A Touching Farewell By Steve Abrams


I


love the ritual of theater, where an audience seated in a darkened hall leans forward to appreciate every word and action of a story acted from a stage. I love the moment of exquisite anticipation when house lights dim, and stage lights come up, as a story is about to begin. I have certainly performed a lot of tales respecting the so-called fourth wall. I’m not sure exactly how or when inviting kids to touch or hug a puppet became an important part of my


never questioned the health hazard of this hilarious entertainment. Alternatively, a rod puppet stage manager informs me that I forgot something. I forgot to give him a hug. If time and physical setting allow it, he also hugs a few members of the audience, providing a splendid photo op for the school newspaper. I have well over 50 photos where my puppets are most certainly not socially distancing. My signature puppet, Bandy, has a very small paw. A high-five is a greeting


puppetry, every so often a seven-year-old critic would say “I saw your arm,” or more typically I would hear, “You are doing that, you are working the puppet.” My standard answer was, “Yes, it is fun to pretend with puppets, isn’t it?” A core part of my message evolved into encouraging young audiences to pretend with puppets, or said another way, to be an actor and do creative improvisation with puppets.


Steve Abrams at the Philadelphia International Theatre Festival for Children.


performances. Three of the best segments I have developed break the fourth wall and involve physical contact. So, I am bidding a sad farewell to a type of performance that brought great joy to hundreds of audiences. I have often used a simple toucan moving- mouth puppet to demonstrate puppet manipulation. He looks up, he looks down, he looks around the room, and then he looks at my nose. After the toucan bites my nose, if opportunity allows, he looks for audience noses to bite. As I think back, it seems astonishing to me that teachers


he cannot handle. At some point, we invented a “high-one” so that kids can greet Bandy with an outstretched index finger, or pinky, meeting his little paw. Perhaps I ignore the “fourth wall,” because at the age of five, my grandparents took me to see the legendary Danny Kaye, and I have a vivid memory of him coming right to the very edge of the stage and discussing recipes with members of the audience. Or perhaps it is because everyone in my family enthusiastically exchanged hugs. In my earliest days of proscenium hand


Perhaps this physicality is a carryover from my days as a dancer. Pas de deux class was a challenge. The trial and error of near-misses and near-disasters with different partners finally sorted itself out, and as if by magic, two compatible dancers formed a working partnership. Patricia, my pas de deux class partner, was not a romantic partner, but there was intimacy, and trust and friendship. We came to intuitively understand each other’s tiniest change of movements to maintain a balance or finish a turn. Puppeteers who specialize in right-hand work are similarly tuned to very fine movement. Recently I have been watching very early episodes of Kukla, Fran and Ollie (courtesy of Mark Milano’s postings on YouTube). A squabble or disagreement frequently ends with Kukla and Ollie tightly tucked next to each other, a visual of perfect trust and affection, and often Fran is part of the tableaux as the puppets cuddle against her shoulder. There were similar moments on Sesame Street when a child could be seen lovingly patting and petting Jim Henson’s Kermit.


The entirely believable loving touch of the puppet and the person is something that might be at the very essence of puppetry. It is both a challenge and a pledge of faith. Here is this object. You can touch it while it is on my hand. It is something much more than an object. It is an object that embraces our imaginations, yours and mine, and we agree to pretend with it, and let it be real.


I can only hope that at some time in the future, social distancing between a person and a puppet will no longer be necessay.


I’m not sure exactly how or when inviting kids to touch or hug a puppet became an important part of my performances.


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