This Sunday, October 3, Magical Moonshine Theatre will be performing at Fairytale Town in Sacramento (by the zoo).
We will be performing Coyote Sings, a collection of SW Native American folktales.The shows are on October 3 (Sunday) at Fairytale Town, 3901 Land Park Dr., Sacramento, at 12:30, 1:30 and 2:30pm. The admission fee to Fairytale Town is $3.75 for children and 4.00 for adults, and there is an additional admission to the puppet show of $2.00 (a bargain!) Children under 3 are free at both admissions (an even greater bargain!)

This article (including the dreadful headline) comes from the NY Times. Check out the article on nytimes.com for some really lovely photos (use bugmenot.com for nytimes.com login info).

The Show That Tanks Every Night By LIESL SCHILLINGER Published: September 26, 2004

FROM the seats of Stage 5 at Dodger Stages, Basil Twist's puppet show, "Symphonie Fantastique," seems to proceed in serene, psychedelic slo-mo. In a 1,000-gallon water tank that hovers mid-stage like a plasma screen, blossoms of bright color appear, then float, dart and swirl in aquatic accompaniment to Berlioz's five-part symphony, which he composed in a mad, three-week dash in 1830 after falling under the spell of an Irish actress named Harriett. Color blots gather like squeezed dabs of oil paint on an artist's palette - cadmium blue, geranium red, jade green, sun gold - then shimmy and disperse as if they were alive.

Backstage, however, the proceedings are far from lyrical. Five puppeteers in wet suits, surf booties and black jewel-thief gloves crowd around the tank, grabbing small, floaty spandex flags (the puppeteers call them "otters'') that hang overhead from shepherd's crooks; or glitter balls called "Suzies" that look like Hostess Sno Balls; or silky swatches of cloth, both plain and fringed ("weasels," "skanks" and "leeches"). There are also several cream-colored spandex Harrietts (named after Berlioz's beloved) - including "mean Harriett" (with flame-red trim), "rectangular Harriet" (broad as a sheet, it shrinks into a voluptuous magnolia flower in the water) and "Schmoo Harriet," which has a white, ghostly tail.

Kneeling on rubber mats above the tank, keeping time with the music, the puppeteers dip one prop after another, pulling them across the tank, then up and out, flinging waves of water as they go.

Picture five kids who have dumped a giant chest of dress-up accessories around them, and are dragging them through the family aquarium, piece by piece, according to a mysterious logic. By the end of a day of rehearsals and a performance, the puppeteers are wiped out - wrinkly, wet and panting with exertion.

"When we come out after the show and take a bow, sometimes people in the audience look at us like, 'Who are they?' " said Lake Simons, one of the puppeteers, as she prepared to give a water-puppeteering lesson to an enthusiastic novice during an afternoon rehearsal. "Some of them think they've been watching digital images."

Mr. Twist is quick to correct that impression. "Some parts are extremely hard,'' he said. "You have to be really strong" to do the Harriett in the finale, who expands to cover the whole tank, "because there's so much resistance in the water."

Ms. Simons volunteered herself - and me - to prove it. "Why don't you put your wet suit on now?" she suggested.

In the dressing room, spare wet suits lay in waiting, alongside a mudroom jumble of boots and gloves. "You get soaked doing this, it's necessary," she said, choosing a wet suit from a hanger. "We wear them underwearless," she offered helpfully.

Joining them around the tank required a gymnastic leap up to the "butt shelf"- the platform that skirts the tank, four feet off the ground. The space is surprisingly narrow: the tank surface is 10 feet across, but only 31/2 feet wide. In two minutes during the first movement, all five puppeteers will hover above the water, one of them guiding a yellow vinyl cutout through the water with one hand and introducing a bouncy Suzy with the other, others dipping in a batch of skanks and a red flag, -all of this without bumping heads, tangling the metal crooks that hold the sodden fabric or tumbling over the edge.

"Nobody has ever fallen in," Mr. Twist said. Matt Acheson, another puppeteer, said, "People have come close, though."

As Mr. Acheson scrunched up "hand-held Harriet," who has a close-up in the middle of the first movement, Ms. Simons cat-footed it to one end of the tank and wriggled into a black harness that hung overhead like a swing. Her head and shoulders emerged, the sling bearing the weight of her torso, so her arms were free to hold the staff of a purple flag. Crouching, booted toes rooting her to the floor, she hovered a couple of feet above the tank, waiting for me to get in position at the opposite end of the tank.

