Squallis Puppeteers turns 20 and celebrates with The Boo Ball on Saturday

Squallis Puppeteers turns 20 this year. | Courtesy of Squallis Puppeteers

On Saturday, Squallis Puppeteers celebrates Halloween and an impressive birthday with The Boo Ball 20th Anniversary Celebration.

The evening will be filled with the kind of fun for kids and adults Squallis has perfected, offering an all-ages dance party complete with big puppets, guest DJs including Sam Sneed, kids and adult costume contests, finger puppets and plenty of funky fun.

The event also serves as a fundraiser for Squallis’ general fund and will contribute to its 20th anniversary fundraising goal of raising $20,000.

Insider spoke with the masters of the puppets, Executive Director Nora Christensen and Director of Development Shawn Hennessey, about the company’s genesis 20 years ago, some of their evolution in the ensuing decades and their plans not only for Saturday’s party, but for the future.

Shawn Hennessey and Nora Christensen | Courtesy of Squallis Puppeteers

Squallis began as a more rough-and-ready, adult-centric punk rock venture. Christensen was one of the founding members.

“In 1997, Squallis started with my friend Jess Myers, my sister Carrie Christensen and some other friends,” she said. “We made a show called ‘The Chicken Show.'”

At the time, the group was working in the service industry and playing music in local bands. They decided they were interested in trying out puppets, in part to accompany their musical compositions.

That first show featured a variety of musical styles and a revolution theme.

“The chickens were getting injected with hormones until they busted out of their confinement to have a revolution,” explained Christensen. “It was ridiculous and very fun, and we did it on Halloween in 1997.”

The crowd embraced the weird show, and the city embraced the puppeteers. The group decided to keep it going, and Squallis was born.

The early years involved opening for bands, partnering with performance artists and crafting other shows that broke from the traditional theatrical scene. For Christensen, the big change in Squallis started when she became pregnant.

“It was the moment, is this going to be your job? I had to decide (if this) this something I was gonna let go to be a mom,” she said. “And I was, like, I don’t wanna let go of this, I want it all.”

Abe and the Col. | Courtesy of Squallis Puppeteers

The period that followed had Squallis staying true to its ethos and aesthetic, but searching for paying gigs and trying new things. Among other opportunities, Squallis began to evolve into educational programming.

“We started doing touring puppet shows that had quirky lessons, social justice messages, nutrition, or how to get along,” said Christensen.

Despite looking for gigs and working on education, Squallis still did interesting and even challenging work. One such production was “The Crowning,” a puppet exploration of live birth.

“We had a live puppet birth, there was a rapping placenta, once again the music was original and interwoven,” explained Christensen.

Around 2003, Squallis officially formed a board and became a nonprofit, and the company grew even more.

“We really love the nonprofit model, we really loved working for a mission and the greater good, so we formed a board and started writing all these ideas we had into our mission, which is the same mission we have today, 17 years later,” said Christensen.

She worked on juggling, metaphorically, Squallis and being a single mom until another important collaborator joined Squallis — and Christensen’s family.

Enter Shawn Hennessey.

“I had come from a fine art background and was coming down to visit,” he said. “I met Nora and we started dating and fell for each other.”

Behind the scenes | Courtesy of Squallis Puppeteers

Hennessey’s time in the art world left him dissatisfied, both in academia and in his creative work.

“I did not like being a solitary artist, I wasn’t making enough work, I wasn’t good at it,” he said.

After meeting the Squallis crew and seeing them in action, Hennessey had a revelation.

“I thought, this is something I can do artistically,” he said.

The artist had never performed before or worked with kids, but he learned fast. Ever since, he has been performing with Squallis as well as making puppets using his skills.

After starting in one of the founder’s basements, Squallis has had several homes while the company evolved into its current state, eventually settling into its home at the Highland Community Center at the corner of Breckinridge and Barret.

The center is run by Highland Community Ministries, and Squallis moved in just as HCM took over the space.

Squallis shows can be educational. | Courtesy of Squallis Puppeteers

“They had just been given this building and needed to fill it with cool community programming,” said Christensen.

The space includes storage rooms, a workshop area and access to a great gymnasium, which allows Squallis to host monthly puppet shows, teach classes, run summer camps and throw great parties.

