Date: Tue, 7 Nov 2006 16:22:55 -0500
From: "John Bell" <John_Bell-AT-emerson.edu>
To: <puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org>
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Charles Ludlam


Steve is absolutely correct, in my opinion: Ludlam was a genius, one of our country's great contributions to theater.  He was also a great puppeteer, and (like many other theatermakers who totally understood and appreciated puppetry), his knowledge of the possibilities of puppet theater fruitfully informed all his other theater work...  Hurray for Charles Ludlam!!

jb

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	puptcrit-bounces-AT-lists.driftline.org [mailto:puptcrit-bounces-AT-lists.driftline.org]  On Behalf Of steve abrams
Sent:	Tuesday, November 07, 2006 3:16 PM
To:	puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org
Subject:	Re: [Puptcrit] Charles Ludlam

Charles Ludlam was one one of my all time greatest heroes.
I rarely use this term but I think he was a genius, and he made me laugh 
more than anyone I can think of.
I did Puppetry Journal obit for Charles.

I saw the ventriloquist show mentioned by John Bell
It was called the ventriloquist's wife and the vent figure was named Walter 
Ego.
I think Walter Ego is in the collection of the vent museum in Kentucky.

I seem to remember that some his puppets were acquired by a college in 
Brooklyn and then those puppets were transfered to the Ballard Institute.

Charles included puppets in several of of his other shows. Adam Kilgour made 
some of them. He played in Charles hilarious version of Camille  (not with 
puppets) under the name Adam McCadam

There is a thick volumn of Charles's plays and I think there is a script of 
his puppet version of Jack and the Beanstalk.

I saw Charles' punch and judy several times.
He added a witch who studied acting at the Moscow Art Theatre and the witch 
was very jealous of the show's female star, Judy

Charles has hugely fond of movie divas (or any diva for that matter) so this 
was sort of combined Punch and Judy and "all about eve" a famous Bette Davis 
movie.

The outrageous twists and turns and unexpected references were part of his 
amazing comic gifts
His pardoies and comedies came out  of a deep love and knowledge of all 
forms of theatre and acting.

I wish everyone on this list could have seen his work.
Steve



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Northwest Puppet Center" <nwpuppet-AT-earthlink.net>
To: <puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org>
Sent: Tuesday, November 07, 2006 2:39 PM
Subject: [Puptcrit] Charles Ludlam


> Dear Steve and other critters,
>
> One of our supporters, Ted Kilmer, donated a cop hand puppet used by 
> Charles Ludlam, presumably from his Punch and Judy show.  It is one of the 
> puppets that we listed as part of a survey I did for Museum Loan Network. 
> Sorry the online catalogue is only open to curators with password but I'm 
> emailing a photo directly to Steve.  Others interested, please let me know 
> and I can forward the picture to you too.
>
> Soon I hope to start putting some of our collection on our own website 
> which will be accessible without password.  If you are ever in the Seattle 
> area, you can also stop by to see whatever current exhibit is up.  If 
> interested in something not on display, we sometimes pull special requests 
> out for fellow artists needing inspiration, researchers or even just for 
> curious folks.
>
> Best regards,
>
>
> Dmitri Carter
>
>
>
> Northwest Puppet Center
> 9123 - 15th Ave. NE
> Seattle, WA 98115-3111
>
> tel:  206 523 2579
> fax:  206 523 8078
>
> http://www.nwpuppet.org
> _______________________________________________
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> http://lists.driftline.org/listinfo.cgi/puptcrit-driftline.org
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