Puppeteers in spotlight: Asheville industry thriving

Hollywood's newest robot isn't a machine or even a computer-generated effect. In fact, BB-8 of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" is a puppet.

More accurately, he's several puppets and motorized devices with different capabilities that puppeteers operated on the set to create the cheerful, expressive, spherical sidekick.

The newest film in the Star Wars franchise features lots of puppets, including robots and Luggabeasts, and other practical effects as these physical creations are called.

What's more, recent Broadway productions like "War Horse," which features life-size horse puppets, and "Avenue Q," prove puppetry is as relevant as ever.

In Asheville, the local puppetry scene is particularly strong. The Asheville Puppetry Alliance, which formed in 1998, boasts six member troupes. In November, public groups Puppet Club and Street Creature moved into a space at the North Asheville Community Center that provides a place for professionals and novices to meet up and build puppets, particularly giant puppets for parades and festivals.

Locals also benefit from proximity to the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, explained Asheville puppeteer Hobey Ford. The nation's foremost outlet for live puppetry performances has transformed the South into a haven for puppeteers since it opened in 1978.

A drive for authenticity, spurred by the millennial generation, has touched politics, business and even food, and puppetry seems to appeal to this sensibility.

"Because we do things kind of in an Old World way — some of this stuff was used hundreds of years ago — it kind of surprises people (what) we can achieve," Ford said. "In mainstream theater, puppetry is no longer thought of as less than. I think people are getting on the band wagon."

For most of its 3,000-year history, puppetry came out of folk traditions. It's never achieved institutionalized high-art status; only one university in the country offers a graduate degree in the form. But that's part of its appeal, puppeteers attest.

"There's no right way to do it," said  Annie Schermer of West of Roan, a Marshall-based puppetry duo and musical group.

Schermer and her partner, Channing Showalter, began West of Roan as a band, but they soon discovered they needed more tools for telling stories. They combined their skills in music, sewing, writing and songwriting.

"Now, I feel like all those forms are really coming together into each project," Showalter said. "It's like we fell into this world, and it's the right thing."

Is that just youthful enthusiasm? Joe Cashore, who has been making and operating puppets for about 30 years and will perform two shows at Diana Wortham Theatre on March 5, said all puppeteers are pioneers.

“All the puppeteers I know who are any good, who are really doing something, are kind of doing their own thing." he said. "They find their own way. There isn’t one techniques better than another. It comes from the individual."

But just because puppetry lacks convention doesn't mean it lacks technical skill.

"It was really hard," Showalter said of the duo's first marionette show, which they created last year. "We're both comfortable making things that are in our minds, but learning how to make it move, it was definitely a learning curve."

Ford, whose Golden Rod Puppets has operated out of Ashevile for decades, said sometimes the skill involved is lost on amateurs and audiences, who consider puppetry arts the domain of schoolteachers and camp counselors with socks and Popsicle sticks.

"We're also sort of working against really low expectations," he said, explaining that once people are in the theater, those preconceptions turn out to be a good thing. "People are shocked, like, 'Wow, this is way better than I thought it was going to be.'"

Lisa Sturz, founder of Red Herring Puppets, which is also based in Asheville, holds an MFA in puppetry arts from University of Connecticut. The skill of puppetry involves erasing the signs of that skill, she explained. The puppets need to look like they're moving on their own.

"The training is very, very specific and intense," she said. "It's like ballet. You don't just go on stage and do ballet."

In fact, a 45-minute puppet show usually takes a year or two to create, even for a professional puppeteer. Developing characters, writing a script, creating the puppets — whether rod puppets or marionettes — and building a set takes time. And then, the puppeteer must learn the routine, a series of complex, minute movements that imbue the puppet with lifelike animation.

Puppeteers make their work look easy, but they don't exactly hide it. In fact, ever since Bunraku puppetry, a form in which the puppeteer takes the stage with the puppet, came to the United States from Japan, puppeteers no longer feel the need to conceal themselves, Sturz explained.

Instead of corrupting the illusion that the puppets are alive, this exposure adds to the intrigue, even for children, Sturz said.

"They love watching me do everything," she said. "They're not stupid. They know it's not real, and they want to know how you did it. It makes it better for them."

But skill isn't everything: There's an overall effect puppeteers hope to create.

For Cashore, he's looking to compose striking visuals, almost like tableaus in the memory of his viewers. He studied visual art in college, he explained, and he thinks that background contributes to his approach.

“I’m trying to create powerful images on the stage," he said. I come at this from a visual arts perspective rather than literary, and I think the imagery is important to me, the visual aspect."

The West of Roan duo, on the other hand, hopes to cultivate focus and concentration.

"Everything that we're doing right now is bringing people down to a simpler level of connecting with emotion," Showalter said. "It's like creating quietness in the world."

That sensation is what puppeteers are after, Cashore explained, and it's not a feeling special effects can capture.

“Computer generated effects are always on a screen, and there’s a completely different feeling, a different sensation when you’re not looking at a screen," he said. "I think puppetry has a magic unlike any other form, and it can be very powerful."

Puppets take the stage

 Hobey Ford will be performing "World Tales" at the Rainbow Community School Center Auditorium on Feb. 27. Pre-sale tickets are $5 for children and $10 for adults ($7 and $12 the day of the show). Show starts at 4 p.m. and is open to the public. Tickets can be purchased at rainbowcommunityschool.org or at the school's front desk. 

The Cashore Marionettes come to Diana Wortham Theater on March 5. An early show at 2 p.m., "Simple Gifts," includes material for adults and children. At 8 p.m., "Life in Motion" features themes targeted at adults. Both productions are set to the music of composers such as Beethoven, Vivaldi, Strauss, and Copland. For tickets and more information, visit dwtheatre.org.

On March 18 at 7 p.m., West of Roan will perform a show with David Hughes at Marshall Container Company. The performance will center around music, but puppets will make an appearance. Learn more about that event at marshallcontainer.com.

On March 26, West of Roan will perform at the Crow & Quill on Lexington Avenue. The event includes music and puppetry. For details, visit thecrowandquill.com.

Lisa Sturz's Red Herring Puppets will bring "Aesop's Fables" to Asheville Community Theatre on April 12 at 9:30 a.m.Learn more at ashevilletheatre.org/education/student-matinees.

Wham Bam! Puppet Slam hosts regular gatherings at which puppeteers deliver short performances. For updates about the next event, search for The Wham, Bam! Puppet Slam on Facebook.