2012 Performers
Key to recommended audiences:
A adults | Y youth ages 10 and older | F families, and children over 6 | C young children
Images coming soon
Peter and the Wolf
A, F
University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut
University of Connecticut Puppet Arts students bring to life this timeless classic of a Russian peasant boy who courageously captures the Wolf that threatens his animal friends. Special Guest Tony Barrand, known for his British pub songs, ballads, and wry music hall narrations, will narrate.
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Garbage Monster
A, F
Kukla Istanbul, Turkey
Cengiz Ozek is a master of Turkish shadow puppetry. Each story in this beloved tradition, tells an adventure of Karagöz, the impulsive, untamable peasant. Karagöz puppet plays have been performed in Turkey for over 500 years. In Garbage Monster, Cengiz has created a modern adventure for this timeless hero, one that brings him into the present day and gives humor, action, and insight to the theme of how we dispose of our trash and what price we pay for polluting our water. Sheer Turkish Delight!
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My Grandpa’s Music Box
F, C
Deaf Puppet Theater Hitomi, Japan
Deaf Puppet Theater Hitomi, established in 1980, is the only puppet company of its kind in the world: a puppet theater of mixed hearing and non-hearing performers. Using a variety of electrical appliances, from washing machines and black-and-white TVs to cell-phones and computer games, My Grampa's Music Box is a highly visual performance about the relationship between family and society. The story starts before World War II, when a little boy named Senkichi becomes infatuated with a girl named Sumi. He one day gives her a music box. Years later, Senkichi comes back from the front and marries Sumi, and later have a daughter. By the time the young girl grows up and becomes a mother herself, everything, from their lifestyle to their familial relationships, has changed.
Special student performances are scheduled for this company
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Scenes from a Tree
F
Des Mots d’la Dynamite, Quebec
Nathalie Derome and her company perform especially for the very young. In their own words, “We choose to create and perform for the very young because, like them, we like to touch and feel the world around us.” In Scenes from a Tree, children hear and see the world as the tree sees it, in miniature landscapes, full of whimsy and the joy of play. It is a delightful invitation to original thought and freedom of being.
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Memories of a Circus Tiger
F for school audiences
Circolos, Spain
The circus takes on a different appearance when seen through the memories of a circus tiger. Boris Ribas, the son of Brazilian puppeteers Marcos and Rachel Ribas (who performed at Puppets in the Green Mountains 2008) is a contemporary circus performer, clown, acrobat, balancing and fixed bar . Memories of a Circus Tiger combine’s Boris wide range of circus skills with his puppetry heritage in a show that is funny, wild and original.
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Black Birds of Bialystok
A
Bialystok Puppet Theater, Poland
One of the most prestigious puppet theaters in Poland, the Bialystok Puppet Theater tackles a controversial theme in contemporary Polish culture: Poland’s history of anti-Semitism, leading to the expulsion of 40,000 Jews in 1968. In this collaborative work, Polish and American performers bring to life the spirits of Poland’s pogroms, ghettos, and expulsions and carry them into the present day.
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D-Generation: An Exaltation of Larks
A
Sandglass Theater, Vermont
D-Generation: An Exaltation of Larks is Sandglass Theater’s newest production with puppets, video and music. It is a piece about dementia. It is also a piece about play, joy, and communication. The cast of puppet characters are residents of a nursing home who have been asked to be part of a story circle. They are being asked to contribute to the collective creation of stories. The piece is based on this process and on the stories themselves, over 40 of which Sandglass artists collected in work with nursing home residents. The title, D-Generation: An Exaltation of Larks, reflects both the stigma and theemergence, the despair and the joy, that is equally present and possible, in both the person with dementia and in their caregivers and family members.
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Paper Cut
A
Yael Rasooly, Israel
In Paper Cut, a lonely secretary escapes her dull reality by bringing to life black and white photos from old film magazines. But as the story unravels, her romantic tale becomes a Hitchcock nightmare. Theater Mania wrote: ".. exuberant and comically charged performance...." Yael Rasooly is an Israeli based theater director and puppeteer. Since 2006, she has been creating independent theater work, invited to leading festivals worldwide. Her theatrical language is based on a multi-disciplinary approach between the different forms of theater, music and contemporary adult puppetry.
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John/Eleanor
A, Y
Timo Vantsi, Finland
John-Eleanor’s story challenges the norms and ideals of gender, sexuality and the Middle Ages,. London court records reveal the story of John Rykener who was caught engaged in a sexual act with another man in exchange for money, and dressed as a woman. During the hearings Rykener, who as a woman used the name Eleanor, testified to a life story of heroic acts on the alleys, in the taverns and the bedrooms of medieval England. Who and what was John/Eleanor in the eyes of his contemporaries? The many questions and turns of events, as well as the laughter and the sadness, in the story of John-Eleanor have been recreated through rollicking hand-puppetry, The performance by the Turku-based puppet theatre group HOX Company is based on medieval records.
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Madame Schnuckenack
A, Y
Spybird Theater, Vermont
A work-in-progress commissioned by Sandglass Theater with funds from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Jim Henson Foundation. 'Madame Schnuckenack' is a puppet theater piece for adults, marked by Jana’s strongly visual imagery, humor and playfulness. Three styles of puppets tell the story of a woman who waits by the sea side for the return of her sailor son. There, she encounters another world of puppets, an encounter, breaks her boundaries and finds transformation. Jana is well known to local audiences for her unique blend of whimsy and profound images.
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Of Bread and Paper
A, Y
Finn Campman, Vermont
A storyteller tells of a paper man who has nothing but a small round of bread. As he seeks his fortune, he is confronted by a dream that seems to unfold his future, a future that holds his true love, a child, and the need to return home. As he is released from the dream he finds himself confronted with the ghost of his future in the form of the storyteller himself. The show is played with paper figures, light and shadows. It is a play made of fairytales and shadows and like One Thousand and One Nights the story unfolds within itself revealing layers of narrative.
Other Festival Events
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International Collaboration and Conflict Transformation
at Landmark College
September 24, 7:00pm
Creators of Blackbirds of Bialystock discuss International Collaboration and Conflict Transformation
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Festival Club
A
Sandglass Theater and Friends
September 27, 28, 30 9pm
What do puppeteers do after the show? Share stories, make friends, drink, eat, and sing. Special puppet entertainments by Fergus Walsh and Crabgrass Puppets. Join this congenial after-performance gathering at the Putney Inn. Instruments welcome. Libations and snacks available. No cover charge.