August 22, 2001
Puppet masters string along crowd
Rosenclaire Puppet Festival staged at Traverse City Opera House
By Carol South
Herald contributing writer
Last weekend could be called the great puppet invasion, as puppets were spied all over town.
The wood-and-wire fun was all part of the Rosenclaire Puppet Festival, which featured two different puppet shows, puppet demonstrations and a marionette production of "Beauty and the Beast."
The Rosenclaire Puppet Festival kicked off Friday afternoon with a demonstration of puppetry by Robert Papineau of Livonia, owner of Pippin Puppets. Nearly 85 youngsters and their parents came to the Traverse Area District Library for a peek into the inner workings of a puppet's life.
Reaching into his magic trunk, Papineau showed off a variety of his hand-made puppets, from space aliens to bats, princesses to a giant spider. He explained the differences among rod puppets, hand puppets and marionettes, demonstrating the characteristics of each and why he chose a style for a character.
Along the way, he also cleared up one major misunderstanding.
"People always think that a puppeteer has the strings tied to the ends of their fingers, but it doesn't work that way," he said, demonstrating how to manipulate his eight-legged spider puppet with a criss-cross control.
Enthused about all things puppet, Steve and Mary Larson organized the Rosenclaire Puppet Festival (so named because of their two daughters' middle names) as a way to share their love of puppets with the community. They booked Papineau for two different shows on Saturday and "Beauty and the Beast" by Stevens Puppets on Sunday, both at the City Opera House.
Steve Larson began carving marionettes from wood and stringing them up a few years ago. His interest in puppets began suddenly after he created a toy theater puppet show that captivated his students, despite a hastily cobbled together cardboard stage and crude puppets.
After he and his wife attended a regional puppet festival last summer in Madison, Wisc., they decided to invite some of the puppeteers they met there to perform in Traverse City. Both believe there is an untapped interest in puppets in this area and were determined to found what they hope is an annual puppet festival.
"The regional festival really turned us on," said Larson, who works as a staff accompanist at the Interlochen Arts Academy. "I don't really remember seeing puppet shows when I was a kid and that's why I want to give kids the opportunity to see something like Beauty and the Beast. A show like that is very beautiful and magical - something they will remember all their life."
Annette Payne brought her two aspiring puppeteers to see "Beauty and the Beast" Sunday afternoon: son Carter, 9, and daughter Jennifer, 6. She said that Carter is an avid puppeteer with the Asbury United Methodist Church Puppeteers, helping out with weekly performances.
"This was really interesting, the first time we have seen marionettes," Payne said.
The Paynes got a special treat after their performance when puppeteer Dan Raynor of Stevens Puppets invited the audience backstage for a peek. For 30 minutes, he held forth on how the puppets are made (his wife carves and paints them), how he does all the voices (recorded, using some professional actors, with his ad libs woven in) and how long he has performing (ten years.)
"We do Theater in the Little, a lost art that not many people do anymore," said Raynor, of Fairfax, Va., who travels 60,000 miles a year to do shows.
Stevens Puppets includes two other traveling troupes besides Raynor. They offer nine different children's shows, including "Cinderella," "Beauty and the Beast," "Wizard of Oz" and the "Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The Raynors created the puppets, sets and soundtracks for all the shows.
Being a puppeteer is an odd profession, Raynor noted, one he and his wife backed into shortly after they were married.
"We answered an ad for a retired couple to tour with a marionette show," he recalled. "We thought we'd like to be retired and interviewed and were hired on the spot."