Sabbatical Adventures- Stop 1 Chicago

Costumes from Sleeping Beauty

At the end of January, I braved the ridiculously cold weather (it was just as frigid in A2) to go to Chicago. I arrived a couple of days early to connect with alums and friends, and to see the Paul Tazewell exhibit at the Museum of Science & Industry. Highly recommend! I really appreciate the emphasis on process, and how Paul uplifts his family, drawing on his lived experiences as part of his process, as well as the expertise of all of the makers and artisans he works with to produce the costumes he designs. It was great to see some of the costumes up close, and hear Paul’s voice in what was a truly immersive experience.

The timing of this trip was to participate in the second Catapult weekend as part of the Chicago International Puppet Theatre Festival. This was my second time attending, as I participated in the program on my last sabbatical, seven years ago. It has grown so much! It was so exciting to see such a wide range of styles across eight different shows with a cohort of 22 folks in one weekend. In our group, there were current college students, educators, and retirees, makers, artists and arts supporters. Folks came from all over the States from Seattle to Maine. Additional activities included a presentation and discussion on generative AI (can open, worms all over the place), and a panel discussion on fundraising. But, the magic of the weekend was seeing all the shows. Here’s a brief overview and links to the artists’ works of my favorite pieces from that weekend:

The end is near! Photo by Plexus Polaire

Trust Me For Awhile by Plexus Polaire. This can most easily be described as a ventriloquist puppet horror show. The company took the practice of ventriloquism and completely upended it; it was super self aware, technically superb, and overall just really weird, funny, and fabulous! It started off looking like a vaudeville ventriloquist act- a guy with a dummy who was pretty good at lobbing his voice- with witty banter veering into insults. Then, the dummy takes over: first being manipulated by someone else who was completely hidden, then springing to life as a performer wearing a mask looking like the original dummy. The roles of who was a puppet and who was a puppeteer was completely disrupted. Total chaos and destruction. 

Backstage with performers. Photo by Catapult participant

About Ram by KatKatha Puppet Arts Trust. I was grateful the program for this piece had a synopsis of this portion of the Ramayana, as most western audiences are not familiar with the story. Based on this epic poem, it was operatic in scope, but the piece was rooted in movement, animation (using shadow puppets) and music. The choreography was specific, evocative and captivating, and the forms seamlessly flowed from one to another. The story is ideally suited for puppetry as characters transform, the violence of battle could be suggested theatrically, and the emotional toll transferred from the performers to bring the puppets to life. 

The Sex Lives of Puppets- Couple 1, Photo by Blind Summit

Sex Lives of Puppets by Blind Summit. This was the most polished of all the pieces and rooted in exceptional acting and voice work. I have been a big fan of Blind Summit’s work for years after first seeing The Table and Shun-Kin (Complicité) 10 years ago. The structure is a series of vignettes, each performed by 2-4 actors, of 1-2 puppets being interviewed about their sex lives. Obviously it was hilarious and cheeky, but it was a reminder that puppets can do and say things humans can’t or won’t do or say, at least, in this case, on stage in front of an audience. It reminded me a little of the old couple interviews throughout When Harry Met Sally, only all these puppets talked about was sex. In chatting through the show with other Catapult folks, we agreed the order of the vignettes was a little out of balance tone-wise, but as a whole the show was a true highlight of the weekend. The Act 1 Finale was “puppet porn” all performed as shadow puppetry, growing to a level of cartooned ridiculousness that was absurd in its explicitness, but permissible because, PUPPETS! The final scene was a totally chaotic orgy of muslin puppet bodies, vaguely reminiscent of the highly detailed table top puppets used in the vignettes throughout the piece, ending up in a big pile of, well, humanity.

I am awe of what the Chicago International Puppet Theatre Festival is able to produce each year. Half of the artists are international, a quarter from the US, and a quarter from Chicago, which highlights both local artists and global perspectives. They performed in more than 20 different venues across the city, plus two neighborhood tours, including multiple free events, truly expanding access to artists and audiences alike.