"Ready?" she said.

Affirmative.

As Berlioz's music broke forth from speakers and colored light filled the darkened room, she grabbed the flag and launched forward like a frogman, zig-zagging the cloth through the water. Mid-tank, she handed off the flag to me. "Again!" Mr. Twist said. "The water smooths things out, from the outside," he said reassuringly.

For the next 10 minutes, the moves were repeated, rivaling the gluteal impact of a hard-core lunge class.

Mr. Twist's "Symphonie" first played in New York at Here in 1998, and has toured the country. But for the run at Dodger Stages, he had the idea of setting up seats for spectators who would rather see the show behind the curtain than the show in front of it.

"It's so wildly different," he said. "Out there, things look so smooth. But back here it's frenzy - choreographed chaos."

This comes from fellow SFBAPG member, Joe Leon and The Writers' Almanac:

> FRIDAY, 24 SEPTEMBER, 2004

>
> Literary and Historical Notes:

>
> It's the birthday of puppeteer Jim Henson, known as "The Father of Dreams," born in Greenville, Mississippi (1936). He's the creator of the characters on Sesame Street, including Big Bird, Cookie Monster, and Snuffleupagus, as well as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, and the rest of the Muppets a name he made by combining the words "marionettes" and "puppets."

>
> When Henson was young, his grandmother taught him sewing and soft sculpture techniques. He later created a puppet out of his mother's old coat and a ping-pong ball, and named it "Kermit the Frog" after a childhood friend from Mississippi. In the beginning Kermit was not a frog, but a lizard-like character. He was given the collar and flippers so he could appear in "The Frog Prince" and has remained a frog ever since.

>
> Henson's puppets were so successful because he realized he didn't need to hide puppeteers behind a structure when they were in front of a camera. All the camera operators had to do was focus on the puppets and keep the puppeteers out of the frame. This allowed the puppets to dominate the image and make them more life-like.

>
> Henson never thought he'd end up a puppeteer. It was just a way of getting himself on TV.

>
> His first appearance was on "Sam and Friends," a five-minute filler program twice a day following the news on NBC affiliate WRCTV. This show led to "The Jimmy Dean Show," where he introduced Rowlf the Dog, a puppet Henson productions still uses.

>
> Henson became prominent when he was approached to use his muppets for an educational show. "Sesame Street" debuted in 1969, about a fictional city neighborhood populated by such Muppets named Ernie, Bert, Grover, Cookie Monster, Oscar the Grouch, and 8-foot-tall Big Bird, a complex full-body Muppet. Henson's Muppets taught children basic educational and social skills. The show was a hit and became a public television staple.

>
> When Henson was typecast as an entertainer for children, he joined the initial crew of Saturday Night Live, but his style didn't mesh with the rest of the creative staff. So he developed a show with a more sophisticated format and called it "The Muppet Show" (1976). No American broadcaster was interested, but the British producer Lord Lew Grade was. He gave Henson and his production company the financial backing and studio facilities needed to create "The Muppet Show" and its cast -- Kermit, Miss Piggy, Fozzie Bear, Gonzo the Great and the pit band Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem. "The Muppet Show" ran through 1981, and was shown in 100 countries. It crossed audience age boundaries and featured celebrity guests like Orson Welles, Alice Cooper, Vincent Price, and Liza Minelli.

>
> Jim Henson said, "Nobody creates a fad, it just happens. People love going along with the idea of a beautiful pig. It's like a conspiracy."

>
> The Muppet Show was followed by The Muppet Movie (1979) and The Dark Crystal (1982). Henson and his close collaborator, Frank Oz, also worked with Henson's friend filmmaker George Lucas and his Industrial Lights and Magic special effects team. They created Jedi Master Yoda for the film The Empire Strikes Back. Oz continued to give his voice to the troll-like Yoda throughout the "Star Wars" series. In 1986 Henson made the film Labyrinth, starring actor and singer David Bowie. He followed with "The Witches", the last of his feature films in more than two dozen movie and TV projects in three decades.

