Fussy Cloud Puppet Slam has been a fixture in Seattle’s growing puppetry scene. It has been a success since 2011, bringing together Puget Sounders interested in the art of puppetry. This coming weekend, they are putting on a show at Bumbershoot, described by Bumbershoot as “a cabaret-style puppet show for grown-ups. Each short piece — whether hilarious, heartbreaking or horrifying — is created and performed by puppeteers from the Pacific Northwest (and beyond!) From the brand spanking new to the tried-and-true, every act is guaranteed to have one important thing in common: puppets.”
To learn more about Fussy Cloud Puppet Slam, I met up with producers and puppeteers Jenelle Weidlich and Rachel Jackson.
How did you both become involved in puppetry?
Rachel: I work with Annex Theatre a lot. The way they work on the inside is that if you’re willing to step up and try to do something, they’re willing to let you, even if you have no experience. About six years ago, they needed a puppet builder for a play. I was between projects, so I jumped in on it. The puppet designer had to drop out of the project due to health reasons, so I ended up designing and building the puppets. The time just kind of flew by and I really loved it. During the intermission of that show, another friend came up to me and said, “Hey! I’m doing an improvised labyrinth and would really like there to be a lot of puppets in it. You make puppets now, do you want to be in my show and make puppets for it?” I said yes. I don’t think I’ve been without a project since then.
Jenelle: About six years ago, I had an opportunity to work on a Brian Kooser show. He’s a local puppeteer. I worked on a few of his shows and then did a few slam pieces. That’s how I got started.
Rachel: We were getting into it about the same time. That’s funny!
When you both got involved, did you find that there was already a scene in Seattle, or did you have to build it up from the ground floor?
Jenelle: When I started, it felt like the puppet renaissance that happened earlier was over and a lot of really talented puppeteers and builders had moved away. There were a few left but there wasn’t a whole lot happening in the community. But as of late, with the Puppet Slam Network, a lot of new faces have shown up and a lot of old faces have come out of the woodwork. There’s a lot more people doing things out in the open, I think. I think there’s a little bit of a resurgence in puppetry right now.
Rachel: If nothing else, I think we’re seeing an uptick in applications to our slam.
I didn’t know there was a scene. I thought it was mostly me working by myself until the conference at Seattle University…
Jenelle: It was a Puppeteers of America regional festival. That happens every other year. The region for us includes British Columbia, which is also having a regional festival in September, plus Idaho, Montana, and Oregon. Every couple of years, a guild in those areas wants to put on a festival, so they start organizing.
Rachel: That’s when I learned about the puppet community. It was good for that. And every other other year, there’s a national conference. The regional conferences are every other year, and the national conference fills the holes.
Jenelle: I think what happens is that puppeteers like to tinker. They like to perform, as well, but it’s isolating. I think, in the past, the national festivals have been for people who live away from each other to meet their tribe and hang out for a week. That seems to be easier to do when there are more shows and more visibility.
Rachel: Not to toot my own horn, but because I’m a new producer I feel I can say this, but I think Fussy Cloud has been good about that, too. It’s giving a reason to pull people together more often than every couple of years.
Jenelle: One thing that people overlook is that outside of Seattle, Portland and Vancouver are hotbeds for creativity in puppetry. There’s a collaboration between us and Beady Little Eyes Puppet Slam in Portland. They do slams as often, if not more often, and they’re only three hours away. A lot of us cross pollinate and support each other that way.
How often do you put on shows? I know you have one coming up at Bumbershoot this weekend…
Jenelle: I think we’re going on a two-a-year cycle right now. 2013 saw four, which is a lot of work. Two feels like a really good work/play balance for us. Plus, it gives time for people to build shows they want to submit.
Rachel: Our next one is in January.
Jenelle: At the Theatre off Jackson, January 16 and 17.
I suspect that the show at Bumbershoot will be the first time a lot of people are exposed to Fussy Cloud, myself included. What can those people could expect from the show?
Rachel: Variety. Be prepared for many different types of puppeteering, and many different tones. We go from some plays that are really funny to one that is more melancholy.