After it throws one of those parties on Saturday, almost 20 years to the day after Squallis debuted with angry chickens, Squallis already is looking to the future.

This year, the members are hoping to begin renovating a space in the Compassion Building and finally start offering programming in the Portland area.

The Boo Ball 20th Anniversary Celebration takes place from 6 p.m.-midnight on Saturday, Oct. 28, at the Highland Community Center, 1228 E. Breckinridge St. Tickets are $10 for adults and $5 for kids. There will be a cash bar provided by the Highlands Fall Flea, which will be held this weekend at the same location.

A ‘puppet extravaganza’ comes to Jeffersonville’s Steamboat Days

Kathryn Spivey shows off some puppets. | Photo by Eli Keel

Tucked away inside an old garage in Jeffersonville, Kathryn Spivey and Charles Nasby have been leading workshops, school field trips and open studio nights for months to create what the press materials call “a stunning bicentennial puppet extravaganza.”

On Saturday, Sept. 3, as a part of Jeffersonville’s Steamboat Days, you’ll get to see the premiere of the community-based production “Pioneering Spirits of Clark County.” The puppet show features Lewis and Clark, their companion York and various other historical figures, but the star of the show is an original creation: Se Pe, the anthropomorphized spirit that represents the Ohio River itself.

Lead artists Nasby and Spivey first met at the University of Louisville and extended their working relationship to the Kentucky Shakespeare Festival. Nasby is longtime member of the Louisville theater scene, and he now serves as the UofL Theatre Arts Department’s technical production supervisor. But he’s actually a Jeffersonville native who commutes to Louisville every day.

Lionel Nasby paints the crankie scroll. | Photo by Charles Nasby

Spivey was born in Mississippi and moved here to attend grad school at UofL. She’s also been an active member of the Louisville theater scene for more than a decade and is currently the props master at StageOne.

During our interview, the two were quick to turn the attention back to the community.

“Our show is the biggest collaboration around town that I’ve been a part of; literally hundreds of people have had a hand in building this,” said Spivey.

From what Insider saw when we visited a rehearsal this week, those hundreds of hands were put to work, creating multiple 5-foot-tall puppets, several larger puppets and one huge puppet. The set, which will be positioned close to the bottom of the Indiana side of the Big Four Bridge on Saturday, also features a “crankie” set 7 feet into the air to make sure it can bee seen.

Crankies were a popular art before film and TV replaced them. A hand-cranked machine holds a long scroll, drawn or painted, with several scenes in a linear progression. The story gets “told” as the paper or fabric of the scroll is rolled out and exposed to the audience one scene at a time, with each scene being rolled back up on the other side to make way for the next scene.

The technique has been making something of a comeback, with crankie videos showing up on the web, but I’ve never seen one at this scale. The exposed portion of the crankie is the aforementioned 7 feet by 7 feet, but the length of the crankie is over 300 feet, featuring more than 15 scenes, all hand painted by community volunteers including Nasby’s son Lionel.

Community volunteers aren’t just responsible for helping to build the show; they’ll be performing it, too. There were never any formal auditions. People who showed up repeatedly to build got tapped to help bring the creations to life. Those volunteers also helped make story suggestions.

Jeffersonville resident Loren Miller was one such volunteer. Nasby called him an “MVP.”

“I saw signage and decided to come down and help out,” explained Miller. “I’ve always thought puppets were cool, although I never really had a chance to get involved with anything. I had a couple of ideas for the show, and they liked them.”

Charles Nasby with York | Photo by Eli Keel

Another volunteer, Sarah Young, is a stay-at-home mother with no arts background who recently moved to Jeffersonville from Louisville. She sang the praises of the project. “I’ve never been more involved with the arts as a community member,” she said.

You’ll see some of that community on stage this Saturday, as seven puppeteers, two musicians and two crankists put on “Pioneering Spirits.” One of the musicians, the lead, is Tammy Burke, who was not present when Insider visited.

You also may see some performances in the audience, as local school children who visited for field trips created musical instruments and have been encouraged to bring them along for the performance. They’ll get to join in at certain specified points.

Nasby spoke extensively about how the kids were introduced to various creative activities.

