The puppets from AlienCow Puppet show are on display at the HIVE gallery this month in downtown LA
at the HIVE Gallery
Additionally there will be a screening of AlienCow Puppet Show Redux, as well as other exciting puppet films, and a talk-back with the artists afterwards. Please come early to view the puppets on display.
Wednesday, Nov 16th at 8pm. The address for Hive Gallery is 729 South Spring Street, Los Angeles.
http://hivegallery.com/2010/
AlienCow Puppet Show Redux- New York Premiere
Brooklyn Academy of Music- November 12, 2011 4:30pm
Alien Cow Puppet Show
Directed by Ronald Binion
A live action short about the uncelebrated life of a Texas cattle rancher on one auspicious evening.
BAM Rose Cinemas
General Admission: $12
BAM Cinema Club Members: $7
Movie Moguls: Free
Seniors: $9
Students: $9 (25 and under
I arrived in Haiti yesterday and within hours of being here
my colleague Lisa and I were enlisted to do a presentation in front of a crowd
of three hundred orphans. The ages ranged from toddlers to teenagers. The
orphanage was one that had been around long before the earthquake, but clearly
had swelled in size afterwards. We visited to get an understanding of the
living conditions of the children here in Haiti.
I was jetlagged and tired coming from LA, and Lisa had been
up since 4 am New York time but we had a basic plan and we did a presentation
using a puppet that Jonnie, the No Strings founder often brings with him into
the field.
A basic need in this area is for people to exercise personal
hygiene. Not an easy thing to do in an area where less than 12 percent of the
population has running water and proper facilities. The lack of facilities that
we westerner take for granted can lead to increased risk for a whole host of
diseases. There have been many outbreaks of severe diseases like cholera since the
earthquake. People living in IDP camps and being in close proximity to each
other and poor sanitation leads to very risky health environments. So the
simple act of hand-washing is a critical area of public health.
Our puppet presentation was simply on how to properly wash
ones hands. And in fact there are steps to washing one’s hands that are
recommended which are important and that are different from our western
rituals.
Drying one’s hands involves holding them up and shaking them
in a dramatic and fun manner. This was perfect for the puppet to demonstrate.
We have this loose format where the puppet character is
ignorant and we have to enlist the children’s help to teach the puppet the
proper messages.
Lisa performed the puppet and I acted as a kind of narrator
speaking through a translator.
There were quite a few disabled children and one kid who was
clearly mentally challenged saw the puppet and sort of rushed the stage. He
came at me, and was just visibly excited by the puppet. I thought it would be fun
to just have the puppet shake his hand and greet him. He got close to the
puppet but when the puppet reached out to him he pulled back, not quite in fear
but just really not sure what this whole thing was about. The audience enjoyed
it, and fortunately he was smiling and having fun. When he looked at the puppet
it was clear he was blown away by this bizarre sight.
I gently guided him to a seat so we could continue.
I then had volunteers come up and try out another puppet and
try to ask Lisa’s puppet a few questions. They could have asked anything, but
they wound up asking questions about hand-washing, which was great because it
gave us an opportunity to reinforce the messages, and demonstrate hand-washing,
and drying with the puppet, which was fun.
I was pleased with the presentation even though it was
completely spontaneous. There is a part of me that has a moment of resistance
because I fear that being in front of a crowd means I should be giving them
something polished and rehearsed and a more thorough example of puppetry, but
we have to remember that for these kids seeing something even just a little
different makes their day a lot brighter. They do not have televisions. They do
not watch movies. They are lucky to be living in an enriching, clean and supported
orphanage where they do get a proper education, but they do not get the same
entertainment luxuries that, again, we westerner take for granted.
Our brief puppet demonstration was well received by all the
kids, even the older ones who one might think would be dismissive. Eventually they will see the No String’s
films and hopefully they will have a better appreciation and understanding of
the puppetry having seen it presented to them live.
Today we drove around and were able to see more of the city
and get a feel for the conditions of the IDP camps and what the day to day life
is like for people struggling to survive in the aftermath of the earthquake.
