A conversation with Seattle
Beyond the fringes of Seattle’s scrappy theatre scene there is a tiny but vibrant puppetry community. For many years, the … Continue reading Tradition Advances in StrawShop’s Douglass Paasch Puppet Playhouse
What’s audacious about it is that anyone thought it would be possible to present a story about a horse in a war as live theater. To recreate the horse, and battle, War Horse is staged using elements from puppetry, graphic novels, documentaries, ancient Greek drama, and ballet. The result is that you’ll find your jaw agape at several points during the show. Continue reading A Stunning, Audacious War Horse at the Paramount
A couple of the bits achieve real, honest pathos including a scene with a fledgling in a forest fire. Occasional glimpses of Loven’s face through the machine expose striking vulnerability as he pours emotional energy into a performing object. Continue reading Kyle Loven’s Loss Machine Opens a Cabinet of Curiosities at OtB
Under the direction of Eric Ankrim the show still elicits joy in and uproarious laughter from those that allow it to overtake them. Ankrim makes several bold choices in his mounting of the silly production, the most notable of which is a cast of puppeteers dressed as the character they’re performing. Continue reading Avenue Q is Delightful, But Not Aging Well
Anything with puppets walks a knife-edge between cutesy and discomfiting, and Wachter seems completely at home there, discussing her willingness to take artistic risks as akin to Carmen’s readiness for a knife fight (just “not too deep, don’t puncture the lungs!” she joked). She of course talks about her puppets as if they’re people. Roscoe’s problem, she told me, “is that he is told by the other puppets that he is a genius.” Continue reading An Absurdist Variety Show Breaks into the NW Film Forum