From: DRAMA711-AT-aol.com Date: Sun, 4 Apr 2010 11:28:40 EDT To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] whose work got you going? In the summer of 1973 I was traveling around the country looking for an alternative life style. I'd taught school for two years and worked as a carpenter, was 25 and ready for inspiration. I landed on the Berkeley campus and happened upon what I think was called the San Francisco Street Puppet Theatre busking on Sproul Plaza. They were doing "The Point" a sort of famous "childrens" story that had all these philosophical double meanings. It was wonderful. I looked to my left and saw a beautiful coed just beaming with enjoyment and could see that people were putting money in the hat... hmmm... I can impress girls and make money ! (something I've yet to do, but there's still hope). I came back to DC and started a puppet band and show and a street theatre ( knowing there was nothing like that in DC and figuring that even if it was bad nobody'd have anything to compare it to and wouldn't know it was bad) and the rest is history. It was my first live show ... and I still wonder if there's any remnants of that company still existing or even if I got the name right. Any body know? Of course the 1980 festival was the seminal experience for all of us, lifting the lid off the narrow boxes of our imaginations. I am forever grateful to nancy staub who was the overall organizer and director. I was broke, everybody in my company was broke and there's no way we could have paid for the tickets. I called and volunteered my company and she made us house managers for the three georgetown theatres and comped the festival. I remember very fondly someone coming into her office in a tizzy that the DC police were all upset at bread and puppet theatre for not having a parade permit and they were marching!... and she brushed it off with a laugh and said something like " this is GREAT!.. this is just what peter wants!" Thank you Nancy! michael cotter blue sky puppet theatre _www.blueskypuppets.com_ (http://www.blueskypuppets.com) In a message dated 4/3/2010 9:35:15 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, eye-AT-independenteye.org writes: I kinda wish I knew. Of course I was in the Howdy Doody/Kukla-Ollie/Time for Beany/Bil Baird TV generation, but none of those things stuck with me as related to the overwhelming drive toward theatre when i discovered, at age 15, that it existed. My impression is that the first piece of puppetry that really captured me was my own, in the fall of 1969, a weird satire called The People vs the People. That may be totally daft, as our first trip to Europe, on the back of a motor scooter for three months, was in that previous summer, and we saw lots of theatre, so may have seen puppets. But my interest had gone back way before then, driven by photos. Every puppet photo had as strong an attraction to me as some experimental-theatre naked lady - well, nearly so. i could see the amazing possibilities. Once I actually began to see puppet productions, it was a long time before the actuality matched those imagined moments; for that matter, it was a *very* long time before my own productions remotely matched the ones I could imagine. I guess the enormous range of Peter Schumann's dramaturgy and stagecraft have had the strongest impact But also remembering the experience of the Charleville-Mezieres festival in 1972. The only thing that really stands out in memory was Richard Bradshaw's shadows. But just seeing the huge variety, puppets as rife as cockroaches, was enormously inspiring. A madness I felt kinship with. But to answer the question, what got me going? Lotsa pictures of puppets. Cheers- Conrad _______________________________________________ List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit Archives: http://www.driftline.org _______________________________________________ List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit Archives: http://www.driftline.org
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