A puppeteer’s perspective…

from an Orange County swap meet to the origin of the universe

BY KIM GLANN

The third annual [Inside] the Ford new play series opens November 6 (note, new opening date) with HYPERBOLE: origins by Rogue Artists Ensemble, a collective that creates Hyper-theater and, in the case of origins, “the birth of the universe live on stage.”

Sean Cawelti

The beginning of Rogue’s brand of theatre dates from Artistic Director Sean Cawelti’s childhood fascination with puppets. “I have been a puppeteer since I was four-years-old.  My first puppet was purchased at a swap meet in Orange County.  My parents say I wouldn’t play with anything else,” recalls Cawelti. “One of the things we often lose sight of when creating a theatre piece is how things are relating to each other.  A puppeteer’s perspective looks at all the different elements and how they work together to tell the story.  It’s kind of maddening and also inspiring.”

The term Hyper-theater was coined at UC Irvine, where Cawelti and many of his Rogue colleagues were undergrads together. Feeling that the way you told the story was as important as the story itself, the group of friends decided to mash together storytelling techniques and theater traditions, using modern technology, such as computers, moving lights and video projection, in combination with the centuries-old arts of puppetry, masks, dance and music.

Unlike most small theatre companies in LA, Rogue Artists Ensemble is not a company of actors but “more behind-the-scenes folks,” says Cawelti. This group of multi-disciplinary designers casts their shows from LA’s large pool of actors. “We are really fortunate to work with a consistent group of artists who help to bring the show to life in a very real way.”

HYPERBOLE: origins tells the tale of a traveling showman named Ducis, his assistant Stan and their pet bird, A. Puffin, who arrive in Los Angeles, the next stop on their tour.  With the great Origin Machine, Ducis will present Origin stories that help inspire, share different world views and tell why things are the way they are.  Says Cawelti, “The one thing to note about the machine is that it’s not very reliable.” 

HYPERBOLE: origins

origins is the fifth in the Rogue’s Hyperbole series and its theme came from an exchange between Cawelti and his mother.  “She said, ‘You know what I’ve always found interesting? All the major faiths have a hand gesture, through prayer or meditation.’ This got me thinking about how great it would be to do a show about religion set in a science classroom — sort of an atheist take on origin and mythology.  We started talking as a group - the Rogues run the gamut from very religious to atheist. Some of our conversations started heated,  then became inspired.  Even though people’s beliefs were on opposite sides of the spectrum, they still had the same questions and thoughts about what it means to be alive… Where does this come from? …How does this work? We liked idea of creating some sort of an event that would bring out those questions.”

Music figures heavily in the piece.  Big fans of the L.A. music scene, several ensemble members attended an Animal Collective concert in the early stages of origins’ development. That got the Rogues to thinking, “What would it be like to have live music made on stage?”  Says Cawelti, “We spent a year researching how our sound, video and lighting software would interact with the cast on stage.  Nearly every sound cue in the piece is actually triggered by the performers, allowing for more variety from performance to performance based on audience feedback.” 

A wordless play, origins features trained movement actors with the skills to be able to create extensive music pieces on stage with instruments the Rogues built themselves.

It’s been 10 years since Rogue Artists Ensemble staged its first Hyper-theater piece (the first Hyperbole) and in the intervening years, the company has carved out a respectable place for itself among Los Angeles’ vibrant theatre scene, collecting accolades along the way -- last year’s Gogol Project was just nominated for two Ovation awards and received an Ovation Honors award.  “The idea of origin for us is a little bit more heady and controversial than other pieces we’ve done, and certainly the most challenging,” says Cawelti, of the show which has been more than four years in the making. “We felt we were up to that challenge.  We wanted to see what it would be like to create an evening that would challenge the audience in the way that we were challenged.”

Kim Glann, Productions Marketing Manager for the Ford Theatres/LA County Arts Commission, has worked as a local theatre producer and in pr/marketing for the film industry.

Click here for more info and tickets to the [Inside] the Ford season.