When I Put On Your Glove
Friday, November 29th, and Saturday, November 30th 7:30 PM
Location: Sandglass Theater, Putney
Sandglass Theater presents When I Put On Your Glove by Shoshana Bass as part of the Thanksgiving Weekend Putney Craft Tour. This puppetry, dance and spoken word piece explores a daughter’s relationship to her father’s work and builds upon a premise that puppets are containers of memory. In it, a daughter explores what it means to slip into her father’s art – not just the form, but also the actual pieces. This work addresses universal questions of belonging, loss and the complicated nature of navigating generational artistic legacy. The show engages with what legacy means; how an art form endures and transforms as it is handed to the next generation.
Shoshana began creation for this performance in 2016, when an unexpected injury redirected her life, and her father, Eric, began teaching her his signature work. Shoshana transformed his original puppet pieces into a new performance that has guided her through much of her healing process and now tours internationally. The show recently returned from South Korea where it enjoyed great success to sold-out houses at the Chuncheon International Puppet Festival. The show has also toured in Taiwan, Canada and the United States. Next year it will embark on two German tours.
“How often do we get to see a meta-puppet show, a puppet-piece about puppetry, a deep take on the creative processes of our art, and their origins in the robust inner child that has survived every puppeteer’s actual childhood ––a show that probes the making of this art in ways that look both backward and forward at the same time: the older puppeteer disappears behind his/her puppet-table to make the puppet fully visible; the young puppeteer dances in the open space between the staging stations, portraying in her own body the journey she has willingly taken on. This gift from her dad which Shoshanna has taken possession of as a way to tell her own story––Portrait of the Puppeteer as a Young Woman—I received it as a gift in turn from her to us, her fellow-puppeteers, exploring for us her initiation into what Julie Taymor calls “this rare and mysterious art.”
Wes Sanders,
Founding Artistic Director (retired), Underground Railway Theater
Shoshana is an interdisciplinary performing artist, with a background in physical theater, dance and circus. Though she has grown up enveloped in puppetry, this is her first solo work in the field. Eric Bass first envisioned the concept for this piece, and director Gerard Stropnicky joined the team as director and devising expert. Ines Zeller Bass helped with additional design and construction, and Maria Pugnetti created the sound design.
The 41st Annual Putney Craft Tour, the oldest continuing crafts tour in the country, is held during the long Thanksgiving weekend (Nov 29-Dec 1,10-5p), and gives shoppers, visitors and collectors another reason to be thankful. Glass blowers, potters, jewelers, weavers, painters, woodworkers, – even artisan cheesemakers, and winemakers– invite visitors to come into their studios, discover, ask questions, sip hot cider and buy that one-of-a-kind gift direct from the artisan who made it. Part of the fun is meandering through the beautiful Vermont countryside, following the map to find these prominent craftspeople and view the works where they are conceived and created. Most studios do
demos. The weekend is promoted as the “Putney Craft Tour’s Craft, Culinary and Performance Weekend” with wine and cheese tastings and performances at night at Next Stage and Sandglass Theatre. Location: Putney and Saxtons River, VT. Visitors may start at The Gleanery Restaurant, 133 Main Street, Putney for info, maps, and a preview exhibition of the artisans’ works.
Show times for When I Put On Your Glove are Friday and Saturday, November 29th and 30th at 7:30pm. Tickets are $18, $16 for students/seniors and are available online at sandglasstheater.org Getting tickets in advance is highly encouraged as seating is limited. Sandglass Theater is a wheelchair accessible theater located in the heart of Putney, VT.