On the whole one can see positive signs of life and commerce
and people engaged in the normal interactions of business and work, but it’s
clear that they are still struggling at the lowest end of the economic
ladder. We visited a market that was
filled with locally made crafts, but saw very few shoppers, but that could also
be due to it being Sunday.
In the brief time we have been here we have had
extraordinary meals at some hotel restaurants. The food and the vistas are
amazing. I was not prepared for how beautiful it is here. One can only hope that the country can
stabilize and develop a strong tourist industry. Haiti certainly has many things to offer in
this area.
We did drive by the National
Palace and it was disheartening to see it still in its post earthquake broken
tableau. Frozen in this condition of crumpled architecture with large structures
leaning over as if to continue falling at any moment. The clean white look of
the rubble and ruins easily reminds someone of how beautiful the building must
have looked in its heyday.
Tomorrow we will do another workshop with some children,
this time we will engage them in building some simple puppets using newspapers,
rope and water bottles, and get them to do a quick puppet presentation telling
us how they feel about issues like hygiene, and trash.
On the day that US President Barack Obama was revealing to the world the operation that stormed a building in Pakistan and resulted in the death of Osama Bin Laden, I was in the airport in Kampala making my transition from Uganda to Kenya. The same airport that had been used the day before by Ugandan opposition leader Dr. Kizza Besigye to fly to a hospital in Nairobi to attend wounds to his eyes as a result of police treatment during a peaceful protest known as the Walk to Work Protest. A protest against rising fuel costs and subsequent price increases for everything. The same airport where in 1976 Israeli commandos dramatically carried out an assault and dramatic rescue of 103 hostages from a hijacked Air France flight. And there I sat, at coffee shop, an American, watching the replay of Obama’s speech. Tearful that after almost 10 years there was finally some resolve after the events of that terrible day. Then I realized that my American status made me more of a target in these African countries. We were already getting security briefs about the protests and riots in Kampala, now I wondered how this would affect my travel. There are many other issues one needs to be aware of in places where bombs had already gone off less than a year ago. The night before I left I ate at the Ethiopian restaurant where on July 11 a suicide bomb had gone off killing 15 people. Al-Shabaab, an Islamist Somali militia believed to have ties to Al-Qaeda was retaliating for Uganda having troops in Somalia during the war from 2006 to 2009. Any place where ex-pats congregate is a potential target. Malls, Restaurants, Pubs, etc. Basically anything you might want to do after work. The transition from Uganda to Kenya for me was also a transition from rural Africa to urban Africa. Kenya is simply more developed than Uganda, and Nairobi is a major city that is modern by many standards. My acclimation and solutions to problems I encountered in Uganda were not going to help me in Kenya. This was a completely different context, in everyway. Socially, economically, environmentally. On the plus side my access to materials and resources took a quantum leap for the better. In Uganda we struggled to obtain masking tape, and even when we had rolls of it, the quality was so poor as to prove frustrating and compromising the learning experience. I was frustrated in trying to inspire and elevate excitement for an art, but when my hands would go through the program of making a simple puppet, it would crumble right in front of me. Switching materials from masking tape to fabric proved equally frustrating. It was not a lack of cleverness, it was simply harder regardless of which direction one wanted to go. I will admit being relieved to be in Nairobi and having access to restaurants and malls. On the first official day of work here, I visited five different groups working four different informal settlements. I met with the leaders of each of the youth organizations and we saw presentations to get an idea of what skills they have, and what they are used to presenting. I was very impressed. I do not qualify that statement. I do not say that I was impressed by what they were doing considering where they come from. No. I was simply impressed at the quality of performances, and innovation. I saw better storytelling, more depth, and more clarity than many performances I’ve seen in New York or at the O’Neill Puppetry Conference. These youths had energy, passion, and worked hard. The shows were already first rate. I wondered at the need for my conducting this workshop, but at the same time I was excited to think I was going to work with these artists and learn from them. I was smiling inside at the