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</font><div align="center" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><font face="Verdana">Summoned by Puppets</font></b></div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font><div align="center" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><font face="Verdana">By Tom Wachunas</font></div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font><div align="center" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt; text-align: center;"><font face="Verdana"> </font></div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font><div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><font face="Verdana"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">“I ought to be thy Adam, but I am rather
the fallen angel…”</b></font></div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font><div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><font face="Verdana"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b>- Mary Shelley, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frankenstein</i></font></div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font><div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><font face="Verdana"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></i>Once upon a time, nearly three years
ago, the highly accomplished local artist Erin Mulligan-Brayton was listening
to opera music and painting an image of puppets. She had also at that time been
reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frankenstein, </i>and suddenly an
idea was born – to make Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel into a puppet opera. She
promptly contacted Craig Joseph, curator of Translations Art Gallery in
downtown Canton. </font></div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font><div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><font face="Verdana"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus began an
ambitious collaborative journey into previously uncharted theatrical territory
in these parts. Joseph mobilized an eclectic group of 24 individuals into teams
– conceptualizers, builders and performers. Ultimately he directed what can
rightly be called a resplendently quirky hybrid of ingenious shadow play, melodramatic
pantomime and puppetry (including masks, shadow puppets, rod puppets, body
puppets and a marionette). <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></font></div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font><div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><font face="Verdana"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The story, finely
honed into nine scenes that unfold in just under an hour, begins with Robert
Walton (enacted by a masked Justin Edenhofer), captain of a North Pole-bound
ship that has rescued Victor Frankenstein, stranded on the ice floes, weakened
and near death from the cold. Walton nurses Frankenstein back to fragile
health, and hears his woeful tale.</font></div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font><div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><font face="Verdana"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Throughout the performance, live black-robed
and hooded stagehands (or deckhands, really) manipulate props and scrims with
solemn economy of movement suggesting, perhaps, acolytes of a religious rite
executing their ordained tasks. The cleverly crafted visual mechanics -
including wooden nooks and niches occupied by animated shadows, ghostly video
imagery (designed by Zach Christy) and exquisitely expressive puppets - have an
eerily medieval feel, infused with a spirit of alchemy and conjuring. It is an
urgent and tenebrous spirit, well befitting this story of an obsessed scientist
who would be God, the Creator of life, and the terrible consequences of
reaching beyond his own prideful grasp.</font></div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font><div style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><font face="Verdana"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>What further elevates
the production from the level of a simple theatrical curiosity is its earnest
embrace of operatic form. In this case, the score for the remarkable chamber
orchestra (music by Steve Parsons, libretto by John Popa) has been pre-recorded
(excellently mixed and mastered by Ron Flack and John King of Realgrey Records
and available for purchase at the gallery). I think, though, the live audience
experience could be considerably more enhanced by placing additional amplification
at the front of the house, to better envelop us in the soaring drama of the
music. The recorded vocal performances - from Damian Henri (as Victor
Frankenstein), Bart Herman (as The Creature), Amanda Medley (as Elizabeth
Lavenza), and James Graysmith (as Captain Walton) – are emotionally gripping
and constitute a discretely powerful aural event in itself. There are moments –
lyrically and musically – reminiscent of Sondheim-ian works at their most
intelligent and intense. </font></div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1412615836369_3023" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><font id="yui_3_16_0_1_1412615836369_3022" face="Verdana"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>An additionally
compelling aspect of conveying Victor Frankenstein’s harrowing descent into torturous
grief and remorse is the progressive diminishing of his physical stature. We
see three masked “real person” versions (enacted by Jimmy Ferko, Christopher
Hisey and Kyra Stephens) that culminate in a shrunken puppet – an emaciated
doll cradled ever so gingerly in Captain Walton’s arms. Meanwhile, the created
monster grows (that’s Donald Jones underneath the massive overcoat) until he
teeters over all he surveys, his face frozen in a look more lonely and forlorn
than terrifying. </font></div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1412615836369_3025" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><font id="yui_3_16_0_1_1412615836369_3024" face="Verdana"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Who would have
thought that something so innocuous as a puppet show could embody the gravitas
of this classic tale? This one works surpassingly well at pulling on our
heartstrings. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></font></div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1412615836369_3029" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><font id="yui_3_16_0_1_1412615836369_3028" face="Verdana"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b id="yui_3_16_0_1_1412615836369_3027" style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i id="yui_3_16_0_1_1412615836369_3026" style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Frankenstein:
The Puppet Opera, </i></b>at Translations Art Gallery, 331 Cleveland Ave. NW,
downtown Canton. Performances<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>on Oct.
10, 17 and 24 at 8 p.m. / Oct. 31 at 8 and 10 p.m. / Nov. 1 at 8 p.m. TICKETS
are $10 at</font></div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1412615836369_3032" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;"><a id="yui_3_16_0_1_1412615836369_3031" href="http://www.translationsart.com/frankenstein"><font id="yui_3_16_0_1_1412615836369_3030" face="Verdana">www.translationsart.com/frankenstein</font></a><font id="yui_3_16_0_1_1412615836369_3033" face="Verdana">
</font></div><div id="yui_3_16_0_1_1412615836369_3040" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;" dir="ltr"><font id="yui_3_16_0_1_1412615836369_3039" face="Verdana"> For other commentaries by Tom Wachunas on the arts in the greater Canton area, please visit his blog, ARTWACH, at <a id="yui_3_16_0_1_1412615836369_3041" href="http://www.artwach.blogspot.com/">www.artwach.blogspot.com</a> </font></div><font face="Times New Roman">
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