Puppets in the Green Mountains

A top-notch event rolls into northern New England this weekend. The sixth bi-annual Puppets in the Green Mountains Festival opened in Brattleboro last Friday, and runs through this Sunday, September 21st.

The acclaimed festival features performances in a handful of Brattleboro theatres and parks - with puppeteers from Brazil to Sweden, Bulgaria to Taiwan - as well as a local Vermont theatre company.

If you think of puppetry as Punch and Judy or Charlie McCarthy on Edgar Bergen's knee, this festival could blow your mind. Puppetry, like other artforms, has come a long way.

Here’s a taste of what’s happening on the other side of the Connecticut River this weekend. The Swedish troupe Dockteaterverkstan performs "Monkey Business," a spectacle featuring marionettes, hand puppets, and table puppets performing incredible acrobatic feats. In this show full of pranks, jokes and magic, the troupes founders, Anders and Cissi, portray two circus directors trying to run a one-ring variety show - but the monkeys get the better of them, resulting in a comedic delight especially suited for younger audiences.

But this isn’t all kids' stuff. On Friday and Saturday, the Grupo Cantadores de Estorias of Brazil perform "Collected Pieces," a play that will, without words, transport audiences to Brazilian jungles and villages to witness stirring portraits of Brazilian life. Evocative, and at times erotic, this performance transcends cultural boundries and has the power to strike a chord in audiences around the world.

For this festival, the now internationally-acclaimed Sandglass Theatre Company returns to their home state of Vermont - the state that spawned the world-famous Bread and Puppet troupe during the Vietnam era - to continue the great puppeteering tradition. This Friday and Saturday, the company will perform "Ballad," a performance in which local musician Nick Keil gets the spotlight. This play evokes a deep sense of place and is sure to touch Vermont audiences.

(Photos from Les Sages Fous and the Carnival of Taiwanese Hand Puppetry)