Theater Memories- Le Theatre de Marionette

Click on any of the images to magnify them.




I just finished some work for John Hardman, my old boss from Le Theatre de Marionette in Dallas and it got me to thinking how lucky I was to work for him at that marvelous theater of his. It was a little slice of European magic deep in the heart of Texas. We performed fairytale plays and when the theater was dark I would work backstage on props or marionettes. In the beginning, though, I'd just stick around after the show either working on my skills as a puppeteer or go backstage to admire all the set pieces and other marionettes that were stored there.

There were so many marionettes back there for all the shows that had ever been presented there, each very unique and special but they had a basic way they were put together. I wanted to make a marionette so I'd take the time to study them very closely until I felt confident enough to make one myself. But I started small first. Baby steps. There were a few marionettes whose fingers were damaged or altogether missing. I started simply by carving out fingers from basswood that I would then attach to the damaged hand. That was good practice. After carving a few of those I progressed to carving an entire hand. I'm grateful to have been given the chance to fix those hands.

It was very fun and exciting to learn about an art form that I'd loved from a very early age. But it got even better. In the fall, toward the middle of September, Mr. Hardman had a show at the Texas State Fair in Dallas that included various forms of puppetry but the one I enjoyed the most was the black light puppetry.

The Hall of State Building where we presented the " World on a String" variety show.

During the holidays Mr. Hardman had a full-size, two-story toymaker's shop/puppet theater that was set out in the mall where we would perform with marionettes, hand and rod puppets too. The cast of characters included the toymaker, elves, ballerinas, a concert pianist, toy soldiers and chickens! Dickensian chickens of course.

Tony Mayes, myself and my hair backstage at the Hall of State stage.

I was part of his company only a couple of years but I managed to learn so much in a short amount of time. I'm posting photos of the State Fair show because I'm pretty fond of it and because I don't think I've shared them with you before. As soon as I can dig them up I'll post the Toyshop set too.




Backstage right at the "World on a String" show.



(This one's a bit late but I'm still catching up on my posts. I'll get back in the groove soon.)