Puppets. Some consider them creepy, and to others, it’s an art form. Northwood High School is having its first puppet show, One Home, Nov. 18-19. But these are no sock puppets, these are paperhand puppets; constructed from paper, cardboard, wood beams and fabric, they can be up to 15 feet in height. Students in art and theatre classes have been constructing them with the help of Donovan Zimmerman, founder and co-director of Paperhand Puppet Intervention.
“I think it’s a good way to unify the different groups of students by working on one big project together,” sophomore Anna Pickens said. “Usually, we’re working on different projects, but working on a big project with everyone, it makes you really feel like you’re a part of something bigger.”
The inspiration for this show came from art teacher Leslie Burwell’s summer in South Africa with Go Global N.C., an organization that sends teachers all over the world. While in South Africa, Burwell visited an orphanage called LIV. LIV is an organization that cares for orphaned and vulnerable children. The choir at LIV has a song that will be featured in the show and proceeds will be donated to the orphanage.
“Right now the rand, the South African currency, is really low at about a 17 rand : $1 ratio,” Burwell said. “If we’re going to earn $500 from the show, that would be about 7,000 rand in South Africa. You can eat a really nice meal for about 30 rand, and the fact that we can make $500 here, the impact would be huge.”
Burwell always wanted to write a puppet show and was inspired to write a piece on American and South African civil rights movements.
“I wanted to write a play about the Apartheid Movement and the United States segregation,” Burwell said. “Our puppet show is going to start with a little lion going to South Africa. She’s going to meet a bird, an ibis specifically, that’s going to tell her the story of Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King Jr. and The Greensboro Four. We’re also going to look at where we are right now, our current conditions.”
The history won’t be directly reflected in the show; it is going to be metaphorical.
“The thread that’s going to run through it isn’t going to be so deep, it’s metaphorical,” Burwell said. “There are going to be scenes where puppets are playing tic-tac-toe and tug of war and a scene where the penguins have a little dance. I don’t want to give everything away, but the story will be told in a way that won’t be as serious as what my content is about. But the message will be there and I hope the audience will connect to it.”
Due to expenses, this will be a one year only opportunity to support the Northwood Arts Department and to experience the puppets they have created.
“I think it has something for everyone: some history, even some music,” junior Joe Crawford said. “There’s dancing and singing; it’s going to be a lot of fun. I’m expecting a fun experience with people I care about and doing something I love: acting and theatre stuff.”
Dancers, actors, singers and voices auditioned in late September and roles were announced in early October. Dancer and sophomore Meera Butalia remembers when she watched the puppets made by Paperhand Puppet Intervention at the Forest Theatre and is excited to be able to perform alongside them.
“I think most people will get it and it will be a cool way for Northwood to make a statement about the world and what’s going on,” Butalia said. “I’ve been going to see the puppet show since I was little at the Forest Theater and usually they’re making a statement about the environment. I never really understood them before when I was younger; it was all about the pretty puppets. Now that I’m more involved in the world and I know what’s going on, it makes a difference to me and I think it will be nice to dance with something like that on stage.”
– By Madison Clark & Joshua Eisner