idea that I always enjoy working with people who are exceptional at what they do, and I’ve traveled all the way around the world and now I get to work with another group of talented and youthful artists. But would they care about puppetry? Would they care about the style of work that I wanted to impart? Unfortunately the security risks going into these areas were such that I could not bring a camera with me. In retrospect I wish I had ignored the risk and snuck my camera with me. So the first day was invested in my spending time trying to not only discover what they normally share with audiences, but also to see and feel the areas where they work. To better define what it means when we say slum. I’m reminded New York and its own historical connections to dealing with masses of people living in squalid conditions. Tenements. Slum areas. The Hoovervilles in Central Park during the Great depression. The Bronx during the 70s. These areas in Nairobi really shouldn’t be seen as something so foreign or so distant. America has had a long history of its own inadequate housing for the poor, and for the people who often have to do the most back-breaking work of keeping a society alive and thriving. A slum is not a free place to live. People still work hard, and pay rent to a literal slum-lord. Someone who has some means who goes into these areas with their protection of thugs and throws up mud, corrugated, plank-wood dwellings, and then rents them out in manner where the tenant has no contract, no rights, and can be subjected to changing rents at the whim of the “owner”. The only reason why the “owner” has rights is simply because they have enough money and political power to have their own posse of toughs who can enforce their whims. Even with rampant crime, no proper sewage or running water, the slums are the first step many people have to take in order to find opportunities in the city, and somehow it works. The slums are simultaneously an assault to the senses and not as bad as you would think. There is life there. Fresh vegetables, and fruits. Children everywhere. Schools that one would call proper. Churches, markets, pubs, of course. Small theaters with wide-screen TVs that charge a few shillings to watch movies. And no shortage of shacks that sell mobile phone top-up cards. Airtel, Safaricom, Orange. You would think that these cellular giants were sponsoring the slums because their signs and branding colors are so ubiquitous. Slums are not always DIY dwellings. Often you do see concrete structures and what would look like a decent apartment building. I can’t help wondering how much rebar was used in the construction and I shudder thinking of Haiti and what a 6.0 would do to these structures. It’s called the great Rift Valley for a reason. Geologic upheaval is everywhere.
Part of my mission here in Uganda was to assess the puppetry as it has been used in the youth organizations that have been funded by GOAL.
GOAL has been very active in creating community centers that give kids a place to go and engage in activities which are positive and reinforce a lifestyle that minimize the risks of a variety of problems, most notably HIV/AIDS.
Part of the programs that they have created are presenting dramas that illustrate these potential problems, and this is where the puppetry comes in.
Yesterday we piled into a GOAL landrover and headed the 12 kilometers to a local village where one of these community centers had been set up. It’s a building with a small room, and then a large covered patio. Simple, utilitarian, but dignified and achieves the effect of being a sort of beacon of hope and at the very least creating curiosity about what might be going on when people are gathered.
Each of these community centers has Peer Educators and coordinators, as well as facilitators of programs like “Stepping Stones” which is standardized program that matches older people with younger kids to get them to engage in dialogues about life choices.
It’s the Peer Educators who have been attending my training. I’ve had a handful of these Peer Educators from six different community centers. Yesterday it was my turn to go out to them and see what they do day-to-day.
It was quite humbling to see the villages where they work. Extremely rural. These collections of huts and a scattering of shops makes Kalongo look like a sprawling metropolis.
My struggle with creating puppetry here is not just technical, in terms of finding resources or imparting skills, but to find out the real stories. Aid organizations do a lot to communicate messages regarding HIV and other issues, like gender balance, and youth vulnerability, etc.
I’m trying to dig deeper. For example if we have shows, and pamphlets and community mobilization messages about using condoms to minimize risk of HIV, then everyone nods…yes.
Yes.
But then I ask…where does one get condoms?
And I got what I call the “Miss America” answer. You can get them at the clinic in Kalongo, or the youth center, or from an HIV program coordinator.