“The students came in, and they got to paint the drop, then they rotated, and they got to papier-mâché, and then they rotated,” he explained. The last station was making instruments. He added many students didn’t wait for the performance to come back but instead brought their parents to open workshops.

Students and community workers aren’t the only collaborators. Spivey spoke about working with historians to get the full scope of the history of the area, noting, “We have an elaborate prologue that begins … all the way back (in) the Devonian (Period) — that’s before the river was formed — and we talk about how the Falls (of the Ohio) formed, and the bedrock.”

Se Pe represents the Ohio River. | Photo by Eli Keel

Watching the formation of the river is important for the introduction of Se Pe. Dramatically, Se Pe is a spirit of hope and innovation, and it’s that spirit Nasby and Spivey hope resonates throughout the show, despite the fact that they tackle some uncomfortable history, including slavery.

“We put it out there that these people were here in the region and really existed,” said Nasby, noting he wants people to “leave happy, but now go home and do research.”

Spivey added, “We focus on what’s positive, what’s inspiring. That’s Se Pe’s perspective on the whole thing — she’s inspired by these people overcoming what they’ve overcome, showing spirit and bravery.”

“Pioneering Spirits of Clark County” will be performed at noon and 3 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 3, at the Steamboat Days in Jeffersonville. The show is presented by the Public Art Commission with grant support from the Indiana Arts Commission Bicentennial Legacy Grant and the Lewis and Clark Foundation. Additional workshop support came from the Squallis Puppeteers. There will be an encore performance on Oct. 1, again at noon and 3 p.m., at the George Rogers Clark Homesite in Clarksville.

Steamboat Days festivities run from Sept. 2-4. Click here for a full schedule.

StageOne partners with Squallis Puppeteers to bring giant puppets to life in ‘The BFG’

A look at the giant puppets in “The BFG” | Photo by Eli Keel

Children’s author Roald Dahl’s tale “The BFG” will hit the Kentucky Center stage this weekend. It’s not the first time the StageOne Children’s Theatre has adapted Dahl, and it hopefully won’t be the last.

“The BFG” tells the story of a friendly giant and a little girl named Sophie who undertake an important journey but are nearly thwarted at every turn by big mean giants.

Terry Schwab and Gracie Taylor | Photo by Eli Keel

The production is notable for its extensive use of puppets. Insider Louisville got a chance to check out all the puppet action, and we even took some pictures.

Sophie (Gracie Taylor) is represented on stage by a foot-and-half-tall rod puppet. The BFG (Terry Schwab) stands at his normal human height but is gigantic next to the puppet Sophie. The production also uses stunning shadow puppetry by created by Andy Gaukel. Seriously, it gave me chills.

The show stoppers here, aside from some really fun acting and a great story by Dahl, are the puppets of those big mean giants. They were designed and constructed by Squallis Puppeteers, and they are in top form here. StageOne commissioned six giant puppets, all 11- to 12-feet-tall. Each is a lovely work of art in its own right.

You should definitely catch the fun and scary tale with your little ones — or all by yourself, because puppets are cool for grown-ups, too.

Public performances of “The BFG” are Oct. 10, 17, 24 and 31 at 2 p.m. The Oct. 17 performance is a sensory friendly production for patrons with Autism Spectrum Disorder and other sensory sensitivities. Single tickets are $20 for adults and $15 for children 12 and under and are available through the Kentucky Center Box Office at 584-7777, in person at the box office, or online at kentuckycenter.org.

Below is a glimpse of more puppets:

Artists behind Chicago’s Rough House Theater explore murder ballads with puppets at Faulkner Gallery

Kay Kron, Maddy Low and Claire Saxe of Rough House | Courtesy of Rough House Theater

Are you a fan of murder ballads? How about devised theater, or puppetry for grownups that pushes the boundaries of what theater can be?

I have good news.

The Chicago-based puppeteers and experimental theater artists known as Rough House Theater are touring their latest show, “Sad Songs for Bad People,” and their final stop is in Louisville at the Tim Faulkner Gallery on Thursday, Aug. 20.

“Sad Songs” is a collection of seven staged murder ballads with puppets performing the various acts of murder and suicide. As the show continues and the bodies pile up, it becomes clear there is also a story being told about the puppeteers themselves.

