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A picnic packed into a squirmy, stilted show

Posted on August 14, 2008August 15, 2008 by Staff

By Valarie Schwartz

It doesn’t seem possible that I’ve been putting it off this long, but every August since the Paperhand Puppet Intervention (PPI) started bringing weekend shows to the Forest Theater, it has been my intention to attend. Finally, in its ninth year, we made it over Sunday night for I am an Insect: A Fluttering Processionary of Infinitesimal Ideas.

What a delightful scene!

And the show was great too!

It’s doubtful that when Donovan Zimmerman and Jan Burger (co-founders of PPI and co-directors of the shows) conceived the idea of presenting summer shows, they visualized the community gatherings that would result. The shows start at 7 p.m., but like the cast and crew, the audience members begin gathering on the stone steps of the Forest Theater much earlier on Friday, Saturday and Sunday evenings, bringing with them their picnic dinners, bottles (or boxes) of wine, family members and neighbors.

“It’s very intimate in a way, sitting there with people, being together,” Zimmerman said. “It’s a great aspect of that space, to sit there in the light and be with each other.”

Unlike the intimacy of an indoor theater, where “the house” goes dark as the entertainment begins, amphitheater audience members can still watch as people around them share mozzarella balls and cupcakes or refill beverages while booing and hissing the dung beetle or applauding and cheering the grasshopper performing onstage (at a puppet show one is encouraged to voice reactions).

Many were the multi-generational families in attendance, with children moving from the comfort of a mother’s lap to hang onto a grandfather’s neck while giant insects metamorphosed, danced or flew before them, all accompanied by music that set the scene.

“The music steers the emotions and energy in different directions,” Zimmerman said. It’s hard to believe that only six musicians produced such a constant, steady backdrop to the action on stage, using even more instruments than there were insects. Drums of every tone and origin, keyboard, flute, chimes, stringed instruments, all “reacting to what’s going on onstage and following the pulse of the music,” added Zimmerman.

It takes a community to put on shows like this, where so many elements come together to produce not only entertainment but messages that children and adults carry home. From the main theme (this year’s being the insect world) come the scenes, which flesh out and explore the theme. Each scene contains “characters” made out of paper, papier-mâché and all manner of (mostly donated) recycled or re-purposed objects.

“We have people who come to the studio and help do papier-mâché, painting, sewing and a sundry of tasks,” Zimmerman said. “There are a lot of different things that go into it.”

Then, of course, there are the puppeteers, willing to gyrate, crawl, walk on stilts and, mainly, SWEAT their way through every weekend in August and into September for the sake of providing their community a unique experience.

If you haven’t had a chance to go, give a try to what will likely become an annual family event. It’s well worth the ticket price ($10 adults, $7 children), every weekend through Sept. 7 in the Forest Theater, moving to the N.C. Museum of Art in Raleigh for shows on Sept. 12 and 13.

Learn more at www.paperhand.org .

Contact Valarie Schwartz at 923-3746 or valariekays@mac.com

1 thought on “A picnic packed into a squirmy, stilted show”

  1. Earnest says:
    August 27, 2008 at 11:31 am

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    needle-like snake,

    INLET not significant, effect cockroach. Thus
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    Internal nerve. Sucks especially contents through.
    Against sucks sucks. Against sucks sucks. Internal nerve. Sucks

    Immediate now share extinguishing controlling them.
    Arises: share share arises: share share immediate now share

    -from Insect Assassins

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