Race and Representation: Creating a Puppet Production for the Smithsonian Institution By Brad Brewer
A 6
s a child growing up in America, I was exposed to all the entertainment and cultural representations of American culture. When I was a kid, movies were a big part of my life. Each week, I had a different favorite actor or movie. I loved musicals, dramas, and comedies—but above all, I loved biographies. I was fascinated watching James
Cagney sing and dance the first time I saw Yankee Doodle Dandy. I was intrigued throughout Edison, The Man, starring Spencer Tracy. And I totally enjoyed Young Tom Edison with Mickey Rooney. But it was Young Abe Lincoln that really struck a nerve with me. Henry Fonda’s portrayal of Mr. Lincoln was that of a witty, folksy, and honest man years before he became the 16th president of the United States. Even as a boy, I knew that these movies took liberties with history. Stories about George Washington chopping down a cherry tree and Abe Lincoln walking five miles to return change to someone he overpaid are myths, but I understood that these myths summarized their character. I often thought about how that approach to storytelling could be applied to African American historical figures, to capture the essence of famous individuals and present them in a folksy, witty, and honorable portrayal. But besides movies, it was the puppetry of Bil Baird, a master puppeteer, that really crept into my imagination and gave me new ways to think about telling our stories. Though Bil Baird was a white kid from Iowa and I was a Black kid from the Bronx, I could be inspired to new flights of imagination after seeing his shows. Baird once wrote that puppetry constituted an international language, and indeed his work spoke directly to me even though all of his human puppets were white. His puppetry told stories, and the art of puppetry has always excelled in storytelling, regardless of the language or cultural background. So puppetry was a vehicle for me to explore my imagination and envision new ways to express ideas and emotions. Later, when I listened to the music of John Coltrane and Miles Davis, or read a poem by Langston Hughes, or saw a painting by Romare Beardon, the possibilities for creative expression seemed endless. Beardon’s approach to form and color taught me not to allow myself to be limited to conventional images. Each of his works told a unique story, using what was an unconventional technique to the art world, one that was recognizable by the African American community. Like the work of Baird, the jazz music of Coltrane or Miles Davis is a fine example of an art form that communicates an international language. The work invites you into its world
and encourages you to imagine, to become part of its journey, to feel the joys and pains of life—a perfect partner for puppetry, and one that shaped my conceptual approach. With both jazz music and abstract art, I could immediately begin to imagine how those works could be interpreted in an animated form. Through Baird and other notable puppeteers, I saw how they projected their history and culture through puppetry. I wanted to do that. From the beginning, my shows came from an African American perspective, from our community, from the experiences as told by our parents and grandparents, and what we witnessed ourselves. We have found that the way we represent Black culture through puppetry speaks to everyone. We experienced that first hand with the Crowtations when we performed in Germany, Spain, Singapore, and Japan, not to mention Brooklyn, Indianapolis, and San Antonio.
Themes and Outlook of the Brewery Troupe on Race and Representation Beginning with A Night at the Apollo Theater, The Brewery Puppet Troupe has always been inspired by Black music as one of our vehicles for telling a story. Although it was a musical revue of famous musicians from jazz to Latin to soul, it presented a backstage story of the legendary theater through the recollections of the master of ceremonies and the house band’s piano player, Sweet Chocolate Brown. And here, the music was yet another vehicle for telling the story. A Night at the Apollo Theater was also our first effort at presenting notable African Americans using themes that we have continued to include up to now. In other productions, such as The Jackson Five Meet Malcolm X, Harriet Tubman, Duke’s Place, and Frederick Douglass in Harlem, we told a story by looking for the essence of each historical character and presenting her/him in a folksy yet honorable portrayal. For example, in The Jackson Five Meet Malcolm X, Malcolm was presented as a father figure to the young Michael and a mentor to the Jackson brothers, reminding them of their responsibilities as role models for young people. Our characterization of Harriet Tubman portrayed her as a focused leader who used her courage and compassion to guide people to their freedom. These productions were not biographies as such, but rather a celebration of the person.
The Artistic Approaches to a Brewery Troupe Production The artistic elements of our productions have also reflected
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