File puptcrit/puptcrit.0905, message 369


From: "Alan Cook" <alangregorycook-AT-msn.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Date: Thu, 21 May 2009 15:38:42 GMT
Subject: [Puptcrit] Roberto Lago/Mexican Puppets


Mexico has a rich puppet heritage. The Rosete Aranda troupe (with European roots in manner of construction and presentation) has parallels with church carvings in Mexico---a sense of European carving. You get those same echoes in colonial architecture in Mexico City.

Speaking of that architecture, Roberto Lago once had studio in a former convent building built by the Spanish during the Colonial Period. The other half was used by Diego Rivera.

Paul McPharlin took delight in pointing out that when Cortez arrived, there was a puppeteer WITH him. When Maximillian  went to Mexico as Emperor, a French puppeteer did Guignol Shows on board a ship carrying French Troops, which helps explain why in Mexico the word Guignol denotes HAND PUPPETS. Roberto used the "Guignoles" term.

And there were indigenous examples of puppetry and articulated clay figures.

Ramon Navarro, the Hollywood Silent Screen Star, as a boy in Mexico, had a toy puppet theater---probably using a cardboard shoebox stage and little clay puppets.

In Hollywood, Harry Burnett made a portrait puppet of Ramon Navarro which the actor was photographed with. Maybe that was when Ramon told Harry  about his toy puppets in Mexico. Then one day Harry told me. Now I have told you. That is oral history (or written history) which needs to be passed along by you to others. 

At the previous (early 1980s) Festival in Atlanta (Emory University) we were fortunate to display some really nice examples of Rosete Aranda marionettes.

I love the small clay folk art marionette toys which used to be common in Mexico. Plastic stuff has replaced so much "hands-on" folk art. The clay puppets were said to be inspired by the Rosete Aranda company which toured 100 years. They were still available in the 1950s.

Circa 1940, Lola Cueto produced a lovely set of aquatint prints in folio form which depicted Mexican folk puppets. `A copy was offered to me last year for $1,000. Fortunately I had a copy already. A smaller, earlier depiction of Mexican Folk Puppets was published by Paul McPharlin in the '30s. Lola Cueto and Roberto Lago were involved with that small book.

In 1929 San Francisco, Blanding Sloan and Ralph Chesse were doing puppet work. One of Blanding's puppeteers was a colorful free spirit known by various names including "Janina Siska, and Janinia Siska Ayala. She later worked in Hollywood at Hollywood Girls School (not sure of exact name), then moved to Mexico City where she taught English and had a small house at Teotijuacan (sp?) pyramids--I got to climb the Pyramid of the Sun while there.

When Siska first arrived, she taught hand puppet making to Gilberto Ramirez y Alvarado, who became another leading puppeteer, working for various government agencies such as Social Security, and performing shows encouraging hygiene (with scary germ puppets) and in the 1960s was performing on Mexican TV. Gilberto ran Teatro Esculapio and Teatro Don Ferruco (named after the main character with a big nose).
I met Gilberto through Siska.

So in Mexico, puppetry benefitted from indigenous traditions, Spanish, French, Russian and even U.S. influences. 

Minneapolis puppeteer Donald Cordry lived in Cuernevaca the last 40 years of his life, collecting masks, designing furnishings, and continuing an interest in puppets.---He and hs wife Dorothy had a narrow escape in the 1930s, when local folk in a village thought the Cordrys were practicing witchcraft when "they brought puppets to life". Some evangelicals in the USA have the same fear of Harry Potter books and movies. You can find that sort of ignorance anywhere. Anyway, the Cordrys left town in the middle of the night---a wise precaution.

P.S.
Some small roving Mexican circuses (one ring) included puppets.

Alan Cook



-----Original Message-----
From: Linda Elbow
Sent: Thursday, May 21, 2009 5:13 AM
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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