Show, don’t tell: XCC students explore societal issues using puppets
March 26, 2020
By Devyani Chhetri
They say that actions speak louder than words. Nothing was more true when XCC students took the stage last Friday to reveal the anxieties of the world borne from issues such as climate change, sexual harassment and immigration— through puppets.
In what seemed like a sequel to last year’s puppet slam, students led by Dr. Felice Amato (CFA) and Prof. Jessica Bozek (CAS) looked at their personal experiences as inspiration for their plays and worked over the course of three weeks to construct the script, the stage setting and their protagonists.
As they built stage frames, sewed their puppets and figured out the best use of light, the combination of real time issues with techniques of object performance revealed how puppets can step beyond the traditional constructs and act as an extension of thoughts and emotions during the creative process.
“Accept abstraction, show the story rather than just telling it,” Amato would often say to her students during the class.
For Lauryn Allen (COM’22), Alexis Rindner (CAS) and Evangeline Wang (CAS), who were the first performers of the evening, showcasing a story about climate change started at the corner of the theater, behind a high proscenium frame.
In their piece, “Puppets against Climate Change”, two puppets are seated in a car and driving around puppet city when they ignore a sign that said ‘no dumping’ and throw trash out of the car.
With Rindner’s exaggerated puppet voice leaving the audience in splits, the two puppets are struck soon after by a ‘trash’ comet that decimates the puppet planet.
The humor of the moment gives way to a grim montage of a destroyed planet when the ghosts of the puppets go over the years of excesses where deforestation and pollution in the name of progress led to global warming and the puppet planet’s eventual demise.
The second piece, “Shadow in the Street”, by Sierra White (CFA’20), Anni Yu (CFA’21) and Rachel (Sargent College’22) dealt with sexual harassment on streets and archaic state laws that exacerbate the trauma experienced by those who are subjected to malicious catcalls and invasion of personal space.
The students constructed the stage space and divided their plot in three acts from when the attack first takes place, to when the survivor reaches out to her friend and finally when she interacts with law enforcement officials to report her case.
White, a theatre performance student, powered through a powerful segment where her puppet’s interaction with a law enforcement official highlighted the struggle many sexual harassment survivors have to go through when official documentation requires them to revisit the moment of trauma over and over again.
The finale piece by Zarah Daniar (CAS’22), Bithiah Holton (CFA’20) and Bella T Fong (CAS’21) took the audience across national borders and deep into the thick of a refugee crisis at the U.S borders.
Bella composed the soundtrack of the piece, “Nightmarish reality”, which pushed audience perception beyond their comfort zones. The piece started with a nightmare of a dangerous coyote dreamt by a baby bunny and a baby deer.
In a play steeped in metaphors, “Nightmarish reality” unveiled the tragic journey of a family of refugees from a war torn land to safety only to be thrown back into chaos following Immigration and Customs enforcement.
Robert Munafo, a PhD student at the college of engineering was in the audience and was struck by the quality of performance. His favourite was the comic timing of the climate change story.
“I loved the way the story was portrayed,” he said. “The strength lies in how well they [the students] timed the music.”
“I just wanted to get a feel of what the process was like and I’m really excited to work with the talent they have,” Munafo said.
This article was written by Devyani Chhetri, a graduate assistant with XCC.