Handmade puppets tell timeless tales

By Bina Thomson

Eileen Fitzgibbons, events coordinator for the Norfolk Library, stayed busy this summer preparing for the return of the Greenwoods Puppet Festival. Fitzgibbons was initially inspired by several puppet theater performances she attended in 2018 and says she knew instantly that she wanted to bring puppetry to Norfolk. She feels strongly that “puppetry spreads seeds of change, can be a vehicle to tackle social issues, helps develop empathy and delights its audiences.” She drew on local resources and established new connections to create Norfolk Library’s Greenwoods Puppet Festival in 2019. With the Battell Arts Foundation as co-sponsor, Fitzgibbons has assembled a stunning line-up of performances this year.

The festival will open on Friday, Oct. 13, at 3:45 p.m., at the library with a viewing of film shorts from puppeteer Heather Henson’s “Handmade Puppet Dreams” series. Henson, daughter of the late Jim Henson and founder of her own Ibex Puppetry group, launched Handmade Puppet Dreams films in 2004 as a way to showcase the next generation of puppeteers. Twelve family-focused film shorts will be shown. Created by various artists, each short is produced using real-time puppetry rather than digital animation. Attendees will be joined afterward by the weekend’s festival puppeteers for a meet and greet.

On Saturday morning, the Tanglewood Marionettes will present the timeless tale of “Sleeping Beauty.” Each scene opens with a painted storybook page, while puppeteer Peter Schaefer uses hand-crafted marionettes to tell the story. Schaefer, a puppeteer since childhood, founded Tanglewood Marionettes in 1993.

Following juggling and face painting activities on the library lawn, guests will be welcomed into Battell Chapel to experience an Alice in Wonderland story unlike any other. “Alice, or the Red King’s Dream” is the creation of Dream Tale Puppets, an ensemble of artists led by founder and director Jacek Zuzanski. Zuzanski has had a prolific career as an actor, puppeteer, director and designer. Audience members can expect an immersive experience, he says, explaining that the puppeteers are part of the story instead of being hidden behind the stage. They are characters themselves and push away the illusion that the story is separate from the puppeteers. He describes it as “a little bit like the theater in the theater” and encourages the audience to stay after the show to see the set and puppets.

A great fluttering of wings will draw attendees to Norfolk Village Green for the Big Puppet Parade, led by Mark Alexander’s “Flock of Doves.” A signature act of his Mortal Beasts and Deities company, Alexander’s doves were originally commissioned by the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City and have led festivals, raves and street fairs for more than 20 years. Alexander references the doves’ movements as “controlled mayhem,” and says that no two appearances are the same. Local puppet maker Susan Aziz will direct the parade and bring three tall puppets from her studio at Whiting Mills, joining equally spectacular creations by puppet theater artists Robin McCahill and Adelka Polak. Anyone who has created puppets at the HUB’s puppet workshops is welcome to join in the puppet magic on the move.

The festival weekend will conclude in the library’s Great Hall with Galapagos Puppet Theater’s “The Ice River,” an original show by co-founders Madeleine Beresford and Margaret Moody. Beresford and Moody studied Bu Dai Xi hand puppetry in Taiwan and incorporate elements of this puppetry style into all of their performances.

Fitzgibbons says that all of the work spent to bring the Greenwoods Puppet Festival back to Norfolk for a second year has been worth every effort. “Puppetry involves design, writing and research. It is also about presentation, communication, art, engineering, teamwork and collaboration,” she says. “Puppets are magic. When I was little I would see puppets in the dried flowers nodding in the breeze. I still see puppets when I walk in the woods today.”

The Greenwoods Puppet Festival will take place Friday, Oct. 13 and Saturday, Oct. 14. Attendance is free, but registration through the library website is appreciated.