The Mum Puppettheatre is celebrating its second full season in its own space in Philadelphia. The group’s touring troupe will present a show at The Peddie School in Hightstown Saturday.
By: Susan Van Dongen
HIGHTSTOWN With high-tech, multi-sensory entertainment at their fingertips, getting more sophisticated all the time, it’s amazing how children can still become absorbed in a puppet show.
"American children today aren’t as aware of puppetry, having been raised on TV, video games and movies," says Laurie Brown, general manager for Philadelphia’s Mum Puppettheatre. "Most of our shows don’t contain any words. Yet the movements in puppetry are so universal you can see the magic happen right before their eyes."
The internationally acclaimed group is celebrating its second full season in its own space at 115 Arch St. in the Olde City neighborhood, a giant step up from its nomadic life of touring for the last 16 years. Their endeavors range from challenging adult fare such as world premiere The Empty Tribe to family favorites.
The Mum Puppettheatre’s touring troupe will bring its traditional springtime performance of The Velveteen Rabbit to the Peddie School in Hightstown, March 24. Adapted from the book by Margery Williams, it’s the story of a plush toy rabbit who longs to become real.
Mum Puppetheatre performs the classic children’s tale using hand puppets, rod puppets, shadows and masks. Like most of the other presentations, the show will be done without any narrative, with original music by Adam Wernick.
"Puppetry is actually a branch of movement theater," Ms. Brown says. "It’s based around movement and non-scripted or non-textual action, like some forms of clowning or mime. We express humor and ideas through body language. The puppets’ actions literally speak louder than words. With puppets, anyone can understand, not just an English-speaking audience."
Puppetry has a long history and is an especially venerated art form in China, where it goes back at least to the 10th century, when marionettes entertained the royal Sung Dynasty.
"In the rest of the world, there’s a much longer history which goes all the way back to the beginnings of storytelling," Ms. Brown says. "Puppetry is more of an accepted artform overseas."
Founded in 1985, Mum Puppettheatre has toured the world performing original works and was the first American theater company to perform in Romania after that country’s revolution in 1991.
They’ve collected numerous international awards and six Barrymore Awards(Philadelphia’s Tonys) for excellence in theater. Founding artistic director Robert Smythe received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1998.
Still, Ms. Brown says, puppet theaters in the U.S. seem to have a vagabond reputation. Few American colleges, even art and theater schools, offer formal training and degrees in puppetry.
"You learn by finding a company to work with, or you teach yourself," she says. "In Philadelphia, we’re the only place that offers classes. There are other smaller puppet groups in the area, like Spiral Q and Puppet Uprising, but they’re more politically based."
Construction of the puppets is an art form in itself. Mum makes all of its own puppets which range in size from 8 to 40 inches tall at the Arch Street facility. However, master puppet maker Deborah Glassberg came on board to craft the complex puppets for The Empty Tribe. Ms. Glassberg is famous for the award-winning puppets she created for the stage version of The Lion King.
Mum makes every puppet show an educational experience. With The Velveteen Rabbit in particular, the performers sense what draws a response from the audience and pull the show’s context from there.
"The audience is actually in the nursery, seeing and wanting the rabbit to come to life," Ms. Brown says. "It’s not just a children’s show. It really does resonate as much with senior citizens as youngsters."
Mum also follows all of its shows with a question-and-answer period, revealing some of the magic behind the curtain.
"For Velveteen Rabbit, two resident artists have signed on to do all the work," Ms. Brown says. "That means the mask work, puppetry and sound. In the Q&A session, the kids can see how everything works, and they’re awestruck when they realize that these two people did 15 puppets, all the characters and all the technical work, too."
Ms. Brown says the group loves to see the audience get involved.
"We get energized when we see puppetry doing something special to the imagination," she says. "It’s very, very impressive to see a 2-year-old be totally engaged in a puppet show, especially when you realize they are using only one sense. It’s not like TV, where they also have to listen and connect. Here, they can just watch and be entertained.
"Also, we never try to put a moral issue or message in our shows. Adults always want to know what the ‘message’ was, whereas the kids’ response will be ‘that’s cool.’ We’re not trying to limit a child’s imagination. Whatever they get out of it is perfectly fine."
Mum Puppettheatre presents The Velveteen Rabbit, at the William-Mount Burke Theatre on the campus of the Peddie School, South Main Street, Hightstown, March 24 at 2 p.m. Tickets cost $8. For information, call (609) 490-7550.