Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2009 19:20:30 -0500
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Tasha Tudor


That is from "Knights of the Round Table".   She produced her first
theater in the 1950's while living in New Hampshire when my cousins
were kids.  She got back to it when she moved to  VT and had grandkids
and they and her apprenticed performed the Thackery's "The Rose and
The Ring" which I got to see in the late 70's.  It had  around forty
marionettes.  The highlight of the show was the corgi dog orchestra
conducted by a cat whose tail wagged around wildly as he got into the
music.  Her earlier shows included "Little Red Ridinghood", "Jack and
the Beanstock" and "St George and the Dragon".   When Tasha was a
child she went to live with a family in CT and it was there that she
got into drama.  One of her puppetry friends was  the late Paul
Peabody whose work she greatly admired.  Does anyone now about his
work?  I only know that he did marionettes. She wanted to do "The
Legend of Sleepy Hollow" which inspired me to do it in 1999.  I made
Tasha's likeness for one of the old Dutch wives.

On Sun, Jan 4, 2009 at 3:51 PM, Bell, John <john.bell-AT-uconn.edu> wrote:
> Thanks Hobey for your message about Tasha Tudor and the amazing illustration!  She sounds like a wonderful person and I am glad to know more about her, after hearing of her indirectly for what seems like a long time.
>
> The illustration is quite amazing--do you know what show is being performed in it?
>
> Best wishes for 2009!
>
> john bell
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: puptcrit-bounces-AT-puptcrit.org on behalf of Hobey Ford
> Sent: Thu 1/1/2009 11:44 AM
> To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
> Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Tasha Tudor
>
> I have attached an illustration  by Tasha of a performance in her
> barn.  (I have photoshopped the seam between pages)
>
> [ Attachment:
> http://lists.puptcrit.org/pipermail/puptcritattach/attachments/20090101/fbd35032/attachment.jpg
> ]
>
>
> On Thu, Jan 1, 2009 at 10:10 AM, Hobey Ford <hobeyone-AT-gmail.com> wrote:
>>   This last year marked the passing of Tasha Tudor who as well as an
>>   illustrator and later day Martha Stewart was a doll and marionette
>>   maker.  Tasha had yearly performances in her barn in VT.  Neighbors
>>   and friends would gather for these quaint shows and sit on hay bales
>>   to watch the performances.  In her early years she toured her shows
>>   around new England including The Natural History Musuem in NYC.
>>   Though we weren't close, she was my mother's half sister and we had a
>>   year long coorespondance around 15 years ago when I did interviews
>>   with her for an article in the Puppetry Journal.  Childhood visits to
>>   her farm were like a step into 19th century New England.  She and my
>>   cousins dressed in 19th century garb.  Her farm and children were the
>>   models for her artwork.  Her marionettes were very simple and while
>>   the shows weren't rivetting puppet theater the whole experience was
>>   magical.  She was an astute business woman and had her own empire
>>   based on her books and artwork and later in life she became the model
>>   along with grandchildren and neighbors for photogragher Richard Brown
>>   who did a series of books on her world.   She was most famous for her
>>   illustrated childrens book and her illustrations of classics like
>>   "Wind in the Willows" and "The Secret Garden".  She was 92 years old.
>>
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