By BILL LOCKWOOD
Special to the Eagle Times
SAXTONS RIVER, Vt. – This summer Main Street Arts of Saxtons River has again organized a Great River Theater Festival. Last year productions were presented by different local groups in different venues as far away as Putney. This year three groups will be presenting works in Saxton’s River at the Main Street Arts theater and in the Horowitz Performing Arts Center at Vermont Academy.
Main Street Arts Artistic Director David Stern says what he learned from the festival’s inaugural year, “was to add more celebration, add more time for people to meet each other and talk about it.”
This year the festival is spread over three weeks rather than two, both venues are within walking distance of each other, and there are non-theater events, such as workshops, cookouts, live music, and after-show cocktails with cast and crew. Stern said, “If you’re interested in theater, this will be three of the most exciting weekends you can find in southern Vermont.”
The productions are Main Street Arts own “Equus” by Peter Schaffer, a very adult play recommended for ages 15 and up; “Scenes From American Life” by A. R. Gurney, Jr. at the Horowitz Center; Sand Glass Theater’s “Puppet Crimes” by Janna Zeller and Kalob Martinez, appropriate for ages 14 and up, also at the Main Street Arts theater; and Sand Glass’s “Punchi: Kasper’s Adventures”, short puppet pieces perfect for adults and kids alike.
“Equus” was both quite controversial and award-winning when it opened on Broadway in 1974. Peter Shaffer also wrote the musical “Amadeus,” which was turned into a popular film. “Equus” tells the story of a deranged youth who has blinded six horses with a metal spike. Stern, who is director of the play, describes it as a “psychological thriller that explores the human dance between passion and civilization”.
Liz Guzynski is the designer of the horse heads worn by actors portraying the six horses. Stern said she felt the horses were in the young man’s imagination, and she has made them “bondage horses, animalistic, sexualized beasts.” Stern said he is “excited” and he “has never seen it that way.”
Guzynski said her “aggressive costuming is bringing it [the play] up to date’. The “presence and stature of the horses is bigger than life.” Besides their horse heads and “bondage” costumes the actors playing them all wear five to seven inch platform shoes. Guzynski says “Equus” “is not for children.” It is “theater that moves you and [makes you] want to think.” She felt Stern had made a “brave move. A lot of directors wouldn’t have been so bold.”
“Scenes from American Life” is by the same playwright as the classic comedy “The Dining Room.” Stern said the scenes “take on the Long Island aristocracy like Woody Allen takes on Jewry.” It is about the wealthy and their foibles, and is a kaleidoscopic view of upper-middle-class life. Director John Hadden said the play, written in 1969, has comic scenes occurring out of sequence from the ‘20s to the ‘80s with those written in the then future imagining the U.S. as having turned into a police state.
Hadden said, “I would like each of these sketches to be faintly reminiscent of people we know and love, and maybe even some awkward aspects of ourselves.” Hadden also hoped, “that we have a good laugh and are occasionally moved by a sweet touch of sadness.
“Puppet Crimes” celebrates the grotesque tradition of hand puppetry in two styles. The first, “El Beto” is a one-man, bilingual, hand-puppet version of “Macbeth” set in the world of the Mexican drug cartels. Between 2006 and 2010 there were seven cartels fighting over control of the US/Mexico border. Kalob Martinez created the work as part of his requirements in completing an MFA at University of Connecticut.
The second, Jana Zeller’s “Kasper and Gretel” features traditional German hand puppet heroes as they struggle with the duties of a married couple in an old shack. For the past two years Zeller has been touring with Shoshanna Bass presenting a cherished children’s puppet show the two sisters inherited from their mother.
“Equus” opens Thursday June 28 and has two more performances that weekend and three the next. “Puppet Crimes” and “Punchi: Kasper’s Adventures” run on July 7 and 8, and “Scenes from American Life” opens July 5 and has two more performances that weekend and three the next. There are also workshops on rhythm, space, and character, and puppetry. Exact show times and dates and ticket information are available by calling Main Street Arts at 802-869-2960 or through greatrivertheaterfestival.org , or mainstreetarts.org .
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