New winter-focused puppet show features three different styles of puppetry in Colorado Springs
Dec. 1—Puppetry allows for possibility.
Human puppeteers can bring to life animals, creatures and whole worlds with a few measured flicks of the wrist.
In the new original Theatreworks show "Winter Wonders," audiences will be treated to three cold-weather stories and three puppetry styles, co-written by Theatreworks Artistic Director Caitlin Lowans and Colorado Springs Native American storyteller Lina Ramirez and directed and designed by Katy Williams, a puppeteer who owns Katy Williams Design. It opens Saturday at Ent Center for the Arts and runs through Dec. 18.
"It's truly magical," Williams said. "You get to watch this thing that is inanimate come to life before your eyes. There's something so magical about that for kids and adults. Puppetry lets you do things you couldn't do with actors."
A winter fox, winter hare and ptarmigan star in the first story about the Arctic tundra and its resident animals, along with an explorer named Dusty who gives off wildlife expert and TV personality Steve Irwin and English actor Bill Nighy vibes.
The second story, by Ramirez, chronicles the tale of how the constellation Orion came to be.
The final tale explains the science of snow and how it's formed at a molecular level. In a kid-friendly way, it explains what's happening to the permafrost and the Earth, and how snow is changing across the globe.
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To tell the stories, Williams and a team of half a dozen puppeteers, which includes University of Colorado at Colorado Springs students, will operate about 35 handmade puppets.
"People worry puppeteers will be distracting," Williams said. "But after about a minute the audience won't even notice the puppeteers are there."
Williams fell in love with puppets while participating in Fine Arts Center Theatre Company's Youth Repertory Theatre program. She popped a puppet on her paw to play Kate Monster in excerpts from the Tony Award-winning musical "Avenue Q" and found her niche. In the upcoming production, which is her third puppet collaboration with Theatreworks, she'll use three styles of puppetry: The first is contact puppetry, which is bunraku inspired. Bunraku is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theater that uses more than one puppeteer to bring one puppet to life.
The second story will feature the crankie style, where a scroll covered in artwork is cranked by a puppeteer. Shadow puppets also will help bring the story to life.
Finally, black light puppetry will use black light and other items that glow and don't glow to tell the scientific story of snow.
"In Colorado Springs there aren't a lot of folks doing this work," Williams said. "It's a cool opportunity to see puppetry and three distinct styles in one show."
Contact the writer: 636-0270