Then I ask…really? What about at night?
Blank faces. I continue…it’s 11 at night…we are all having a good time, someone meets a girl…the girl likes the boy…and then what? Neither have a condom…what do they do?
Some laughs. Then a coordinator tells me that one has to get a condom during the day.
And this is what I get to dig for. I get to go past the black and white recommendations. I get to go past the messages and find out what is really going on. What are the real struggles. What really happens…and then how can I turn that into a drama that we can show. Both for it’s entertainment and humor value, but also because it’s real.
In our visits I urged them to think of their communities, and even names and places they are familiar with and come back next week for the training and we will try to weave these important local details into our stories. But now that I’ve seen these places for myself, it may actually be up to me to remind them of some of the details I saw…even the distance from their village to the nearest clinic where they can get an HIV test.
I don’t necessarily want to harp on the AIDS issue. There are so many other problems and dramas and risks that are being examined…I also asked them to think of funny stories that they’d like to share. It has been a struggle to ignite their imagination. On the one hand I think they are trying to play it safe and give me what they think I want, but they haven’t broken that barrier yet of really engaging in this creative tool.
That said…there have been flashes of brilliance in the training. There have been stories they have performed which are funny and compelling and deal with day to day life issues that are unique to this area.
We had a story about someone flagging down a motorcycle for a ride. Motorcycles are the equivalent of a taxi here in Uganda. So this character flags down a bike, and the driver is negotiating a price, meanwhile three other people pile on the bike, leaving the one who flagged the taxi in outrage. Finally he gets on the handlebars and away they go…only to crash and all fall down.
It was hysterical.
During the theatrical crash they each quickly pulled out bits of tape they had colored red and then put them on various parts of their body. Simple. Clever, and completely effective.
Next week is my last week. Our hope is to craft a final presentation that involves more stories and can use different styles of puppetry. Object puppetry, table-top puppetry, and possibly hand puppets. But more than the puppetry, I want them to really produce a solid dignified show. Which means everyone being engaged in what the show needs from start to finish. Which includes finding graceful ways to set up the show, and spending time on introductions, curtain calls…all the formal features of theater.
I should also note that I’m saddened by the news of the death of Albrecht Roser. He was probably the worlds greatest marionettist.
I first heard a quote from him back in 1981 on a documentary on puppetry. He said, ” I find out what the marionette can do. I do not show what the marionette can not do, I show what the marionette can do best.”
That is still a basic principle I use when discovering the properties of a puppet. Spend time figuring out what it can intrinsically do best.
Today we go to two more villages. More bumpy rides in the back of the Landrover.
http://www.transformedpuppet.com/uganda/workshop/uganda_workshop_gallery.html
I’m exhausted. Little things are still throwing me. I usually come to the GOAL office for an hour before the workshop to check my email and have a cup of coffee. Today I got here and there was no electricity…so therefore no coffee. Which meant that about 11 am, I’m wiped out and dizzy.
Yes it’s sad that I’m so dependent on coffee. And it could also be that my body is still not used to sleeping soundly in the heat and the sounds of goats bleeting throughout the night. My housemate Mickey and I joke that the goats take turns tormenting different sides of the house each evening.
The goats normally roam free all over the village. There are goats and cows doing as they please all over the village. But now that the crops are coming in the goats have to be staked down with a 10 foot length of rope. So if one is having a bad night for some reason…they aren’t going anywhere. And a goat making distress sounds also has a haunting quality like a child crying out.
So, tired, and feeling worn out and finding some strength to keep the energy up and focused on…
What was this workshop about?
Oh yeah…puppetry. Today…we created more scenes and spent more time in the workshop constructing our figures. We are so close to having a fleet of puppets in our hands to work with. I have a tailor making some simple mouth puppets while everyone else is building their own table-top puppet. Head-to-toe figures that will play out on a small table. Hopefully in a manner that is very hands-on and cooperative.
