{"id":90831,"date":"2014-03-27T08:29:55","date_gmt":"2014-03-27T12:29:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=90831"},"modified":"2014-04-01T09:42:25","modified_gmt":"2014-04-01T13:42:25","slug":"crt-debuts-inspired-production-of-goblin-market-with-puppets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2014\/03\/crt-debuts-inspired-production-of-goblin-market-with-puppets\/","title":{"rendered":"CRT Debuts \u2018Inspired\u2019 Production of Goblin Market with Puppets"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Puppeteer<\/a>
Puppeteer Sarah Nolan with ‘Rat.’\u00a0Working with puppets has been a new experience for some of the actors, who generally interact only with other actors in a production. (Gerry Goodstein for UConn)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It is not unusual to characterize theater as a collaborative process between the varied disciplines that contribute to a play or musical performance. However, there are times when the creative powers of the collaborators provide a new experience for all of those involved.<\/p>\n

Such is the case with the Connecticut Repertory Theatre\u2019s premiere production of \u201cGoblin Market,\u201d a collaboration between the School of Fine Arts\u2019 dramatic arts and puppetry programs. The show runs March 27 through April 6 in the Studio Theatre, 802 Bolton Road, Storrs.<\/p>\n

The play was written by Penny Benson, an actor and MFA candidate in puppet arts, and is inspired by \u201cGoblin Market,\u201d an 1862 poem by Christina Rossetti about two sisters who are tempted by goblin merchants to leave the safety of their home and buy fruit in the marketplace. The play is the CRT directorial debut of Margarita Blush, assistant professor of directing and performance in the puppet arts program.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of my biggest challenges in writing the play was letting go of my desire to remain true to the poem while creating a community around the two sisters who are the poem\u2019s only human characters,\u201d Benson says. \u201cWhat resulted is a play with contemporary themes which, while inspired by the poem, is a completely new work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Goblin<\/a>
Goblin puppets ready for the dress rehearsal. (Penny Benson\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a director, Blush would normally make decisions about all aspects of a production, but she focused her efforts on collaborating with Benson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told Penny I see this as her work and I wanted to support bringing her vision to fruition,\u201d says Blush. \u201cI tried to collaborate with Penny every step of the way. This is her MFA project.\u201d<\/p>\n

The student actors and puppeteers who bring the script to life on stage say they also appreciated the experience of being able to bring new ideas and suggestions to rehearsals that were incorporated into the evolution of the production from the original poem to its new form.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not the first time I\u2019ve worked with a new script, but it\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve had such a part with a new script,\u201d says Alyson Danielczuk \u201914 (SFA), a senior who is Laurie in the show. \u201cGetting the changes, and seeing how the changes were inspired by us or inspired by conversation we were in the room for has been incredible. I feel like I have, in my own small way, had a hand in making this show.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adds Colleen Labella \u201914 (SFA), who is Jane in the production: \u201cIt\u2019s been really awesome to be a part of the process. It\u2019s probably the most collaborative thing I\u2019ve done here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benson\u2019s script creates a fantasy world much different than the Victorian setting of the original poem, but emphasizes how the world is connected through people\u2019s relationships with each other, their families, communities, and nations.<\/p>\n

Harrison Howard Haney \u201914 (SFA), an actor and puppeteer in the show, says there it is different working with a new script than with an established play that is familiar to an audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the beautiful things about a new work is that the answers are not always on the surface,\u201d he says. \u201cWhen we go in to see \u2018A Streetcar Named Desire,\u2019 we know what that\u2019s going to be about. With \u2018Goblin Market,\u2019 most of the time you might say: I wonder what that\u2019s about? That\u2019s such a great quality for a play to have, that it brings you in through the door. What this production is doing is challenging the audience to leave pondering some sort of question.\u201d<\/p>\n

\""Weasel"<\/a>
‘Weasel’ goblin. (Penny Benson\/UConn Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Working with puppets has also been a new experience for some of the actors, who generally interact only with other actors in a production. Most audiences are not used to seeing puppeteers operating the puppets on stage, a practice not unusual in Japan and Europe but only recently seen on Broadway in such shows as \u201cAvenue Q,\u201d which has featured many UConn alumni as puppeteers. Danielczuk says it took a bit of time during rehearsals to adjust.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s been interesting for me the first few times with the goblins, really focusing on the puppets rather than on the puppeteer, because you have the sound coming out of the person and you have to act like its coming out of the puppet,\u201d she says. \u201cThat has been my biggest struggle with it. The puppets are beautiful, so they\u2019re easy to engage with; they have their own personalities; just from looking at their faces you can see the soul inside of them, and our puppeteers have been great in bringing them to life.\u201d<\/p>\n

Blush notes that moving the location of \u201cGoblin Market\u201d from its original Victorian era to a fantasy world creates challenges for everyone involved in the production. From the start of the production the stage designers and dramaturges \u2013 who research the production to assist the actors and directors to better understand the background and nuances of a play \u2013 needed to ask what the new world of the fantasy looked like.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what makes puppetry so theatrical. If we\u2019re going to create an illusion that is just illusion, we can do it in a film,\u201d Blush says. \u201cIf you believe in the life of the puppet, that\u2019s the power of theater. It transcends us to another level that film and television cannot provide, where you suspend your disbelief and you engage your imagination and you are on this ride, where you have to be.\u201d<\/p>\n

The CRT production of \u201cGoblin Market\u201d will run from Thursday, March 27 to Sunday, April 6. Weeknight evening performances begin at 7:30 p.m. Weekend evening performances start at 8 p.m., with matinee performances at 2 p.m. For more information, call 860-486-2113 or go to www.crt.uconn.edu<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Note:<\/b> \u201cGoblin Market\u201d is for audiences 12 years and older.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The play, written by a puppet arts graduate student, opens today, March 27. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":90821,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[55],"class_list":["post-90831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-29 05:32:14","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90831"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90831\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":90838,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90831\/revisions\/90838"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/90821"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90831"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=90831"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=90831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}