An Autumn tradition returns to Sandglass Theater on Thanksgiving Weekend

Eric Bass' award winning solo performance, Autumn Portraits, will take center stage on November 27 and 28, reviving an early Sandglass tradition. Autumn is a metaphor for that time of life when our thoughts turn inward, when we feel the loss of summer warmth. Each of these puppet "portraits" presents a moment in one character's existence. Some are funny, some touching, some bizarre.

Autumn Portraits is a compelling evening-long solo puppet-and-mask performance, a series of five interlocking vignettes, each exploring one puppet character and its interplay with its manipulator, who might appear as a masked figure, or simply a voice from the sky. Eric Bass' rod puppets act out their stories in precise and evocative gestures as they meet their pasts, their selves, even their puppet deaths. Bass performs solo, and for most of his performance he manipulates the characters in full view of the audience. He combines his own craft with the traditional Japanese Bunraku methods of puppetry. The puppets themselves, which are handcrafted and operated, use tiny masks or transform their faces to express their emotions. While the performance may be enjoyed by older children, "Autumn Portraits" is intended for adult audiences.

Bass has presented his work in theaters and festivals throughout Europe, America, Australia and Israel. His awards include the Citation of Excellence from Pecs, Hungary, and the First Prize Critics Award for Best Production at the International Festival of Puppetry in Adelaide, Australia. The New York Times has written, "He is a master." And the Derniers Nouvelles D'Alsace, in Strasbourg, France, wrote "...these astonishing creatures...which are in reality our doubles, our secret brothers, sprung from a shadow within us...one learns more...than from the many laborious works on the human condition that are proposed to us by philosophers, psychoanalysts and psychologists."

Autumn Portraits
Friday and Saturday evening,
November 27 and 28
8 PM
$15 ($10 Seniors and Students)

Sandglass Theater is located
in the center of Putney, Vermont.
For reservations and information
contact Sandglass Theater
(802) 387-4051
www.sandglasstheater.org

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