Occasionally we break out the practice puppets I brought with me and someone plugs their phone into my powered speakers and we do crazy free form dance to local African music. It’s a bit wild, but that is okay.
I built a quick 3 foot tall foam TTP puppet, no hands or feet, very generic looking and it was fun to see them thrash around with something more rubbery and simple. Music does a lot to loosen them up.
Some of the scene they have come up with have dealt with rape, witch doctors, soldiers with HIV, and lots of scenes in bars.
I only have 4 women in the workshop, but I try as much as I can to be aware of gender balance and equality, something Africa is still struggling with. The women are all sharp and some are intelligently assertive, which I appreciate. Whenever I have a chance to have someone lead the group, I do make a point to make sure the women have a chance to lead.
A bug flew in my ear today during a particularly important point I was trying to make. There’s no question that everyone saw. Lots of fun, dancing shaking and not really wanted to put my finger in my ear…kill the thing and then have a carcass in my ear. As I say, I get humbled every day.
So What….?
Do you know what I mean? I mean…Here I am in Kalongo, Uganda teaching puppetry. Big deal, right? What the hell is puppetry?
I look around and I see all of these Ugandans busily working on these cardboard heads, and bodies that they’ve constructed. Some are quite beautiful in their sculpt. Simple, symmetrical, graceful lines. Some are monstrosities of angles and warped bulges with tape flying off making the figure look fuzzy and non-specific. Everyone works quietly, sharing a limited number of scissors, and masking tape.
Someone has plugged their cell phone into my powered speakers and we listen to African music as we all work in this hot room building these….what? What are they? Puppets? Are these going to be puppets? Is this just an exercise in futility?
I can feel this choking sense inside myself of worry and fear that I’m steering them in a direction that will not result in what I’ve imagined. It’s dangerous for me to think I can mold these people into crafting puppets and a show that conforms to my own artistic sensibilities.
I don’t know what they are making. And yet, I know exactly what they are making. They are making their attempts. And like a parent watching a kid in a playground…I have to let some of them explore…knowing they are going to fall. Knowing I can’t do anything about it except make sure nothing really bad happens. Watching them use long bladed knives sends me into hysterics. (Why do men always want to use a knife when scissors will suffice? The use of scissors has gender associations.)
We still have 3 weeks. 3 Long weeks. I can feel the impatience that the participants have to have their own puppet…and yet…we aren’t really making puppets. What I’m trying to do is teach them to make quick figures that can be used in our Scene Building exercises. Just something to have in our hands…to wrestle with the drama that will happen on-stage. In rehearsal. In the stories they create.
One of the hardest concepts to teach…here…or anywhere…is the incredible patience one must have…to try one thing…play around with it…then tear it up…and start over.
People want success, but true success in a creative process involves many stages of explosions of creativity, then a phase of experimentation followed by critical analysis…and then…going back and re-constructing, re-rehearsing, tearing away, simplifying, re-building. Over and over.
Even though I’m using newspaper and masking tape, as I watch these participants crafting their figures…I still think…but is there an even simpler way to do this?
I have to wrestle with my own emotions, knowing that to move these people forward, I have to guide them off a prescribed path…and there will be mistakes. There will be frustration. And then there is this odd concept…which is…if someone is botching it now…making a horrible figure…does it mean they have no capacity for this work?
My feeling is that making mistakes is the doorway to understanding. So if someone is making a bit of a mess, I still believe that this is simply a necessary step on their way to create something incredible and beautiful later on. I just hope later on means within this month long workshop.
Everyone has a right to tell their story. Even with a puppet that is falling apart.
As the saying goes:
There are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going.
As I’m sure you all know when you have the European 2 prong electric plug for 220 but you need to plug it into a 240 socket that is fashioned with the UK three prong outlet, you can just jam a pen or other small object into the top hole and then wiggle the 2 prongs into the socket.
Also, mosquitoes in the daytime are attracted to things that are black. Like a black backpack for instance. So when one grabs their bag and a cloud of mosquitoes lift of the bag and go straight for the face…mouth…eyes…nose, etc…there is no need to be alarmed.
