File puptcrit/puptcrit.0905, message 367


From: Linda Elbow <breadpup-AT-together.net>
Date: Thu, 21 May 2009 08:13:36 -0400
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Roberto Lago


Thanks a lot for sending this, Alan. You have a wonderful memory.

I remember meeting him after his performance at the DC festival. He  
seemed like a very nice and modest man, and certainly very dedicated  
to the work we all share.

Thanks again,
Linda

On May 20, 2009, at 4:41 PM, Alan Cook wrote:

> I first met Roberto Lago at the 1948 National Puppetry Festival in  
> Oklahoma City, which was held at the Skirvin Towers and the Skirvin  
> Hotel--the hotels were connected by a tunnel which ran under a street
>
> In those days the Puppeteers of America was somewhere around  
> 250-350 total in membership. At that Fesival you could meet at  
> least half of the most important puppeteers of North America in one  
> room.
>
>  Many Junior Leaugues had active puppet programs in many parts of  
> the United States, providing puppet shows for school assemblies and  
> other audiences as part of community service and enrichment  
> activities. The Leagues regularly sent delegates to Puppet  
> Festivals, and sometimes they'd hire professional puppeteers to  
> come to their towns to direct and train volunteer puppeteers whose  
> names appeared in local newspaper society columns. Jean Starr  
> Wiksell and Al Wallace were two of the professional puppeteers who  
> were advisors to the Leagues.
>
> The Skirvin Towers Hotel was the newer hotel, boasting air  
> conditioning and higher rates. I was on a budget, and stayed at the  
> old Skirvin Hotel.
>
> To get there from Los Angeles, I went by Trailways Bus from  
> Downtown Los Angeles to Downtwn Oklahoma City. The family suitcase  
> purchased ten years earlier for a train trip to Philadelphia,  
> Valley Forge, West Grove PA, and Chicago, contained my coat & tie--- 
> Festivals were more formal when it came to wardrobe (so were  
> "Sunday Best" clothes you wore to church or synagogue or concerts  
> or theater---things have changed a lot). Anyway, I had a few  
> dollars set aside to get my coat pressed on arrival. I planned to  
> reach the hotel at 8 pm the night before the Festival began.  
> However, bad weather and highway detours added 100 miles to my  
> trip. I got there at 1 a.m.---the air was steamy. I hung up the  
> coat and I fell in bed.
>
> When I woke up, the coat had pressed itself with help from high  
> humidity. Sure different from California weather.
>
> Roberto Lago, Director of Teatro Nahual (Mexico City) and Lola  
> Cueto a distinguished artist and puppet designer/puppeteer were  
> scheduled to perform but the puppets and stage were still stuck at  
> the border with Customs Officials, and never did arrive---a big  
> disappointment. But they had a few hand puppets in their suitcases,  
> so we could get an idea of what we missed by not seeing them  
> perform. These were older, repainted puppets which were available  
> for purchase and I bought one. I practiced my high school Spanish a  
> bit, though Roberto was proficient in English and French (he had  
> family in France, and his daughter worked for Air France in Mexico  
> City by the time I visited Mexico City circa 1955.)
>
> At that time, Roberto was kind of an unofficial Ambassador for  
> Mexican puppetry. He performed in 1940 or 1941 at the Southwest  
> Museum in Los Angeles (a show I did not see) and knew Walton &  
> O'Rourke, possibly as early as the 1930s?
>
> He travelled all over Mexico with Teatro Nahual at government  
> expense, teaching hand puppetry to school teachers who used puppets  
> to enliven their classroom lessons. Teatro Nahual toured widely as  
> part of the national literacy campaign known as the "ABC  
> Campaign" (Each citizen who could read and write was encouraged to  
> teach another person--"each one teach one" was the slogan in vogue.  
> Their version of "Red Riding Hood" demonstrated the advantages of  
> literacy---when Red (Capercita) meets the wolf in the woods, she  
> says. "Oh, I've READ all about you".
>
> In one isolated town visited by Teatro Nahual, it was necessary to  
> widen the entry road so the show truck could get there. This also  
> meant that the little town would finally have access to the outside  
> world. An impromptu Fiesta was thrown in celebration of the wider  
> road.
>
> While visiting a weekly oudoor market with Roberto in the mid  
> 1950's I was amazed at how often people would come up to him to say  
> hello. They were teachers who had learnt puppetry from him and his  
> staff.
>
> He saw Bread & Puppets in their New York City days, he went to  
> Puppet Festivals in Europe.
>
> He was a liason for Mexico with a great part of the rest of world  
> puppetry. He wrote  a book or two, maintained a wide  
> correspondence. and in some ways was kind of a Mexican Tony Sarg in  
> the sense that through him, thousands of people were introduced to  
> puppetry.
>
> I brought Roberto and his then assistant Pepe Diaz & Pepe's young  
> son Pepito to California in 1981. To pay for his trip to the  
> National Festival at Asilomar (near Monterey CA) I was able to book  
> his performances at two movie theaters (San Bernardino & Claremont  
> CA), another appearance at the Phlosophical Research Library and a  
> 4th of July Picnic in Los Angeles. at the La Jolla Art Museum, and  
> two East Los Angeles Food Market parking lots. We had a two week  
> window for bookings which accounts for the odd venues--whatever I  
> could get at the last minute.
>
> At the Festival, we all met Jim & Jane Henson (and their young  
> daughter) when there were only two puppeteers comprising the Muppet  
> Company.
>
> Teatro Nahual performed at Asilomar Festival with me as the third  
> hand, presenting LAS BODAS DE LA CUCARACHITA MONDINGA and musical  
> varieties (Spanish Lagartarana dances, Sailors and an encounter  
> with a whale, a Dutch Dance complete with arotating windmill prop.  
> Roberto & Pepe also conducted a popular workshop on "hand puppet  
> choreography" at the Fest.
>
> He was active in Mexico into his nineties.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Linda Elbow
> Sent: Wednesday, May 20, 2009 3:03 AM
> To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
> Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Rod Young
>
> Please tell some stories about the Mexican puppeteer, Roberto Largo.
> We saw him at a festival in DC a long time ago. Must have been early-
> mid 80's. He did a three man show with no set, no disguises - him,
> another older man and a young man in between them. I barely remember
> the puppets, but the simplicity of the performance has stuck in my
> brain. We also received a newsletter from him for a long time.
>
> Thanks,
> Linda
>
> On May 20, 2009, at 7:37 AM, Alan Cook wrote:
>
>> IF he'd let you do that interview, it would have been a good one
>> with you & Elise.
>>
>> Olga Stevens had a ton of amazing stories. Sadly I remember just
>> one of them, cuz when she told them she & others were passengers in
>> my old VW bus, & I had to concentrate on driving.
>>
>> You got some great info from George Latshaw!
>>
>> Alan
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: BNathanson-AT-aol.com
>> Sent: Tuesday, May 19, 2009 8:17 PM
>> To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
>> Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Rod Young
>>
>> Alan,
>>      During the last few years of his life, Elise and I repeatedly
>> asked
>> that Rod grant us some time to do a video history with him.   He
>> adamently
>> refused to appear on video.   We then tried to get him to just
>> answer questions
>> and talk into a tape recorder, which he also refused.   After he
>> died, we
>> attended his memorial service.   Yes, his PGOGNY newsletters were
>> treasures,
>> and they and he, are sorely missed.
>>      Bob Nathanson
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> **************
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