Day of Puppetry 4-27-08

Oregonian Article 4-14-08
http://www.oregonlive.com/performance/index.ssf/2008/04/a_ticket_to_puppet_world.html

Puppets on another plane
Visiting a rehearsal for a really big show requires a certain reordering of what was, once, reality
FACTBOX
"Diamonds to Duct Tape"
Sunday, April 13, 2008

What: A fundraiser for the Columbia Association of Puppeteers When: 7: 30 p.m. April 27 Where: Artichoke
Music, 3130 S.E. Hawthorne Blvd. Tickets: $25, available at the door or at Artichoke. Call 503-232-8845 for
reservations, ticket information For the children: There also will be kid-friendly shows earlier in the day:
"Wonder Tales from Africa," by Wool Horse Puppet Theater at 2 p.m.; "Little Bugs, Big World," by Dragon
Theater Puppets at 4:30 p.m.; $15 For more information: www.cappuppets.org/cabaret2008.htm

• "Diamonds to Duct Tape"
Monday, April 14, 2008
INARA VERZEMNIEKS
The Oregonian Staff

For the past few weeks, members of the Columbia Association of Puppeteers have been engaged in a furious
series of rehearsals for what very well may be the most ambitious puppet show they have ever assembled: a
17-act "adult puppet cabaret," due to take over the stage at Artichoke Music in just two weeks. Seventeen acts!
What exactly constitutes an adult puppet cabaret? The proposed act list offers only the vaguest -- though
tantalizing -- clues: "Human and giant puppet," "romantic, erotic dance and puppet number," "Carmen Miranda
and a colorful band of monkeys. . . ."
How can you not be compelled to find out more just from that?

And so this is how you find yourself at the Southeast Portland home of Steve Overton and Marty Richmond, the
official ground zero of cabaret preparations. The rehearsals take place in Overton's and Richmond's studio,
where little rubber hands (with purple nail polish) hang from a hook on the wall and the shelves hold boxes
labeled things such as, "joints, eyes," "chains and studs," "fancy buttons" and "glitter." There are several
boxes marked glitter. (Fittingly, the show is called, "Diamonds to Duct Tape." Puppeteers are a resourceful
bunch.)

If you are at all worried about finding the right place, the belly dancer -- in full costume -- out on the side lawn,
practicing next to a marionette, which mimics her hip undulations with an eerie accuracy, and the foot-high fruit
headdresses lined up on the porch railing should convince you. Inside, the place is full of frenetic activity, with
sets constantly changing and people yelling things such as "We just got the dead parrots working!"

Jason Ropp, president of the puppet group and creator of beautifully detailed puppets -- including a haunting
likeness of Edgar Allan Poe for an act that will feature a reading of Poe's "The Raven" -- reassures you that
while the cabaret was conceived to stretch the traditional American definition of puppetry as a form of children's
entertainment, it is not vulgar: "There's some risqueness -- but nothing where you'd have to cover your eyes."
Or, as Richmond had instructed the group: "Nothing to scare the horses."

In fact, the unfolding rehearsals reveal a heady mix of camp (a fringed-and-rouged bear lip-synching Cher's
"Dark Lady" by Trails, Tails & Company's Joel Park), avant-garde humor (What happens when two dogs decide
to reanimate a dead cat -- a sweetly sick vision, courtesy of Bill Holznagel and Jason Miranda) and quiet,
unexpected beauty (Samantha Anne Maggio's interpretation of the sunset).
And there are moments that defy all classification.

For example, you can say with a high degree of certainty that this is the first time in your life you have ever
heard a chicken puppet brawking out the words to "Oops, I Did It Again" while a real-life dog wanders
confusedly on stage with all these talking, anthropomorphized creatures until the man minding the sound and
lights eventually shoos it away with a puff from the smoke machine.

It sort of resets your reality-meter, until surreal becomes, well, normal.
A giant rabbit dressed in an exquisite turquoise ball gown, singing Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man"?
Absolutely.

Hand puppets with forks for heads? Yes!
Ropp, discussing a potato's motivation: Should he be French?
Richmond, gamely dressed in one of those foot-high headdresses, helped to bring to life monkey-puppet
versions of the Andrews Sisters singing with a drop-dead gorgeous, befeathered Carmen Miranda marionette in
some stacked heels so killer you have to resist the urge to ask her where she bought them. (Richmond also
gamely played the part of "the disco ball," stoically holding it aloft for a crew of dancing bears who tangoed
around him. When it was over, everyone applauded: "Bravo for the disco ball!" Silently, proudly, the disco ball
bowed.)

After three hours, walking outdoors into the blinding sunlight was almost painful. It took some time to
decompress, to accept once more that, as a rule, those birds on the wires above you -- they don't dance. And
that fork in your hand -- it can't really talk.

That night, you wake up with the lyrics of "Dark Lady" playing in your head. It is always a bear that you picture
singing this song now -- never Cher.

Inara Verzemnieks: 503-221-8201; inarav@news.oregonian.com