>
> Jim Henson died in New York on May 16, 1990, at the age of 53, the same week he was going to sell his company to Disney. He had been ill with walking pneumonia for several days before his death but never told anybody, not even his family, because he didn't want to be a burden to anybody. By the time he finally sought treatment, it was too late. The processional music at his funeral was the theme from Sesame Street.

>
> Jim Henson said, "Follow your enthusiasm. It's something I've always believed in. Find those parts of your life you enjoy the most. Do what you enjoy doing."

Bad news:

Mike Burroughs volunteered to share the 2004-2005 presidency with Randal Metz, but unfortunately, Mike can not continue as co-president because of the intense new demands his (paying) job has placed on him.

Good news:

Tim Giugni has stepped up to the plate and has offered to be co-president with Randal. Yeah. Thank you Tim! This means that Tim will plan about half the meetings.

***

Future meetings:

There will be no SFBAPG meeting in September, but an October meeting is being planned. An update on the November meeting will be forthcoming. As usual, there will be no meeting in December and there WILL be a groovy Christmas/Kwanza/Chanukah/Winter Solstice party in January.

The March 26 meeting will revolve around the Black Light Theater of Prague which is performing at the Marin Performing Arts Center.

There are still a few discount group tickets available for the Black Light Theater of Prague. The performance is Saturday, March 26, 2005 (yes, next calendar year) at 3:00 p.m. in the Marin Performing Arts Center. The SFBAPG meeting will be after the show, somewhere in the nearby area.

Tickets are normally $32 plus $2 per ticket for phone orders. BUT Lettie Schubert has bought a block of group discount tickets, and those are only $30 each ($4 savings). Please email me and let me know if you would like discount tickets to this exciting event.

Mary Decker

*** PR Blurb ***

Seeing is not necessarily believing when it comes to "black light" theatre, but the National Black light Theatre of Prague elevates the art to such heights that you will question what is real and what is illusion. In their premiere Marin Center performance and only Bay Area appearance, the National Black Light Thatre of Prague brings their all-new production of Fantasy Travellers, inspired loosely by Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland and Jonathon Swift's Gulliver's Travels. Using black-on-black tricks to fool the human eye, actors appear to fly, shrink or even disappear in full view of the audience. The actor's performances are linked to widescreen projections, oversized puppets, black light animation, computer generated effects and fantastic magical tricks. Perfect for the entire family.

This comes from fellow SFBAPG member Herbert:

"Hansel and Gretel" are coming to HAYWARD!

Give your family and yourself a poetic treat -
Enjoy the adventures of Hansel and Gretel in a funny and colorful puppetshow
based on the original version by the Brothers Grimm.
All ages 4 + are welcome to this captivating 60-minute-program.

When?
Sunday, September 19, from 3.00 to 4.00 p.m. (only performance)

Where?
at the
OKTOBERFEST
22292 Foothill Boulevard
Centennial Hall
Civic Center, Hayward

The OKTOBERFEST will be celebrated from 12.00 (noon) to 8.00 p.m.

In addition, the OKTOBERFEST will give you the opportunity to explore some
German food, music and folkloristic traditions.

OKTOBERFEST tickets:

adults - $ 12 (advance)
- $ 15 (door)
children under 6 free
children (6 - 16 years) - $ 6
go to http://www.ugas-eb.org/germfest.html

or get them directly

at the German-American School of the East Bay
1699 Excelsior Avenue,
Oakland,
on Saturday, September 18, between 10.00 a.m. and noon

Please check out www.fairytaletheater.net, too.

Hope to see you all on the 19th!

Herbert

Puppeteers will be performing at the Mill Valley Fall Arts Festival, Old Mill Park, Mill Valley, Marin County.

Saturday, September 18

*12:30 p.m: The Fratello Marionettes
*2:30 p.m: The Puppet Company in "Perez and Mondinga" (filling in for Lewis Mahlmann's "Rapunzel") *3:00 p.m: Guild treasurer Pam Brown will tell stories
*3:30 p.m: Benjie Nelson performs "Fowl Play"

Sunday, September 19
*1:30 p.m: The Fratello Marionettes
*2:30 p.m: Nick Barone performs "T-Rex Thunderlizard's Wild West Review"

Both days
*10:00 to 12:30: Tia's Girl Scout Troupe will work with children doing craft projects
*TBA: Bob Hartman will perform at his special location in the upper half of the park

Free shuttle bus from parking. See Festival website for maps and bus schedules.