Eleanor Polak photo
TJ and Antony Sellitto-Budney with puppets.
What do felt, paper, string, feathers, eggs, and odd socks have in common? They can all be made into puppets, and they all came alive on Friday night during the Pinned & Sewtured Puppet Cabaret, hosted at Witch Bitch Thrift.
“We all love puppets,” said Anatar Marmol-Gagné, to the cheers of the audience. Marmol-Gagné is a director, designer, and puppet theater artist, who organized the Puppet Cabaret for its tenth year. The Cabaret featured nine acts, and nine different puppeteers. Everyone who bought a ticket was also given a sticker with a raffle number, and Marmol-Gagné gave out canvas bags printed with the Pinned & Sewtured Puppet Cabaret logo, and gift certificates to Witch Bitch Thrift, to three lucky winners.
Matt Sorensen, Silas, and Anatar Marmol-Gagné.
First up was Matt Sorensen of Puppet Bucket Productions, participating in his first puppet slam since grad school. He performed an improv act with the help of audience volunteer Silas, Marmol-Gagné, and two of his own puppets.
Sorensen asked Silas and Marmol-Gagné to pretend that they were on a first date in an audience-suggested location: Walmart. “Make it juicy, make it bad, make it awkward,” he told them. The puppets acted as the angel and demon on Silas’s shoulder, giving not-so-helpful advice to guide him through a first date involving cat litter, grandmas on fire, and a lot of talk about the apparently amazing lighting in Walmart.
Aubrey Clinedinst's light box.
Next, Aubrey Clinedinst performed an act called “WHO are you?” to The Who’s “I’m a Boy.” They used a light box with rotating images and their own body to act out a story about discovering and embracing gender identity.
Madison J. Cripps and volunteers.
Madison J. Cripps of Cripps Creations opened his act by shouting “Here ye, here ye, gather one and all,” in regal tones. He brandished a trumpet and twirled his mustache as he demanded volunteers to participate in “A Courtly Entertainment: An Excerpt from Earl the Pearls Rules the World.” The volunteers held up scenery and wildlife and struck spoons together to create a clacking sound. Under Cripps’s hands, Clarence the tap dancing seahorse performed for the titular Earl the Pearls, ruler of the world.
Hailey Bendar and puppet.
Hailey Bendar’s act, “Hot Tub Egg Machine,” evoked French mimes and old-school cartoons in a comedic set. To the sounds of soft music, she manipulated a puppet egg with eyes as it bathed in a pot, drank from a margarita glass, dried off with a towel, and finally, hid from a large spoon.
After a brief intermission, during which a few of the puppets visited with the audience members, Marmol-Gagné showed her short film, “Heart-Felt.” The film featured a felt puppet heart as it experienced the trials and tribulations of dating, went through heartbreak, found love, and had a baby heart puppet.
“Fun fact about that short film, I did it in three days,” said Marmol-Gagné. “It was sleepless and so much fun.”
TJ of Basically Good Puppet Theatre.
TJ of Basically Good Puppet Theatre, a “non-organization dedicated to the everyday Aha! Which found, though never hidden, in the dazzling now,” slowed down the pace from riotous to relaxed by leading the audience in a meditation. He instructed the crowd to sit forward in their seats, cast down their eyes, and regulate their breathing and thoughts as he played a singing bowl.
“We’re holding ourselves up,” said TJ. “In the theme of puppetry, there’s a string holding us up.”
Then, TJ brought out the snow lion, who he described as a “a mythical creature from the land of Tibet…They represent living artfully.” To the sound of music, and the light of the rising sun, the snow lion emerged, smelled a flower, and even lept on some audience member’s heads.
Next up was SPAM, aka Daniel Thomas Calden. “When I asked Daniel Thomas Calden for a short bio, they said ‘Spam is Spam,’ and it’s so true,” said Marmol-Gagné.
Following an audio about a misfit student and a bullying teacher, SPAM performed a light puppet show called “Daniel Thomas Calden Is A Man With Problems,” featuring fish, decapitated donkey heads, and Sauron-like monsters who ate each other and also humans.
Aaron Lathrop.
Aaron Lathrop of Night Bear Puppets opened his set by confidently announcing “I am the master puppeteer.”
“Some puppeteers dream of ascending the mountains of talent that I drunkenly stumble over,” he said. Lathrop claimed to have made puppetry “worthy” of him by turning it into a “bloodsport.” He proposed that he enact the entirety of “Hamlet” with puppets while a volunteer, Lauren, pelted him with playground balls.
Lathrop rapidly fell to the ground as not only Lauren but the entire audience bombarded him with balls. Breaking down, he performed an emotional speech about the inception of his idea for the act before inviting Lauren to finish the play with him, using the puppets to act out the final lines of “Hamlet.”
As Lathrop left the stage, one of the audience ball-pelters informed everyone that “He’s my in-real-life boss. Thought I’d drop that Shyamalan twist.”
Closing the show, Anthony Sellitto-Budney appeared in clown makeup. Their act involved slapstick, bread-toasting (and possibly burning, judging from the smell), guitar playing, and raw eggs. Sellitto-Budney got volunteers to hold up a banner with the name of their company, BreakFAST Puppets.
The volunteers also recited lines like “making breakfast” and “I’d like some orange juice” into a mic, with increasing gusto. The soundbites were then played back to create a song, as Sellitto-Budney cracked eggs with faces drawn on into a plate. They then tipped the toast in the raw egg and consumed it, to the half-delighted half-horrified cries of the audience.
The audience left Witch Bitch Thrift that night a little bit lighter, a little bit more whimsical, and bearing smiles that were a little bit brighter. The two hours of puppetry had unleashed their inner children, and showed them just how magical some random household items can truly be. After all, in the words of the legendary Rupaul, “Everybody loves puppets!”