Also…malaria carrying Mosquitoes generally only do the biting in the 7:00 pm hour. So…wear that deet around sunset and you should be fine. Also, it is standard practice to sleep under a mosquito net, not just for mosquitoes but to sleep uninterrupted by any other night time creepy crawlers…unless, of course, somehow…you managed to trap one of these insects in the net with you…and are woken up with it inches from your nose…and now trapped in close proximity to your body (exposed due to the heat, more on that later).
Sleeping with a headlamp is my minor suggestion.
I sleep with my laptop actually, and it hibernates. When I stir at night the mouse moves and the screen pops back on illuminating my private little cocooned world.
Did I need to mention there is no AC? No air conditioning. Yeah. Also it’s hot.
So I spend have the night sweating into one pillow and one location on the bed…then I switch out…grab my second pillow, move over 8 inches and can then slumber in a dry spot which will be soaked by morning.
I wake when the generator engine rumbles to life.
Our shower is a faucet about three and a half feet off the ground. Fortunately it does stick out about 7 inches, so one can manage to get a full head of hair under the nozzle without too much splashing.
This morning I walked into the shower to find a giant insect drunkenly doing circles around the drain.
It’s not a proper shower stall…just a tiled room with a faucet and a drain on one end….so the insect was simply on the wet floor. Do I need to say it was big? That it was black? That it had huge wings and a giant abdomen? And that if you’ve ever seen one before it was probably pinned to a collection of bugs you walked past at the natural history museum…probably thinking such things would have to be extinct.
So it’s moving around, and I stupidly think that maybe by opening the faucet and having the water splash at its highest pressure that it would sort of push the bug back to at least the edge of the wall.
No.
This thing holds its ground. With water splashing, hosing, pouring, it continues to crawl. Shaking under the pressure, but not losing any forward momentum. It keeps dragging its body through the water, fiercely, determined, almost as if it had been waiting for someone to give it the hose…as if the water were a sign and a direction of where it needed to go.
Gross…I go out and all I can find is a plunger. Crunch goes its head under the edge of the rubber plunger. I mean…a big dry leaf crumpling crunch…as I push down on the monster. And then slowly slide it’s carcass off to the side for the cleaning lady to deal with.
And then I take a shower with my feet on the scene of the crime.
Internally, somewhere deep in my head, I’m grossed out to the max…as they saying goes…but there is nothing I can do about it. I just take my stooped over shower. Splash cold water on my body from cupped hands, and then start my day.
Today was day 5 of the workshop. We spent most of the time in construction. Mainly because I was too tired and because that aspect is so time consuming.
I have to say I’m so impressed at how diligent, focused and cooperative everyone has been. I have 20 participants and all of them seem to get along, and really work with each other. Share ideas, and are really polite.
One of my difficulties is…believe it or not…my accent. When I instruct I make a big point to be active, visual and reinforce what I’m saying with mime, objects, pie charts, power point presentations, smoke signals, semaphore, etc.
But they are the majority, and they do speak English. My English is a challenge to them. On the first day some had wide dazzled eyes at hearing my speaking style and told Caroline that I sound like I’m rapping.
I still don’t quite know what that means…knowamsayn?
I am looking forward to the weekend and attacking the big rock that looms over the town.
There isn’t a square centimeter that does not have some form of insect traffic at least once an hour.
With no exaggeration I see at least two different types of insects that I’ve never seen before each day, and usually they are large.
Training continues. In the performance exercises I’m using puppets that were brought by an organization that already uses puppets. We’ve just barely begun building figures and everyone is very eager to build. I have a hard time stopping them and getting them to leave the “shop” and go home at the end of the day. I’m looking forward to seeing what they create. We still struggle for simple materials like masking tape.
The scenes we performed yesterday were amazing. The directive was to do a scene on conflict. So 4 out of 6 scenes were set in a bar/club and involved a drunken fight over a girl. Nice to know some things are universal.