Jenelle: The puppets will pull at your heartstrings a little bit, and they’ll make you laugh.
But there’s a good variety of methods of puppetry. We’ll have tabletop puppetry, we’ll have overhead shadows, and we’ll have one black light piece, some Muppet-style puppets, and some hand puppets.
Can you talk about your specific pieces?
Jenelle: Mine is tabletop-Bunraku. You may have seen photos of my cantankerous grandma. Me and another puppeteer will be operating her.
Rachel: She’s awesome. Mine, I think, is tabletop-other. (laughs) My puppet is a two-piece puppet: it has a head and a hand and they’re only vaguely attached to each other. There are also a lot of props that are part of the story.
Where do the ideas for your stories come from? Or what’s the process like for creating the story and the puppets?
Jenelle: This is an interesting question. I was in a writing conference this summer and that question came up. What inspires you to write a story? It was a room full of puppeteers and one playwright. All of the puppeteers said they get inspired by a character or picture or something, and that inspires me to build a puppet. The playwright had no visual inspiration with her work.
For me, it’s very visual. I’ll get inspired by watching people around town. I might see a janitor and think “What does that janitor want? What will that janitor do?” I’ll think about it and maybe write it down and put it in my trunk of ideas. I was also recently inspired by an old poem about cattle rustlers. I wrote a story about that.
Rachel: The piece I’m doing at Bumbershoot was actually commissioned. I don’t know if you know La Petite Mort, but she has the Dark Cabaret…
Yes! We follow each other on Twitter.
Oh cool! I’ve been in her cabaret a few times. For the one after she got married, she did some picking and choosing; I guess the grown-up word is “curating.” She said, “I would love for you to do a puppet act to the song ‘You Are My Sunshine.’ If you listen to it, it sounds like a sweet song, but it’s actually stalker-creepy. I want you to play with the idea of what if a vampire fell in love with the sun. Go!” I was handed my inspiration and built a story around that.
But frequently, I pull from pop culture and/or fairy tales.
What is the timeframe usually for creating a story and/or puppet? Does one take a lot longer than the other?
Jenelle: It all takes a lot longer than you think. (laughs)
It depends on the length of the piece and how complicated it is puppetry-wise. What’s the style of puppetry you’re using? Do you have to wait for things to dry? What are your weaknesses? What are your strengths? (laughs) To give you a politically-vague answer…
Rachel: I feel like making the puppet always takes longer, unless I’m doing object puppetry. In that case, I just take a Barbie doll and a spoon and I’m done.
I also like to do pieces where I get to eat something on stage. I’ve done two different short pieces where I got to eat a puppet. It was very satisfying!
You ate the puppet?
Rachel: I did the Boy Who Cried Wolf and made the boy out of fondant. I got to eat the boy’s head off at the end. Spoiler alert! I did another with Hansel and Gretel and they were cookies, so I got to eat them. No one else likes to do that. No one likes to clean up at the end. I don’t blame them.
You talked about your next slam being in January at Theatre Off Jackson. Can you talk about how the show at Bumbershoot will differ?
Jenelle: The Bumbershoot show is kind of our Best-Of. We asked artists who performed in the slam to join us, with specific pieces in mind. It was so that we would have a good balance to show.
The slam is more open to anyone who is amateur or professional; to try out something new or something they have performed before. We usually try to bring in at least one out of town artist that we know is a more refined act. The slams will be longer. Each piece is eight minutes or less. There’s a good variety of types of puppetry, as well as skill levels and experience. We like to give people a place to try out new things. We watched a few people grow into puppetry through the slam. It’s really great to see people’s inspirations spark.
Rachel: We give people a place to fail because that’s a part of it. Sometimes you don’t know that something isn’t going to work until you try it.
Jenelle: Another side effect is that we have such a great mix of people that they all meet each other. When you have more puppeteers who know each other, you know who to ask when you need help building something or if they can lend an ear to your story. Things like that.
Rachel: …or what kind of material makes a good hood?
