Lying next to a giant Frankenstein monster’s head one night in 1996, under the stage at Steppenwolf Theatre, I was told by a man named Blair Thomas, “We are aware that we are making things that people have never seen before. In that sense we are alchemists. We want to startle and awaken, to allow people to discover the honesty in the way a puppet or object is used.”
He was then the producing director of Redmoon Theater, in the midst of staging a remarkable production of “Frankenstein,” “starring” puppets of all types and sizes.
Redmoon is no more but Thomas is alive and well, if wildly busy at the moment as the founder and artistic director of the 5th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival, which begins Wednesday and continues through Jan. 29.
It is the largest such event of its kind in North America, presenting 100-some shows at such venues as Studebaker Theater in the Fine Arts Building, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chopin Theatre, DuSable Black History Museum, Harold Washington Library and the Chicago Children’s Theater.
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You have heard, and will again, all of the mayoral contenders talking about Chicago as a “world class city.” This is as good an example as there is.
Puppets have always been part of our city’s theatrical landscape and we can claim the man who created that wildly popular TV puppet gang, Chicago-born Burr Tillstrom and his “Kukla, Fran and Ollie,” Fran not being a puppet but a real (and charming) woman. (Kukla, Ollie and some of their other TV show friends “live” at the Chicago History Museum and how happy they must be to have so many new puppet pals in town).
You may have fond memories of those folks but know that puppets have become an increasingly artistic and creative realm far removed from the images of your childhood that come to mind when you hear the word “puppet”: Punch and Judy; Garfield Goose; and even the Muppets.
Puppets are invading town now, here to delight and astonish. This international festival arrives from places around the world — Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Norway, Japan, South Africa, Spain and elsewhere — and from around the country.
Thomas lives on a working farm in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. He has been a positive force on the local theater scene for decades and came to puppetry as a child growing up in the town of Jacksonville in Alabama. It was a small town, only 12,000 people or so, and, says Thomas, “There was movie theater and so I had to fantasize about the world and confront the boredom. I began making marionettes and putting on shows for friends and neighbors.”
He came to Chicago after attending Oberlin College and began working in theater. He created at Redmoon and elsewhere some vivid and memorable shows. In 2015, he founded the puppet festival and last week told me, “We live in such a media saturated world that it is important to be able to present something that is authentic. It is right in front of you, not bound by gravity. You can see the magic but still be enthralled, mesmerized.”
There is so much to experience over the coming days — in addition to shows, there will be exhibits, seminars, workshops and, intriguingly, a Wrigley Building pop-up storefront, in which puppets “live” in an imitation grocery store where everything is made of plastic.
I am particularly interested in seeing an adaptation of Herman Melville’s “Moby-Dick” by the French/Norwegian company Plexus Polaire. It features seven actors, 50 puppets, video projections, a whale-sized whale, music, light and video. Says the company’s artistic director Yngvild Aspeli, “Puppetry is a form that constantly is reinventing itself … it is not only a form, it is a way of seeing the world, a language, a state of mind.”
For old time’s sake I also want to see a new “Frankenstein,” this one by Chicago’s Manual Cinema, which uses puppetry, people, music and sound effects in its version of Mary Shelley’s Gothic novel. This Chicago-based performance collective has been around since 2010, offering a series of wildly imaginative productions. Of this one, co-artistic director Drew Dir told the New York Times, “It’s a story about the animation of dead matter. And as puppeteers, that’s sort of what we do.”
Having seen a lot of Thomas’ work over the decades and some from that local treasure Hystopolis Puppet Theater, I have come to believe that it’s easy to identify with puppets. They are not tied by the physical or emotional bonds that inhibit even the greatest actors. No matter how they are manipulated — with rods, strings, hands, shadows or bodies — puppets can manage more theatrical pyrotechnics than any actors. They are often able to “say” more than most playwrights can with hundreds of words.
Tillstrom put it like this: “We try to maintain a basic honesty and consistency with the characters. They’re all individuals. They have personalities and they all work together. I think that has something to do with the show’s appeal. It’s pure and it represents love.”
Thomas puts it this way: “A puppet when it appears on the stage, it’s very simple what it’s doing. It enchants us in its believability and the skill of the puppeteers to breathe life into the puppet. You understand it’s not real, but it represents it so well that you can enter into the experience of the puppet. It’s live and in front of you. We want people to watch something because it’s amazing.”
5th Chicago International Puppet Theater Festival runs Jan. 18-29 at the Fine Arts Building and various venues; tickets and more information at chicagopuppetfest.org