Dear George,
We’re taking our OLLI classes
at the university again this fall, and part of this involves field trips in the
community. Most recently we went
to a local puppet studio on the West side. It’s one of the three largest puppetry centers in the
nation, the other two being in Atlanta and Seattle. There are ten full-time staff, a million dollar budget, and
a 23-state area in which they travel for performances, most often for
schools. Some of the puppets cost
$5-10,000 apiece to construct, aside from the substantial designer fees. It was just sort of a magical visit. Puppetry, it turns out, is one of the
oldest form of theater arts, dating back some three thousand years. Aristotle wrote about puppets, as did
Herodotus and Xenophon in the fifth century B.C. Some historians believe that puppets were used before human
actors, and they’re present in nearly all human societies. As we know from watching Pinocchio,
there is something mystical that occurs when puppets come to life. Here are photos of some of the many
puppets that we saw on our trip.
As you’ll see, they are a friendly and captivating bunch.
Love,
Dave
No comments:
Post a Comment