Tucson Puppet Cabaret 2024

Blessed again by invitation from the one and only puppet master, Lisa Sturz at Red Herring Puppets, Imaginology was requested to bring Cleatus to the Tucson Puppet Slam at Scoundrel and Scamp Theater, December 6,7 and 8, 2024.

Rowby, a lovable alien puppet created and performed by Lisa Sturz with Red Herring Puppets was the Master of Ceremonies. Rowby introduced many of the acts and offered insights from an alien perspective.

Cleatus Wayneright is everyones new favorite, shitty, redneck neighbor. We wanted to bring Cleatus and his trailer down to Scoundrel and Scamp and make a stink with "Kickin' It With Cleatus". Cleatus showed up with stains on his shirt, ready to make fun of Tucson and it's empty dirt lots as well as politics and the price of eggs!?

The talent was great and varied. With some 20 performers involved, we had a wonderful variety of puppeteers, vocalists, teachers, musicians and astronomers to round out the team.

The Scoundrel and Scamp Theater is a very professional theater to work with/in. Annika runs the technical booth like an automation pro. Programming and assigning cues is her game and she is very advanced at it. Her love for the art surpasses expecations and her willingness to work with artists is refreshing.

Brian is the man with the plan and runs his theater like it's his own. Which is because it IS his theater! With one of the technicians sick for the weekend, it was up to Brian to roll up his sleeves and assist in setting lights and backstage tech as well as running the house for the weekend. Thank you Brian!

Lisa Sturz is an increadibly talented human with many dynamic aspects and credits to her name. It is a pleasure to work with Lisa as she finds ways to include you in the process of improving your own puppetry style and technique. Her main note for Cleatus was that he (I) had a tendancy to move his arm when speaking, which is also known as "relaying" as in you are relaying your movements from one hand to the other. Her suggestion was taken and as a result I only moved Cleatus hand when attempting to point in a general direction, or to accentuate an emotion. Resulting in better puppetry, a better performance and a learning experience for me to grow as a puppeteer.

Dennis and Laura both made a new team debut as they premiered their rod puppetry "Dating a Dark Lord" skit that was based off of the Dating Game Show. The two of them working together felt very natural and funny as is usually the case with Dennis the Red. Now with Laura and Dennis as a team, we will be watching closely to see what future fun and hijinx they bring to puppetry.

Josh and his show "Aspiring Alcoholic" was a new learning experience for Josh as he worked with Lisa extensively on his piece. Refining and attending details in delivery, timing and puppetry, Josh received direct, one on one training to help refine his show for presentation.

Psycho Sarah returned to the stage with an updated version of her "Recovery Queen" program. Using Abba's hit pop song "Dancing Queen" as the basis for her musical update "Recovery Queen" Sarah was once again presented with the challenges of retaining her sobriety in very challenging times as her puppet friend PTSD attempts to convince her to make poor decisions.

The puppets used throughout the performances were phenomenal and varied in shape and size. The Meatball performance by Jan was especially cute but small in scale. A Meatball character is so lonely he could die, until he meets spaghetti, sauce and cheese. With a buddhump bump singalong, this show stole many hearts.

The larger scale, dayglo painted "Alberijes" puppets were a beautiful pop of color in appearance and performance and presented Lisa Sturz oversized marionettes and performance.

In an excerpt from the upcoming Tucson Fringe Festival Show; You and Infinity, University of Arizona astronomer Kevin Hainline, used transparencies, shadowplay, and an overhead projector to explore the terror (and comfort) of the endlessness that awaits us. (Saturday and Sunday only) Hainline was accompanied on guitar by Lara R. with a very lovely rendition of the David Byrne song "Heaven". The illustrations used on transparency were nicely done and the humour of the piece is a sobering look at life as it relates to infinity. The piece was overall a very clever view wit and extensive, existential perspective.

The Tucson Puppet Works theater troupe, now known as Trogs Anonymous presented Baker's Man - a creation story for the ages, but not for all ages. May contain gluten. This story of how the chef chased away the gingerbread by "nibble nibbling" was a cute and dynamic show with live music and concluded with a giant oversized gingerbread man costume running around and causing shenanigans with audience members.

Some live performance elements were also included as Lisa Sturz presented "Bad Decisions" a critical view of the supreme court justices and their history of stripping rights from American citizens. This piece resonated with many as it's theme song "Stop in the Name of Love" was a catchy inclusion in the show.

The Three Sisters, created by Red Herring Puppet, explores a mysterious archetypal  journey. Lily Sabath, Amelie Allen and Lisa Sturz portray the maiden, mother and crone as they sing of the feminine cycles of birth, life, death, and rebirth. Music by Michael Eagan.

Wolf and Xochitl are a team of performance artists with a variety of talents and segments they present. Demonstrating expressive moments of brilliance, Wobo presents juggling, dance, movement, emotive but silent expression and even shadow puppets to tell their ongoing story of struggle with the "rats" inside the theater. Their music and sound effects help round out an already well crafted series of vignettes that delight the audience with the wonders of comedy and tragedy theater.

The final segment included a moment of Nativity as the rats in the theater had finally been put to rest. All of the performers and puppets came to the stage to see the rats. 

Overall the learning experiences and friendships formed at Tucson Puppet Cabaret are far worth the drive from Phoenix. I encourage you to look up The Scoundrel and Scamp Theater https://www.scoundrelandscamp.org/ and Red Herring Puppets https://www.redherringpuppets.com/ for more information and theater programming.

Photography by David Dupree - Urban Photographer https://iteraart.com/