To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Date: Sun, 11 Jan 2009 10:24:35 -0600
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Wiley


Wiley's monologue reminds me of everything I have been fortunate  
enough to see/hear over the years from the EYE. Jaw dropping, mind  
boggling, right on the money, gonzo (as in Hunter Thompson) BRILLIANT!

If you end up anywhere near the Eye, see them. Go to the web site and  
listen to the audio.

  - michael john moynihan

please support rational/radical/revolutionary change - practice  
compassion in all thought/plans/actions.
"Never impose on others what you would not choose for yourself."
http://charterforcompassion.com/

world gone wrong - my latest blog
http://blogs.bayviewnow.com/how__why/

On Jan 11, 2009, at 3:00 AM, The Independent Eye wrote:

> Friends-
>
> It occurred to me that within this expansive
> sharing dialogue among puppeteers, one thing is
> lacking.  We never hear directly from a puppet.
> Manipulation without representation.
>
> So, Wiley is the narrator in our upcoming adult
> show, RASH ACTS, a medley of five stories about
> the politics of daily life.  He's a boney old guy
> with a wide smile, a rod-with-real-hand puppet
> who was in a show we did in 1980 and has just
> emerged from seclusion.  He's doing a good
> workmanlike job for us, but hearing of this
> Puptcrit list, he asked to put in a few words.
> He's not computer-savvy, being from the age of
> celastic & plastic wood, so I'm posting for him.
> Here's Wiley:
>
> ***
>
> 	So the lights go up and here I am over to
> the side of the stage and I see these people
> staring at me.
>
> 	Yes, guys, I'm a puppet.  "Doris, my God,
> we've come to a puppet show!"  They're all
> thinking "Who is this, Rumpelstiltskin?"  Like I
> stripped away their suit and tie and stuck'em
> back in rompers.
>
> 	So in the cold headlights of humans
> thinking they just paid 18 bucks to see the Three
> Little Pigs, I do my job.  Telling people things
> to make them ecstatic they came to the theatre.
> "Turn off your gadgets.  No cameras.  Buy our
> dvds.  Look for the exit signs. Enjoy the show."
>
> 	All right, I did that.
>
> 	Problem with people, their attitudes are
> smirched by that little asshole Pinocchio.  "I
> want to be a real boy."  Idiot.  Join the
> Marines, why doncha.
>
> 	Real boy.  Boy-wise, I don't have
> anything down there to bother with, and that's a
> whole lot less trouble.  Although I see this
> little fox in the front row.  Hi sweetheart.  Yes
> I don't have anything down there except the
> yearning.
>
> 	So I announce ok let's get on with the
> fun and entertainment and then we can all go home
> and go to bed.
>
> 	I was in a show once.  Then they put me
> in a storage bin.  The rent's pretty cheap,
> though I share it with seven others, but I try to
> stay on top.  That's my so-called life.  I try to
> keep my hopes up.  They put a smile on me for
> this purpose.  Sometimes it warps at the corners.
>
> 	All I do in this show is keep spouting
> between scenes while they set up the props or
> what they call preparing the magic of
> make-believe.  Talk about life, they said.  Life.
> The less said the better.  I get very lonely
> around people.
>
> 	Way back when, the play that I was in had
> goblins and fairies and nothing was believable.
> I liked it better that way.  What's believable
> about reality?
>
> 	All right, I'll tell you about life.
> Life as a puppet.  Which the way that's usually
> meant, "being a puppet," is that somebody pulls
> your strings or sticks their hand up your butt.
> And that is a valid concern.
>
> 	But that refers to actual human beings
> who try to be puppets cause they think it's safer
> that way.  The true puppet, well, I can=8A (And
> here I go nuts, I spin my head around and I fly
> up into the air and I stretch inside out and
> upside down and asswards into the sky.)  I think
> my mobilities are kinda special.  They suggest
> potential.
>
> 	And those sweet moments when I surprise
> the ass off my puppeteer.  Let him know who's
> really in charge here.  Yes, it is a known fact
> that this is not my voice, so I personally am not
> speaking the words that you hear, and so I cannot
> be held responsible for what you hear me saying,
> and so I can say anything I damn well please.
>
> 	Including the truth.  When was the last
> time you tried that, oh ye almighty humans?  We
> get away with it.  And they say, "Oh, they're for
> kids," but what they mean is that we make'em see
> their pathetic little shrunken worm of a world
> through the kid's eyes they haven't used since
> their pet died and they buried it under the tree
> and sniveled their heart out.  And now stuff
> opens.
>
> 	I don't mean to imply that puppets hate
> human beings.  No, we rely on you all for our
> hands and our voice and our storage bins.  And
> for the stories, the great thing being that the
> more you fuck up the more there is to tell, so no
> matter what godawful shit you pull, it's all raw
> material.
>
> 	But if you suspect, as at times you do
> when you see us staring at you from the
> workbench, that we form a secret society with a
> secret handshake and a plot to rule the world,
> well =8A that is for you to deal with.  I would
> just ask some humility on the part of puppeteers
> who think they run the whole show.  And some
> respect, just a token gesture that you realize,
> yes, we have a soul.  In fact, we are your soul.
>
> 	And take us out of our storage bins, for
> a week at least, in the summer, when it's mild.
>
> Peace & joy-
> Conrad B.
> for Wiley
>
>
> -- 
> Visit our website at <http://www.independenteye.org> for
>    our performance schedule, scripts & photo archives, books & CDs,
> our radio series "Hitchhiking off the Map"
> and
> our weekly weblog on the creation of a live-animation TEMPEST for 2009
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