From: "Mary Horsley" <mphorsley-AT-earthlink.net>
To: puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org
Date: Sat, 27 May 2006 20:41:45 -0400
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH



I like the way you think, Bruce.....

Mary

"The great pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do."
-Walter Bagehot

"One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the
choices one makes. In the long run, we shape our lives and we shape
ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And, the choices we make
are ultimately our own responsibility."-----Eleanor Roosevelt

"Somebody should tell us, right at the start of our lives, that we are
dying. Then we might live life to the limit, every minute of every day. Do
it! I say. Whatever you want to do, do it now! There are only so many
tomorrows.

-Michael Landon

www.gentleteaching.com

We can't become what we need to be by remaining what we are.
 
--Oprah Winfrey
 




> [Original Message]
> From: Bruce Chesse <bchesse-AT-imagina.com>
> To: <puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org>
> Date: 5/27/2006 2:52:27 PM
> Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] AN INCONVENIENT TRUTH
>
> Here's another point of view
>
> Having worked professionally as a puppeteer and 
> an actor from the age of 13, I received a BA in 
> Anthropology(i963), and a Master's degree in 
> Creative Arts in 1969.  I was late in coming to 
> puppetry in terms of building and producing 
> shows. Like many theater people, puppetry was 
> secondary to my thoughts. In 69' I began teaching 
> theater and acting at Laney College. It was a 
> time of great change. My masters did not prepare 
> me to teach Drama to students who had no interest 
> in Shakespeare, Ibsen or Chekhov. So I went at 
> night to study with Del Close at "The Committee" 
> and teach their brand of improvisational theater 
> to my students during the day. After a year I 
> lost my job at Laney because I felt, contrary to 
> my department heads opinion, that the object of 
> teaching theater was not to train actors for a 
> profession in which 80% of the people in it were 
> unemployed. But rather, to put people in touch 
> with their own creativity and to give them skills 
> and the insight to make their own decisions. I 
> tried to introduce a puppetry program to further 
> that goal as well. The faculty at Laney turned 
> down my class proposal when one professor 
> compared a class in puppetry to offering a class 
> in "fly tying". My response was to stage a 
> demonstration  with puppets carrying signs which 
> stated "puppets are people too". We then came to 
> a parting of the ways and I found myself with 
> another job  working in the Vagabond Puppet 
> Program for the Oakland Recreation Program. I was 
> following Lettie Schubert and a long line of 
> traditionalists like Tony Urbano, Frank Oz, Jerry 
> Juel and others.
>
> That first year the program was run by a graduate 
> of the Bread an Puppet Theater and avant guard 
> playwright who's métier was agit prop theater. 
> Since this was the time of the student political 
> upheavals and the rise of the Black Panthers and 
> Huey Newton who were doing out reach programs 
> through out Oakland and East Oakland his ideas 
> fit in with the programs in the inner city. I 
> took over the next year and was the first person 
> to train black puppeteers and continue to focus 
> on creating original shows that dealt with 
> survival and issues that those in East Oakland 
> could relate to. I ran the program for three or 
> four years. When the P of A Festival  was held at 
> Mills College I was not invited to perform with 
> my Vagabond Troupe but Lettie, Frank and few 
> others ventured into town to see what we were 
> doing. They were not happy and looked upon my 
> efforts as loose, raucous and too political which 
> was a correct assessment. It was appropriate to 
> the time and fairy tales were not. It was only a 
> hop skip and jump to my involvement in Puppetry 
> in Education. The discovery I made then was that 
> puppetry is the finite tool with which to present 
> ideas, illustrating concepts while at the same 
> time doing it in such a way as to entertain as 
> well as enlighten others. Over the years I have 
> experienced the best of both possible worlds. In 
> the course of that time my puppets have addressed 
> and illustrated environmental issues such as 
> trash and recycling as part of the cities 1 
> Percent for the Arts program ($20,000), parental 
> sex abuse (had 9 to 10 disclosures at each 
> performance), sex education with Planned 
> Parenthood (every seen puppets do a gynecological 
> exam with good taste and tongue and cheek humor), 
> issues illustrating good hygiene, reading 
> programs and a three year program on Nutrition 
> for the Mt Diablo Unified School District that 
> significantly reduced waste in school cafeterias 
> by 60 %. The list goes on which brings me to my 
> main thesis puppets, better than any other art 
> form can focus minutely on issues with warmth and 
> humor enlightening others and in some instance 
> bringing about change. We know that the 
> commercial interests in this country take great 
> note of that and use it to great effect and bring 
> income to those working in that marketplace. 
> Global warming can be addressed in that way as 
> well to great effect(good reason to see the 
> movie). I have worked in both marketplaces as 
> well. Addressing such timely issues is a way of 
> contributing something positive to this world of 
> consumers and in one sense giving back to the 
> environment in exchange for what we take out.
>
> Bruce K Chessé
>
> >Hi folks-
> >thanks everyone for rallying around this topic; it's been amazing to see
the
> >responses. Just a thought, taking from John Bell and malgosia's
responses in
> >particular ...
> >
> >A.O. Scott says in the NYTimes review of this film:
> >"I can't think of another movie in which the display of a graph elicited
> >gasps of horror, but when the red lines showing the increasing rates of
> >carbon-dioxide emissions and the corresponding rise in temperatures come
on
> >screen, the effect is jolting and chilling. Photographs of receding ice
> >fields and glaciers - consequences of climate change that have already
taken
> >place - are as disturbing as speculative maps of submerged coastlines.
The
> >news of increased hurricane activity and warming oceans is all the more
> >alarming for being delivered in Mr. Gore's matter-of-fact, scholarly
tone."
> >
> >If we can argue that animated graphs and visual aids of this kind can be
a
> >form of puppetry, witness the effectiveness right HERE in changing minds
by
> >simply presenting information dynamically.
> >
> >At one point in his slideshow, Gore points out the startling population
> >growth curve on a huge graph which he literally SCALES in a
cherry-picker to
> >indicate the enormity of the trend.
> >
> >useful ideas for puppeteers, I hope ... and grist for the mill.
> >
> >cherry-picker, anyone?
> >
> >-Emmy
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