An Amazing Play Experience

Tonight I joined the high school sophomores on a field trip to the theater. The Play is an adaptation from the novel The Howling Miller by Arto Paasilinna, a Finnish writer. The story was interesting enough but the genius behind the production is what I'll remember more than the plot. I wish that I could have taken pictures during the play but this is the best I've got. There were 3 actors, and maybe 20 marionnettes. Yes, I said puppets. They were of all sizes. At the end of the play, the actors stayed around to show their puppets and truly they are works of art.

Throughout this play, they used a mix of mediums and methods to tell this story. Using the video backdrop that you see, we saw footage of woods and water (the setting in Finland). It was the primary use but a few times, the actor or puppets would move behind the screen and we could see his/its shadow moving. The shadows were black as the front of the screen still projected the footage creating a cool mix.

Behind the actor in the final photo, you'll see the mill. Installed in front of it was a camera and one paddle of the water mill was used as a platform for the smallest puppets. The entire scene was very small puppets but then the scene was projected on the big screen. Sometimes, as in the first photo, the main character was in the camera shot with the puppets. Other times, a puppet was projected and the character stayed in front of the screen and they interacted that way.

On my way home I had 30 minutes or so to think. ( I still get lost on the way there and the way back to anywhere, I usually triple my travel time. Google-maps is a great invention only if there are POSTED STREET SIGNS TO READ.) There are many things I love about France, though I've probably not posted enough of them, but one of them is that there is never a shortage of creativity. I've felt this way since my first time here in 1992. Whether activities with my host family or things I found with other students, there is always something "cultural" going on and super interesting.