Residency with New York City puppet theatre artist Erin Orr

Through the generosity of Dartmouth College's Outreach program, Monday October 4th and Tuesday, October 5th, Mascoma High school students took part in a two day residency with New York City Savage Nursery puppet theatre artist Erin Orr and her crew -- puppeteers, sound engineers, production staff and Joe Clifford from the Dartmouth's Outreach at the Hopkins Center. Excerpts from the journals of participating students and photographs of the workshop follow. After these is the original proposal and Erin Orr's response.

Savage Nursery by Jared Shaw

The Savage Nursery Crew came to us Monday and Tuesday. They showed us how to make shadow puppets. First they put on a little show for us. It was neat because they showed us how to make our own puppets out of many different materials and colors.

My partner and I got the nick name "The Box Crew" because we made a toy box and had numerous toys jumping out. I wish we had had more time.

Savage Nursery by Leah Plant

Savage Nursery came to work with us on Monday October 4th and Tuesday, October 5th. Erin Orr, the creator of the show came along with her puppeteers, etc., and taught us about shadow puppetry. They assisted us in creating shadow puppets and then they acted out our shows for us.

When I first saw their flyer for their official show at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth, I was interested by the two morbidly funny looking puppets pictured at the top of the page. They seemed to be Tim Burton-esque, so I decided to see their full show on Thursday at 7 P.M.. Needless to say, it was awesome. I found myself to be one of the youngest people there (only older than what appeared to be a seven year old boy who was extremely freaked out). I must admit, some of the things seen in the show are more frequently the subjects of nightmares. Overall, Savage Nursery was an awesome experience at Mascoma High School (for the workshop) and at the Hopkins Center at Dartmouth.

Savage Nursery by Nicole Bisbee

On October 4th and 5th Savage Nursery came to our school. Some of the students from the experiencing the arts class participated in making shadow puppets. We learned how to make shadow puppets, their joints and backgrounds. It was fun we learned different things. It was a fun experience.

The Proposal From the Hopkins Center:

This October, the Dartmouth's Hopkins center is pleased to co-commission a new puppet theater work called Savage Nursery by emerging NYC artist Erin Orr.

Erin and her company will perform "Savage" in the Bentley Theater at 7 P.M. on Thursday, October 7 and will be in town for a few days prior to conduct residency events both on- and off-campus.

Erin is a teaching artist and would like to develop a two-part shadow puppetry program with a local school. I think your kids would enjoy working with her and the subject matter (survival, family relations, etc.) of "Savage" is not for kiddies but a more "sophisticated" audience.

I'm proposing we do afternoon sessions on Mon/Tues, October 4-5. Monday's session would involved construction of shadow puppets and narratives. The second session (Tues) would be performance-oriented. Erin would like to involve her puppet team so I think there would be lots of personal contact with the artists. There's also a possibility (if you could scare up a bus) that your students could come to the Hop on Thursday to watch a dress rehearsal and see the amazing set and large-scale puppets.

"Savage" involves no text but does have two superb musicians who create a live score for the piece. It's possible we could loop in your music students to create a soundtrack to the visual arts student work.

Here's some info on Savage Nursery:

"A beautiful and unsettling tableau." The Village VOICE

A dark, fascinating fairytale, Savage Nursery is New York puppet artist Erin Orr's evocative adventure. With live music, poetic imagery and the shifting scales of Bunraku, shadow and hand puppetry, a mother bird, her fledglings and wild children survive in a sometimes cruel forest. Not intended for young children.

Erin Orr's response to the Mascoma proposal:

Here are my thoughts about the highschool workshops. I am so happy that the art teacher is excited about the project! However, rather than starting before I get there I might propose his involvement differently. I would prefer to introduce the medium and some techniques for creating shadow puppet myself. So the goals of the first session would be to introduce the medium and techniques, to have the students begin creating puppets, and to help them make plans for completing their puppets. I would be asking them to create one short visual sequence using any of the techniques that I have introduced. There wouldn't be any pressure to create a narrative. When I make puppet shows I begin with one visual sequence, one moment of interaction or transformation of revelation that I want to create. I make that moment and then sometimes that prompts other moments. Usually what happens is that in order to realize that moment fully I enlist the help of other puppeteers and musicians and their response to that one moment inspires me into other areas of exploration. I would be asking them to create just one moment. It wouldn't even have to be the first moment. If they were to keep working on the piece that one moment might become the end or the middle or get thrown out entirely. So on this first day they can work individually or in groups. They can enlist the help of my puppeteers as build consultants or performers. They may spend the whole time building or they may build a bit, play with the puppet a bit and then go back to building. They probably wont have the puppets done by the end of the first session, but my puppeteers and I would be circulating and making sure that each student had a clear plan for how to complete this one moment.

It would be great if the teacher could spend extra class time between the first and second session helping them finish their puppets. Then the second session we would be joined by the musicians and each student would have a chance to experiment with the objects and different musical possibilities. They could puppeteer themselves or use their classmates or the Savage Nursery puppeteers. The students would be asked I to watch each others work and I would lead a discussion about how the interaction between the sound and the images might change the possible meanings of the moment. I would be ask them to notice all of the possible directions in which each person's moment could be expand into a larger piece. That would be my ideal situation. If we have to present something to an audience...I would go through each piece and ask Skip and Rima to make rapid choices about how to accompany the image. Each student would puppeteer themselves and could be helped by the Savage Nursery Puppeteers. I would decide on an order we would get organized "backstage" and then the audience could come in and watch what we have come up with in the last half hour. I don't think that the entire school should be invited to something like this. There is more true educational value in being engaged in a process and having an real conversation about aesthetics and meaning than there is in trying to create a product in three hours.

Talk to you soon!

Erin