Close your eyes for a minute and think back to your childhood. What television shows did you watch? What made them exciting? Chances are high that the answer includes Sesame Street, Jim Henson's Muppets, and the often-forgotten but still noteworthy Fraggle Rock. Why? Because the inclusion of colorful puppets added an aura of mystery that made curious children wonder just how the imaginary creatures moved.
Fast-forward to the present and you'll find not much has changed since the days you spent glued to PBS. Though Jim Henson has since passed away, his legacy lives on and his creations live on. Now, Tufts junior and long-time Jim Henson fan Brian Powers is bringing his passion for puppetry to campus with the formation of a new ensemble called Fantoché.
"I've always loved the Muppets, and anything Jim Henson was responsible for," Powers said, "especially some of the more mature stuff he got into later on in his life."
A math and computer science double major, Powers is an active member of WMFO and has often incorporated a sock puppet into his radio shows. Last semester, he added two rock and roll puppets named Nigel and Percy.
To carry the idea a further, Powers took advantage of his residency in the Crafts House and decided to run a puppetry-making workshop in the Crafts Center one Saturday last fall. After building a lizard named Iguana-Don, a bird named Jeaque, and a Minotaur, Powers decided over winter break that he would form a puppetry troupe.
"Puppetry is such a fun combination of art and theater. I love making puppets and performing," he said. "I thought that if I found some more students on campus interested in this stuff, we could do some great performances and bring a lot of joy and excitement to the campus."
Fantoché, named for the Portuguese word for puppet, will explore many different methods of puppetry - everything from simple shadow and hand puppets to more complex and elaborate marionettes. A large focus will be placed on the cultural implications of the art, and Powers hopes that the club will draw an eclectic membership that will bring with it various ethnic traditions.
"Different cultures each have traditional puppetry that is drastically different and very exciting, and I see Fantoché as a great vehicle for bringing this diversity to the student body," he said.
Once it gets off the ground, Powers hopes that the group will perform shows both on campus as well as tour in the greater Boston area. Fantoché members will write their own stories and puppet plays, build puppet stages and scenery, design and create their own puppets, and then perform these shows.
The group has already been asked to perform as part of Leonard Carmichael Society's annual Kids Day carnival later this semester, and will likely perform joint shows with other student ensembles. Powers would also like the group to develop more sophisticated material and to perform gigs at one of the many professional puppet theaters in Boston.
