In the arts world, someone has truly arrived when people begin to parody them.
The First Noel is a step beyond the usual fairy tale fare for Puppets Elora; a show title that might sound a little odd with its premiere coming in July. That is, of course, unusual only for those who do not know the Elora Festival runs every July and its Artistic Director is Noel Edison.
At that point, the puppet performance takes on whole other meanings. The Elora Festival has always been a little different anyway, with its major performances being held in a salt shed and others that have been performed on a raft in the Elora Quarry, which means Mother Nature is often the technical director – and she can be capricious if she wishes.
“This is a big change for Puppets Elora,” said show director Peter Scott. “Mostly, the shows are short.”
Annerose Schmidt added of the one hour production, “People don’t understand puppets can be for adults, too. We call it sophisticated comedy.”
Scott said, “The kids will even enjoy just the movement of the puppets.”
Schmidt said, “It’s a great outing for grandparents and their grandchildren.”
The show has taken nearly 18 months to put together. It came from an idea to celebrate the Elora Festival and it was written by Schmidt’s husband, Jonathan. He borrows heavily from Charles Dickens (A Christmas Carol, The First Noel, for example) except that instead of sniffs and sobs as the show goes on, the audience tends to react with howls of laughter.
The storyline is thus: Edison, having had it up to there with touchy divas, technical problems, blackouts, over eager volunteers and rotten rehearsals of Handel’s Oratorio, decides to pack it in. He has absolutely had it. The show simply cannot go on.
Until, that is, he gets a visit from Handel’s Ghost and divas past, present and future – and all musical heck breaks loose like an electrical storm during a quarry concert.
Schmidt said the festival has the coming July puppet show at the Elora Gorge Theatre listed as part of the Elora Festival brochure this year, and people can also purchase tickets from the Elora Festival website.
She added that Edison is very much aware of the artistic licence that can be used in such a show, and he has still given the troupe his full blessing – without ever having seen it or read it.
“He didn’t ask to see the script,” Schmidt said, smiling. “He wants to be surprised.”
Scott added with another smile, “From time to time, we report to him” about the progress of the show.
Another character that can be easily recognized is Canon Robert Hulse, a long time supporter of the festival. And festival emcee Colin Fox shows up as a character named Colin Wolfe.
“We’ve been thinking about the show for quite a while,” said Schmidt. She added the troupe invited a number of Elora Festival insiders to share their memories over the years – particularly about some of the strange things that could or did go wrong over 30 years of productions.
Schmidt said her husband used some of those in the script, “and some we made up.” Like a wet piano?
The show is entirely made up of Schmidt’s puppets, with some technical embellishments by Scott, assisted by long time puppeteer Connie Smith. Scott has directed theatre before but he has never had the difficulty of doing the choreography for behind the stage. But a puppet show gets crowded back there, and the puppeteers have to work in a strict rhythm in order to be at the right place at the right time with the correct puppet, as well as the correct voice.
Some work with puppets of the same character but who are of different ages, so they have to change their voices for each puppet.
Schmidt noted there were some glitches during a recent dress rehearsal, and promised “We will get it down right. We had one place [today] where everybody collided.”
Schmidt said Smith assisted with the directing and rearranged the dialogue in the script so the puppeteers can perform it.
“There is a lot of time-consuming detail until you have a good flow of movement and Connie is an experienced puppeteer who can do this work,” she said. “For the black light scene she made the rod puppets (piano, fish and swimmer) and choreographed the scene.”
The puppets themselves are the stars of the show, as intricate as a delicate touch needed by an actor in a key scene. Schmidt, who has been with the troupe for 15 years, made the puppets. They are hand puppets, rather than the ones operated by strings, but they can be just as technically difficult to use.
She said the founder of the troupe taught her how to make puppets, and noted she and Smith are the only two members remaining from those early days, although several current members have been with the troupe for a long time now. She said most of the charter members have not only left the troupe, but many of them have moved away from the area for various reasons. She is grateful for their early work that helped Puppets Elora get its start.
“We have three shows that Lara Fairfield [the founder] brought along from the Maycourt Puppeteers in Kitchener: Frog Prince, Last Dragon and Selfish Giant.
“Connie re-wrote three stories into puppet plays for Puppets Elora: Babushka’s Doll, How Anansi brought the Stories to the World and Who is in Rabbit’s House?
After a rehearsal in front of several grade 5 students from St. Mary School in Elora, one of the students asked how long it took to make a puppet.
Schmidt shocked most of them when she replied that it takes about 40 hours. She carves the heads in Styrofoam then coats them with clay. She makes all their clothing, although she said she gets some help.
In one scene, when an exhausted Artistic Director Edison falls asleep in a church, she built a pew prop, with a puppet leg sticking over the top of it. Just the leg. She said she had to make sure when the Edison woke up, that the real, whole puppet and not one showing three legs would be what the audience sees.
Scott measured the width of the stage area and paced it off so the puppeteers do not wander out of the backstage zone.
Schmidt added Scott created many of the props for the show.
There is an enthusiastic group of people working back stage with their arms out front. They are Vickie Forsyth, Beverly Matson, Marsha Groves, Jennifer Merry, Jane Tweeddale, as well as Schmidt and Smith, along with Scott. They all were delighted to answer questions from the students.
The show is considered best suited for adults, although it was lots of fun for the students who watched.
There are huge bits of irony involved in Edison’s tribulations. When the Elora Festival Singers are suddenly interrupted by the presence of wildlife in the gambrel barn, it is in the middle of performing All Things Bright and Beautiful.
When a diva suddenly needs a dressing room, the audience will simply howl at what she is provided by an overeager festival volunteer.
There is one such volunteer named, naturally, Tim, and his future is indeed bleak unless The First Noel can come to some resolution about Noel’s difficulties as artistic director and the possibility of a music school. Tim’s position in the future (if Edison fails) will also have the audience in stitches.
There are other intricacies involved in the show – some of which have nearly disappeared from the entertainment world. Scott gets to work with black light, an entertainment style that is seldom performed in this day and age. Smith is the lead on that intricate part of the production.
Schmidt said she first became interested in puppets “as a kid. We had a little puppet stage at home. We put on skits for neighbours.”
Schmidt has been involved in other artistic endeavors, from dried flower arranging to sculpting, and no doubt those skills came in handy when she started making puppets.
“I wanted to diversify,” she said.
Puppeteer Beverly Matson walked by at that point, and said, “It’s her heads that make our puppets sing. They’re awesome.”
The First Noel will run:
– July 8 6:30pm;
– July 10 2pm;
– July 14 2pm;
– July 18 2pm;
– July 23, 6:30pm; and
– July 25 2pm.
Advance tickets are available for The First Noel at the Elora Festival office, from www.elorafestival.com or by phoning 519- 846-0331. Tickets are $15 for adults and $10 for students $10 (GST included).
On July 9, the real Elora Festival will begin, and it runs to Aug. 1. Tickets for it are available at the same website and phone number.
