Quest Fest 2012: "Between Mean" - Black Cherry Puppet Theater's new marionette show

Black Cherry Puppet Theater has been commissioned by Quest Visual Theater to create a new marionette show: Between Mean 

featuring live music accompaniment by Walker and Jay

Between Mean will be performed Friday March 30 and Saturday March 31

at the Creative Alliance at the Patterson Theater

3134 Eastern Avenue Baltimore MD 21224

Tickets are available through the Creative Alliance box office or at Choice Ticketing

Photo: Black Cherry Puppet Theatre

The Black Cherry Puppet Theater’s puppets collaborate with musicians in a study of loss, remorse and redemption. Marionettes, hand puppets and shadows take a delightful dance through folklore, mythos, music and death in a visual telling of an old story. The audience follows the hero first through green verdant gardens as they grow seedy, weedy, until he finds himself in an urban wasteland watched by a darker side. He relives memories of one true love and how he lost it. He decides he loves what he no longer has and goes to get back what he never wanted, but now sees as his. Meanwhile, the woman isn’t quite what he thought he thought she was. This is the story of a man’s journey as he discovers he never knew what he had until it was gone. When he gets it back, does he really want it after all?

Michael Lamason, executive director

William Haas, co-director

Jennifer Strunge, puppeteer/education

Lisa Krause, puppeteer/education

James DiLisio, Musician

Walker Teret, Musician

Black Cherry Puppet Theater is an association of artists and performers blending decades of craft and innovation to breath life into the art of puppetry.

Company artists pursue three goals: Excellence at the art of puppetry, making the tradition of puppetry accessible to all audiences, and using puppetry as an educational tool.

Key Information

Venue: Creative Alliance at the Patterson

Saturday, March 30 @ 8:00pm*
Saturday, March 31 @ 8:00pm*
*Talk Back after show

General Admission: $16
Students/Senior Citizens: $11

BUY TICKETS!

Black Cherry’s values:

• Art is central to our mission and work.
• Art is an essential part of achieving success in school, life and work.
• Achieving the highest quality education and community arts programs.
• Being an anchor in the Southwest Baltimore Community, by supporting community-based activities and buying local goods and services.
• Providing affordable programming to audiences and communities without access to high quality art.
• Attention to our planet by re-using materials and adapting recycling principles throughout the creative process.

The troupe has performed for tens of thousands with a repertoire that includes complex marionettes, transformation puppets, object-theater, shadow puppets and giant parade puppets. Black Cherry has developed innovative, educational programming for children and youth.

Quest Fest 2012- Community Arts Residency

As part of Quest Fest 2012, an annual international visual theater festival in Baltimore, we at Black Cherry Puppet Theater did a community arts residencies in collaboration with the Creative Alliance's Open Minds after school arts programs.

I worked with a group of high schoolers at a local library.

We used the Lakota ghost story "The Man Who Was Afraid of Nothing" as inspiration for our puppet show.  We read the story and discussed its origin, themes, and relevance to our culture today.  The students designed the set and puppets for the show, and we collaborated on expressing the story through wordless-choreography set to music, which helped our show be accessible to the broadest audience possible.

QuestFest Community Showcasewith Black Cherry Puppet TheaterSaturday Mar 24, 4pm. Eastern Ave Puppet Parade 3:30pm FREE! Creative Alliance at The Patterson 3134 Eastern Avenue Baltimore Maryland 21224

Creative Alliance wraps our QuestFest community residencies with a showcase of visual theater, featuring our own Open Minds youth with Black Cherry Puppet Theater, and folktales told through movement & gesture by students from Friendship Academy, Gwynn’s Falls Elementary and MD School for the Deaf. Opens with a puppet parade on Eastern Ave bus stops by Communities for All Ages, Baltimore Medical System and FAST at 3:30pm. Reception follows.

Presented by QuestFest.

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We had our last rehearsals yesterday, and our performance will be this Saturday March 24th.

It is also being held at the Creative Alliance and is Free and open to the public

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Ishi

Eamon released his latest self-published minicomic: Ishi's Brain in mid 2011. I really liked the way the main character looked and starting making him as a marionette.

I've been going about making him in a really unconventional way. Instead of making him and then painting him, I've been painting as I go. So far, just the head and torso are done. I think it's just because I'm really excited to see him done!

Ishi's Brain by Eamon Espey Darkly symbolic and eloquently illustrated, this minicomic is based loosely on the story of Ishi, who is believed to be the last Native American to live the majority of his life away from European American culture.

Eamon's comics are available through Secret Acres and Sparkplug Comic Books and in stores.

Holiday Grief Ritual

I don't usually post personal stories on this blog because I reserve it for artwork that I have done or important projects with which I've taken part.  But, that being said- I would like to share a meaningful ritual that I experienced this past winter season.

The ritual we experienced was a candle lighting ceremony that took place at the house of close family friends with whom Mom, Eamon and I chose to spend the holiday instead of our family.  In their dining room was an assortment of five large, white winter candles that spanned the length of the table.  After the meal was ready, and before we sat to eat- the grandmother of the family introduced the ritual.  It involved reading a passage and while lighting each candle- representing stages of grief and remembrance for loved ones that have died.  It was particularly powerful this year because Eamon and I experienced the sudden death of an important person in our lives- and also for my Mom, because she always misses her parents particularly in December, but also because there have been some issues in our extended family that have been really awful to deal with this year.  The ritual reminded us of the importance of the season in reflecting on those people that truly matter to us and keeping their memories close in our mind.



