Stony Creek Puppet House
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The Stony Creek Puppet House is a theater in the shoreline Stony Creek section of Branford, Connecticut, near New Haven.
The Puppet House is unique in possessing perhaps the only remaining collection of traditional 4-5 foot tall 80 pounds (36 kg) Sicilian puppets outside of Sicily itself.
These puppets are the last few remaining of three hundred created by the acknowledged master of the field, Sebastiano Zappala, at the turn of the last century. Their bodies are constructed of steel reinforced hardwood covered with hemp and canvas, with heads hand-carved out of solid walnut and painted with fine detail. Each puppet is immediately identifiable by his distinctive colorful costume, ranging from peasant garb to hand embossed brass suits of armor with individual coats of arms worn by emperors, kings, and knights of Western Europe, to colorful flowing robes worn by Moors from North Africa.
The stories these puppets would portray are those of the ancient European poems and epics, such as Turoldus' "La Chanson de Roland", Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso", Boiardo's "Orlando Innamorato", and Tasso's "Gerusalemme Liberata", bringing to life the glory and spirit of the Crusades, battles of knights and kings, and the struggle of heroes against villains and evil wizards. Glory, fame, justice, love and impossible dreams would be pursued by great characters of history and legend as the plots unfolded before the audience, while comic relief is provided by a traditional buffoon, who acts as a link between the audience and the ancient characters on stage. In the traditional spirit of the Commedia dell'arte, dialogue would be improvised, while sound effects such as drums, trumpets, and the sounds of battle enlivened the action. The great size and sheer presence of these puppets would make their world of history, fantasy, myth and mystery seem to come to life, while the characteristic puppet-like movements would simultaneously lend the play an air of unreality.
The puppeteers would stand six feet above the stage on a structure called "the bridge", manipulating each puppet by a rod attached to the head and torso, another rod attached to the sword hand, and a string attached to the shield hand. In addition to requiring great physical strength and dexterity, each puppeteer was required to manipulate several puppets during the play, giving each a separate personality by its physical movements and gestures.
The Stony Creek Puppet House is an active theater featuring a variety of performances and events. Puppet shows, live theater performances, live music, poetry, comedy, spoken word, yoga, children's theater, open mic and a great many other things can be enjoyed here. A regularly updated schedule and directions to The Stony Creek Puppet House can be found at the official website: http://puppethouse.org/
You can see a map of the Puppet House's location here.
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