We arrived at the University of Chicago Performance Lab with 2 puppet heads and a million ideas, and two weeks later shared a 15 minute segment of this work in progress to four enthusiastic audiences who had come to witness The Puppet Quartet. It was a wild fortnight but with access to the fantastic workshop and performance space of the David and Reva Logan Center for the Arts, and the performance collaboration of John Adam Keating, it helped us get this show off the ground.
The puppets in this workshop production are still works in progress. Their simple functionality defined the scale of the piece and allowed us to experiment with their interactions with each other, basic set pieces and props, and the space itself. You'll notice in the photos below that the performers are very visible and take on duties outside of manipulating the character objects. It was thrilling to make a start on this project we have been conceptualizing for so long. We'll continue to develop "Brothers of Invention" this year thanks to support from the Jim Henson Foundation and hopefully many more donors interested in bringing this unique work of puppet theater to life.
