertainment with puppets and song.
Day 4
Workshops. We started to work on our performance piece. I feel like I am today’s obstruction. (Could someone please explain to me how this “force” thingy works?)
YIKES! We have to perform this tomorrow?
Morning break. (I needed those cookies, but now they are gone!) Back to workshops.
And more practice with the “force”.
This was the afternoon of Swap & Shop. After dinner I helped out in the raffle room, which heated up, as folks got serious about what toys they MUST have! (For me, that would be the alligator). The evenings show was a hilarious performance of “Puss In Boots” by Paul Mesner & Co, which included a naked guy in a hot tub and a soon to become famous (and coveted) rabbit. Back to Pam’s Place for more food, drink, & amazing performances.
Day 5
Last full day, sniff. Moved button over on pants. We had our final rehearsal for the
tabletop puppet performance,
after five days of hard work
we were really coming
together as a unit. With some
final encouragement and nail
biting from Art, we suited up
in our blacks, and got ready
for our afternoon’s
performance piece. Our
class did a performance of a
superhero VS supervillian
skit that we titled after our
beloved (and patient)
leader, “Art Wars” We were
finally working as a unit
(even the tall people).
We also all got to see the
amazing projects that other
classes had been doing in their own workshops.
After the afternoons show & tell I am told there was a hilarious game of Puppet Jeopardy. I am sorry to say I missed this, as I was madly building a shadow puppet for late night. Van Tranh, a friend and fellow workshop mate and I (with help from Sean Henson) decided to create a shadow puppet performance of a Tom Waits song, called ”The Piano Has Been Drinking”. It took a bit of time, but Van and I were determined!
The final evening performance was from Groark, who performed with his lovable sidekick, Randell. It is remarkable how well that dragon has taught his puppeteer!
This was our last night at Pam’s Place. Van and I planned to perform our shadow play. Though our class was over, the obstructions seemed to follow. We broke our light. The table was too short for our stage and the sound system refused to cooperate. Nick helped us sort out the light and stage, and Jim (Nappy) Napolitano came to our rescue by singing the song live. This turned out to be one of the highlights of the festival for me. The last night’s shows were wickedly funny. I learned a few pointers about recycling from Peter, which I think he should offer as a class next year.
Day 6
The Raffle! I won the coveted green alligator! We picked up our last meal in a bag to go.
These five days have gone too fast. I was not ready to leave, but I discovered that I would
have plenty of time to reminisce, as Delta cancelled my flight to San Francisco. They
were able to get me on a flight to Atlanta though. (Don’t get me started) I arrived in San
Francisco the next morning. My luggage and the green alligator continued to travel and
would eventually come home some days later.
It seems like since I have been coming, each year, PFMW just keeps getting better. I am
so grateful for the opportunity to come this year, thanks to the scholarship committee and
everyone who contributed.
Well, next PuppetFest Midwest 2011 is only 360 days away and I’ll see you all there.
That is when I get back from La Tomatina, Spain, where I plan to participate in next
years “World’s Biggest Food Fight”, if the schedule doesn’t conflict, that is. See you
then!
Camilla Henneman