Sandglass announces its inaugural Legacy Series, featuring all of our currently touring original works.
This series includes both legacy pieces and original works created by Sandglass’s next generation of Puppet Theater makers. Legacy pieces are named in honor of Sandglass Founders Eric Bass and Ines Zeller Bass, who, in part, originated some of the work that will be presented.
Each show will include a special post show community puppetry “taster,” offering a glimpse into Sandglass’ approach to creating theater with puppets. As a touring company that spends much of our year performing in other parts of the world, this series is a response to popular demand from our hometown audience to perform our work locally.
The next performance in this series is: Puppet Crimes
At Sandglass Theater, 17 Kimball Hill, Putney, VT
400 years of puppetry survival
Conceived and Performed by Jana Zeller
Co-writer and Director: Eric Bass
Puppet Heads: Zak Grace
Puppet Costumes: Ines Zeller Bass
Composer: Anna Patton
This dark comedy highlights all the glory of traditional, antiauthoritarian, counter-cultural puppet theater. Puppet Crimes, an original hand puppet show created by Jana Zeller, is a raucously hilarious satire about what it takes for a common puppet to survive for 400 years in the face of war, tyranny and economic oppression.
Traditional German hand puppet heroes Kasper and Gretel struggle to survive in an old shack on the margins of society. As the centuries pass through their little puppet booth, war is always raging and Kasper tries to avoid getting blamed, arrested and drafted, yet at every turn this petty puppet is made the scapegoat for larger crimes. In a grotesque world of gun-runners, outhouses, and a declining monarchy, Kasper (with the humor and wit of everyday folks) ducks out from under authority and manages to survive another 200 years. The third character in this spectacle is the villain Dietmar, corrupt emissary to the king who deals in weapons and bullies Kasper with his gun wielding authority. Each scene poses a grotesque circumstance with a comic twist that explores the tradition of Kasper’s character and its timeless relevance to today’s world.
Come celebrate the living tradition of puppetry in Vermont!