We have all been looking for different ways to celebrate the seasons, and this one seems to be appropriate for the season of death and rebirth. One way or another, we will be incorporating into our own non-religious observance from now on.  In the future, I look forward to working with my Mom on creating a fresh pine centerpiece for the ritual because of how much she enjoys arranging flowers with cut pine in winter.  She arranges flowers professionally, so I'm sure it will be beautiful.  This new tradition will be a meaningful addition to the way she already decorates each year with so many greens, pinecones, and candles- as well as an homage to the winter decorations she made in the past from the forest where I grew up.  She also had gone to the forest to make decorations from the pine cuttings for both of my grandparents graves for their December birthdays before she moved.

This ritual emphasized how coming years will be better for those of us who choose to be together.  Especially because we won't be wasting the time we have left with those we love on people that aren't good for us.

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The ritual verse was based on the original work below:

Holiday Memorial

By Sherry L. Willliams

For this ceremony, place five candles around a simple wreath, which you may wish to place on a table or fireplace mantel. As you light each candle this year, you may create a new ritual which will become a lasting tradition. We hope this memorial will help you honor your loved one.

As we light these five candles in honor of you, we light one for our grief, one for our courage, one for our memories, one for our love, and one for our hope.

This candle represents our grief. The pain of losing you is intense. It reminds us of the depth of our love for you.

This candle represents our courage - to confront our sorrow, to comfort each other, and to change our lives.

This candle is in your memory - the times we laughed, the times we cried, the times we were angry with each other, the silly things you did, and the caring and joy you gave us.

This candle is the light of love. As we enter this holiday season, day by day we cherish the special place in our hearts that will always be reserved for you. We thank you for the gift your living brought to each of us.

And this candle is the light of hope. It reminds us of love and memories of you that are ours forever. May the glow of the flame be our source of hopefulness now and forever. We love you.

© Copyright 2002 by Sherry L. Williams. All rights reserved. This memorial is from Holiday Help: A Guide for Holidays and Special Days by Sherry Williams. Used with permission and gratitude. Sherry now offers a DVD entitled: Holiday Help Memorial Program.

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On that same trip-

After waking up at Brittany's house in Chicago to a beautiful light snowfall, we found this little friend on a window ledge of a store.

The Artist with his work, ...the proudest security guard in Chicago.

Shrine for D

Recently, I was walking some dogs in the woods that are near the neighborhood where I first lived when I moved to Baltimore. I suddenly remembered the last time I went there.

It was 2008, I was led by two little boys that I knew from the art program that I was teaching that summer in the neighborhood. One was nearly mute when I met him. At the point we were at that day- he was the bold leader while his older cousin was scared and decided to meet up with us later. I walked into the woods with the then 8 year-old boy, listening to him talk about his father.

He led me through the woods for quite a while to the spot where his father's body was dumped after he was shot earlier that year. His father was 3 years younger than me. His body was severely decomposed and had to be DNA tested to determine his identity. This was a huge confusing concept for the boys. They'd grown obsessed with watching the dead rats in the neighborhood rot away in the alleys. I assume it functioned as part of a folk-science that happens in childhood, when you need an explanation for abstract or terrifying things. They asked me many questions that summer, and their voices still haunt me sometimes.

I also remembered that the boy's father's body was found by a man walking dogs, and it reminded me that I am not so safe in the woods here. I remember that day and how much fun I had with those boys after we left the site- climbing trees, hiking around, and throwing rocks in the stream. I remember how one of the boys asked me if I was remembering my childhood, and how hard I hoped that day that they were forgetting their adulthood.

At the end of that summer I did an installation about what it was like to be with them in those months. It was my first shrine and I called it Prayer for Innocence. I no longer have it, but I guess being back in the woods in that area brought all the memories back to me clearly. I needed to put them somewhere so I made this one.

I've seen the little boy a few times in passing over the years since moving away, and he's gradually forgotten me. His stare is cold, and his look is hard. I am scared for him.

Giant Papier-mâché Puppet Head

So I've been doing a lot or research lately while planning to go to Bread and Puppet, and am totally inspired and overwhelmed with all the awesome options for making cheap and huge puppets!  Here's my first shot at a giant paper mache puppet head.

I built the armature out of clay I already had from making the heads for human wack-a-mole and stuff in my recycle bin and went to work. It took lots of layers of papier-mâché using newspaper and torn brown paper bags, but I was satisfied with the process. Especially since it is totally nontoxic!

Recreation Center Puppetry Workshop - Baltimore City

 

This past summer, I had the opportunity to work at a Baltimore City Recreation Center with several groups of young people.  After several weeks of projects that introduce the kids to building types of hand and rod puppets, we ended the summer camp with a puppet show. "Zombies In My Neighborhood" was written, designed, and choreographed by the older boys in the program.  

I helped the boys choose their roles (as director, set designer, choreographer, etc.) in the creation of the show, as well as facilitated and moderated production meetings.  Giving the older boys the responsibility and freedom to create a show and a performance date deadline kept them focused and excited for art class duration of camp.

 They performed for an audience of the younger kids in the Recreation Center, and it was a fun time for everyone.  Especially the surprise choreographed Thriller dance sequence!  After the show they all were excited to make puppets and try out being puppeteers!