I was just going to ask that with you doing two slams a year, where is the opportunity for people to fail and try out ideas before they’re ready?
Rachel: Interesting. I feel like if you have an eight minute piece, there are a lot of places in Seattle that you can perform it. There are several theaters that have cabarets. I feel like we can be the first place you can try it out. You can get audience feedback. We have also done a videotape feedback session. We’ve done it once but will do it again for anyone that is interested. We videotape it and sit down and talk about what we saw and what we thought worked or what we didn’t understand. That’s really valuable, I think.
If they start a piece with us, they can get our feedback and take it other places. For instance, Reed (Garber-Pearson), one of the other producers at Fussy Cloud, did a piece at Fussy Cloud and did it at Douglas Paasch Puppet Playhouse. I’ve taken things that I started in our slam over to Annex’s cabaret, Spin the Bottle.
I don’t think we’ve had the same piece in two slams and shown it progressing, though I suppose we would be open to that.
Jenelle: We’ve historically only accepted new works, things that people have not performed in the slam before, just to maintain that variety.
We always seem to have someone in the slam that we haven’t met before. We think it’s important to involve people in the community and try to reach out. We always have room for people to try new things.
If someone wanted to become involved in puppetry and the community, how should they go about it? Go to a slam? Contact either of you?
Rachel: We’re a good place to start. Coming to our shows are good places to start, as far as meeting people. You can also volunteer for our show, so that way you get to meet everyone who is performing. There’s also the Puppeteers of Puget Sound. They’re a local guild.
Jenelle: They’re a guild of Puppeteers of America.
Rachel: They have a Facebook page and put on events. That’s another way to get in touch with people. They can definitely contact us directly. We know a lot of people and can put them in contact with other people who like puppets.
Jenelle: I think as far as getting started performing, and creating, and getting involved in the community that way, if people have started their own work and want to send it to us for consideration in the slam, we’re open to that. People can reach out with specific needs like “I’m really interested in marionettes.” “There’s the Northwest Puppet Center, have you been there? It’s in Maple Leaf and they have a museum. Go check out one of their shows.” The Puppeteers of Puget Sound have a Facebook page, and so do we. We post more about the adult-oriented shows we hear about. The Puppeteers of Puget Sound post everything.
That is another question. Are you interested in children’s puppetry? The slam is adult-oriented only to give people the freedom to not censor themselves.
Rachel: We’ve had to clarify that from time to time. Someone who applied once thought that it had to actually be adult XXX. He said, “It’s not really adult but my main character’s nose kind of looks like a penis.” (laughs) We just mean that you could swear or use adult themes. It doesn’t have to be teaching us colors and shapes or XXX… although we’re way open to that.
Has anything close happened?
Rachel: We did have a burlesque act once. They were filling in for someone who had to drop, so they were more tangentially related. It was an Ernie and rubber duckie themed burlesque act.
Jenelle: Adult puppetry doesn’t necessarily mean blue.
Rachel: I was once in a puppet sex musical, so it does exist.
Jenelle: If someone wants to do that, our question is: what’s the purpose? What’s the story you’re telling and how does that further it? We don’t want it to be like someone has a penis puppet and they want to show it to everyone, so it’s on stage wiggling around and making everyone feel uncomfortable. That’s not puppetry to us, we’re storytellers first and foremost, and we want to encourage that.
Rachel: Our show at Bumbershoot is not necessarily for children, but I don’t think there’s anything specifically that they can’t see. It won’t help; people will bring their kids to it anyway. We’re just underlining that our mission statement is adult puppetry.
Jenelle: I don’t know if there are any curse words.
Rachel: I don’t either, but in the improv, I could always swear if that would help. It’s never a problem for me. Or I could try to not swear if there are a bunch of kids in the front row. I’ll do my solid best.
{Fussy Cloud Puppet Slam is at Bumbershoot on Saturday, August 30 at 6:45pm and on Monday, September 1 at 5:15pm, both shows on the Theatre Puget Sound Stage. Tickets and more info can be found here.}
