![]() “I went to school for film and photography, like many people in Los Angeles. Evans explained how he discovered the theater. She’s the youngest of the Henson clan, and she’s a huge supporter of puppetry … she like 90 or 100 puppet slams all over the country.”Ĭurrently, Alex Evans is the executive director and head puppeteer at BBMT. “At one point I became vice president then I became president and then I started producing puppet slams in 2011 we got a grant from Heather Henson’s company, Handmade Puppet Dreams. Papalexis started working at BBMT in the ‘80s, and in the early 2000s she became heavily involved with the guild. He was also president of the guild for a while.”Īnd then, of course, there is Bob Baker Marionette Theater, which opened its doors in 1963 and is one of the longest-running puppet theaters in the U.S. Steve Meltzer, who had this magical little theater. There’s, an older, African American puppeteer, who runs Blackstreet USA Puppet Theatre. ![]() “They had a stage coach kind of thing, and they would go around … it was really cool. Papalexis also remembers a company called Mitchell Marionettes. He had a huge batch of people doing marionette shows, mostly for kids’ birthday parties and school assemblies, which he performed until 2007 (he died in 2016 at age 78). There was also Jim Gamble in the South Bay. And there were women that also did these marionette shows, and they would wear ball gowns to work marionettes. It’s funny going back to the WPA days, men used to wear tuxedos when they were doing live shows in the ’40s and ’50s. I mean, it was a very glamorous kind of endeavor. “I saw pictures of Beth Fernandez in her 80s and showing pictures of doing puppet shows she had this big beehive hairdo and glamorous gown and stuff. That was a marionette that those guys made at the Turnabout Theater.”Īdditional puppet theaters of note included Fairyland, which Papalexis recalled was in the San Fernando Valley. ![]() “You’ve probably seen that famous photo of Albert Einstein holding a marionette of himself. … Basically, it really appealed to Hollywood, so a lot of celebrities would go there, and they had celebrity marionettes,” Papalexis continued. “The Yale Puppeteers came out and they did shows, first at Olvera Street, which also had a history of doing marionette theater, and then they opened this theater called the Turnabout Theater, on La Cienega. A lot of them were doing their own puppet shows, and they just wanted to be together and learn together. “I think there were maybe 30 people got together because they all loved puppetry. Guild of Puppetry, explained that the group, which currently has around 200 members, started in 1956. Given that the upcoming ninth celebration of Bob Baker Day, a free festival taking place at the 32-acre Los Angeles State Historic Park, is coming up on Sunday (rescheduled from February due to rain), prominent members of the local puppet scene spoke to The Times about Bob Baker Marionette Theater and the rich history of puppetry in Los Angeles.Ĭhristine Papalexis, a former president of the L.A. ![]() And although the theater is a special institution in L.A., it is only the tip of the iceberg of a sizable community of puppet theaters throughout Los Angeles, which in turn is a cross-section of the larger story of puppetry in America. Many of the parents who attend with their children are multigenerational Bob Baker fans who recall attending the lively puppet shows and eating the post-show ice cream treats when they were children. Although it was forced to move in 2019 from its original location in downtown L.A., which had been designated a historic landmark, its new site in Highland Park still draws full houses. Bob Baker Marionette Theater has been an L.A.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |