Age-old art of puppeteering still brings wonder and imagination

By JAN WILLMS

It’s a crisp fall Saturday in Minneapolis. The leaves are falling, the sun is bright and the warmth of the morning belies the threat of chillier days to come.

But inside the In The Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre (HOBT) at 1500 Lake St., the children gathered around a small puppet stage are oblivious of what the weather is like outside. They are watching a story come to life through the magic of puppetry.

In these days of technology everywhere, the age-old art of puppeteering still brings wonder to a young child’s eyes and stirs imaginations.

Nearly every Saturday from October through March, HOBT presents puppet theater matinees at 10am and noon, with workshops for children to make puppets following each show.

This Saturday Gustavo and Julie Boada bring to the stage the story of two friends, Elaine and Janelli. The children appear enthralled as they watch how a small argument results in a wall built between the two friends’ houses, and how generations pass before that wall comes down.

Gustavo, who is from Peru, wrote the play and built the show. His wife, Julie, performs it with him. This show is done in Spanish and English. “There was a live theater version of this show in Philadelphia,” Julie said. She said the couple does puppet shows in area schools, having performed at Hiawatha and Nokomis, as well as at libraries and birthday parties.

“I was in graduate school in visual arts,” Julie said, “when I got connected to puppetry. This never was what I thought I would do.”

Gustavo said he worked in theater for a long time in Peru, and for him the puppetry means sharing stories that inspire children and adults to have a better life.

Julie said their bilingual shows draw bilingual crowds. “Last week we did a Day of theDead puppet show, and a man attending from Mexico was so humbled to see something culturally for him,” she said.

Gustavo said a lot of the shows they do at HOBT are very low tech. “It’s good to be reminded how powerful puppet shows can be,” he added.

This type of artistic endeavor is something HOBT wants to provide for kids in the neighborhood, according to Alison Heimstead, performance curator. “We wanted to offer the chance for kids in the neighborhood to see puppet shows, but make it affordable,” she said. The Saturday matinees have been running for the past 17 years, with shows in Spanish being offered the last couple of years. Heimstead said she and Gustavo co-curate the Saturday performances.

Heimstead said the shows are designed to show children what it means to be a human being and what it means to be alive right now, with all the things around you.

She has been at HOBT for five years, with her interest in puppets starting when she was a teenager. “I started the process and fell into puppetry,” she explained. She attended the California College of Arts and said she has studied with a lot of great puppeteers nationally.

“I make puppet shows as well,” Heimstead added. “A lot of us are so involved with all aspects of it. We love the work so much we do lots of parts of it. We make the puppets as well as perform.”

HOBT was first started in 1973 by David O’Fallon and Ray St. Louis. It was originally called the Powderhorn Puppet Theatre. Its mission is to bring people together for the common good through the power of puppet and mask performance.

Originally located in the Walker Church in the Powderhorn area of Minneapolis, HOBT moved to its present location in the old Avalon art deco cinema in 1988.

The theatre provides puppets for the annual May Day Parade, held the first Sunday of each May. This spring will mark the 42nd May Day parade.

Besides the matinees, other puppet shows are performed in the evenings.

“We’re having a women’s solstice for the holidays,” Heimstead said. “There will be 40 women singing, with a larger puppet spectacle.”

She said HOBT is also very involved in teaching, with programs offered at schools.

“Our matinee series focuses on our work, but also that of some of the artists we work with. The shows are generated by both, providing a rich diversity of all kinds of puppeteering,” Heimstead added.

She said that although the goal of the matinees has been to reach out to South Minneapolis, children from all over the area attend.

“The puppet shows offer a real great opportunity for people to come together and be together in the same space and see a live performance,” Heimstead explained. “There is still something magical about puppetry, even if it is old-fashioned. And it follows with our mission of bringing people together for the common good.”

For a detailed schedule of puppet shows at HOBT, check the website at www.hobt.org.