Kate Brehm knelt behind a backlit display in a Loeb Drama Heart rehearsal room, holding a shadow puppet of the character Penelope from Homer’s “Odyssey.” Brehm and puppeteer Abigail Baird have been discussing the actions required to make sure a pointy silhouette of the puppet throughout a scene within the A.R.T.’s new stage adaptation of the epic poem.
“A part of the talent of puppetry is to supply simply sufficient data, however not all of it, so that you just’re benefiting from the damaging area in between in order that the viewers can fill it in,” mentioned Brehm, puppetry director and designer for “The Odyssey,” which opens on the American Repertory Theater on Feb. 18.
“Puppets are a clean slate in a approach, which typically permits for extra emotional engagement from the viewers. I’m very enthusiastic about viewers creativeness, as a result of what the viewers can think about is healthier than something I might make.”
The artifice concerned in shadow puppetry dovetails completely with a manufacturing that displays on the illusions of heroism created by storytelling, mentioned Brehm, lecturer in Bodily Theater within the FAS’ Theater, Dance & Media program.
Written by Kate Hamill and directed by Shana Cooper, the variation reimagines the tales of Odysseus (performed by Wayne T. Carr) and his spouse, Penelope (Andrus Nichols), round themes of therapeutic and forgiveness as methods to finish cycles of violence and revenge. Whereas many of the play is carried out by reside actors, puppets are utilized in a number of key scenes.
Niles Singer/Harvard Workers Photographer
“I’m intrigued by the non-verbal data that’s conveyed by way of puppetry,” mentioned Brehm, who has been directing, designing, and performing puppetry and experimental theater works for greater than 20 years. “You possibly can actually inform tough tales, tales about trauma, like this model of ‘The Odyssey.’ It is sensible to me to specific these tough concepts in one thing aside from the human.”
Take the scene through which Penelope tells her son Telemachus (Carlo Albán) the story of his father’s departure. As many as 5 solid members are dealing with puppets behind the display, together with Nichols and Albán, who’re puppeteering whereas additionally narrating the story. The actors should take into consideration their puppets’ placement on the display, how the dimensions of their shadows adjustments with their proximity to gentle, in addition to the feelings conveyed by way of their motion.
“It’s very very like choreography,” mentioned Brehm, who’s instructing a course titled “Puppet Theater” this semester. “There are two performances happening right here. One is the efficiency the viewers sees on the puppet display, and one is the choreography of the actors and puppeteers behind the scenes, choosing up and placing down puppets in exact areas.”
“I’m intrigued by the non-verbal data that’s conveyed by way of puppetry,” says Kate Brehm.
Images by Niles Singer/Harvard Workers Photographer
A puppet manufactured from plywood.
One piece of the Cyclops’ eye.
Brehm (left) and Abigail Baird venture the Cyclops’ eye.
Brehm makes use of a special phantasm to painting the Cyclops’ eye, which seems when the large Polyphemus (Jason O’Connell) captures Odysseus and his males. Brehm and Waltham puppeteer Sarah Nolen constructed three tiers of plexiglass above an overhead projector so they may manipulate the Cyclops’ eyelid to make it seem like it’s opening and shutting. The attention, which Baird operates with one other puppeteer, should be in sync with O’Connell’s efficiency.
“It’s a must to breathe collectively and anticipate, and get to know the opposite performers,” Baird mentioned, likening the expertise to being a part of an orchestra.
Brehm labored with Nolen to design and construct the puppets. A few foot in size, the hand held shadow puppets are produced from a mix of skinny plywood, styrene, and acrylic, and a few have movable joints constructed with wire.
Brehm sees her puppetry work as only one piece within the bigger “puzzle” of the present, which she described as “actually epic.”
“What I hope the viewers takes away from this present is a bigger imaginative and prescient in regards to the myths we create,” Brehm mentioned. “Our capability to each make them and to alter them inside our households and our societies. We have now the facility to make our personal tales.”