Courtesy of Rough House Theater

Company members Mike Oleon and Claire Elizabeth Saxe spoke with Insider from the road about their upcoming visit to Louisville, touring theater, and how they devised their original work.

The production includes four actor/puppeteers, two musician/actors, and a set and light designer. The actors and musicians built the show over the course of several months.

“We work collaboratively on new theater,” Saxe explains. “For this show, we collected the songs. Then, starting from that source material and a general feeling of what we wanted the show to be, people come in with ideas for improvisations or exercises we want to try in the rehearsal room. We try stuff out, and eventually something emerges.”

Oleon says audience members are mistaken if they think puppetry is inherently childish.

“They don’t know you can engage audiences in a way that is not childish, you can deal with really complex themes,” he says. “Puppetry allows you to turn off a certain part of your brain and stop analyzing things in human terms. You just accept the story that is unfolding.”

Even if the story is about death or heartache — the subjects of many murder ballads.

Oleon compares touring experimental puppet theater to touring in a small band.

“There is a whole infrastructure between the Midwest and the East Coast that is set up to host touring bands in smaller house venues and collective spaces. If you tell them you are touring with a musical puppet act, the right kind of people get excited.”

And just like a smart touring band, Rough House always reaches out to local acts to open for them.

Squallis Puppeteers will add to the mayhem on Thursday with a remount of “Bullfight!” and a new version of “World’s Smallest Puppet” featuring big changes. (Hint, hint.)

Maddy Low with her puppets | Courtesy of Rough House Theater

The presence of Squallis and the rest of Louisville’s theater scene is a big factor in Rough House’s decision to make a stop here.

“A big part of the tour, for us, is to find like-minded artistic communities around the country,” says Saxe. “To find and connect to local artists and set up a show together, that’s the complete realization of the dream.”

Oleon adds, “There are only so many theater-loving cities in America. Louisville is on the top of that list. It seemed like there (was) potentially a really excited audience for this kind of work in Louisville.”

I’m excited. You can get excited, too, on Thursday, Aug. 20, at the Tim Faulkner Gallery, 1512 Portland Ave. Tickets are $10, the curtain is at 8 p.m., and this show is for puppet lovers age 14 and over.

Flea Off Market and Squallis Puppeteers announce the birth of Itchy the Flea

Shawn Hennessey tries on Itchy’s giant pants. | Photo by Eli Keel

The Flea Off Market is Louisville’s monthly market showcasing the coolest collection of artists and vendors. In between grabbing a quick bite from a food truck and shopping for that perfect piece of vintage garb, you may have noticed the Flea Off’s adorable mascot adorning signs and T-shirts.

Itchy the Flea, originally designed by local artist Raegan Stremmel, is going to be a lot easier to see starting Friday when the Flea Off teams up with Squallis Puppeteers to bring Itchy to life.

If you’ve lived in Louisville long, you’ve seen some of Squallis’ bigger creations at local fairs and festivals. My personal favorite is the 14-foot-tall Hunter S. Thompson, but perhaps you’re partial to Big Foot or Abe Lincoln.

Meet Itchy this weekend. | Photo by Eli Keel

Shawn Hennesey, Squallis’ director of development and marketing and also one of the puppet builders and performers, invited Insider to check in on Itchy’s progress.

We have photos of every step of the process, from designs and crude mock-ups to the (darn near) finished product.

The June Flea Off Market will be held at 1007 E. Jefferson St., in the Fresh Start Parking lot, on June 5 (4-10 p.m.), June 6 (11 a.m.-6 p.m.) and June 7 (11 a.m.-5 p.m.). For more details, including vendors, musical guests and “chicken shit bingo,” check out the Flea Off’s event page on Facebook.

Of course, to see the fully completed mascot in action, you’ll need to show up to the Flea Off Market this weekend, but in the meantime, enjoy this inside look at the creative process.

[Best_Wordpress_Gallery id=”15″ gal_title=”Itchy the Flea”]

Squallis Puppeteers want to make Louisville a puppet city

Squallis Puppeteers’ “Old Man”

In the past 18 years, the Squallis Puppeteers and their puppets have been to a lot of places — the moon, the bottom of the ocean, Forecastle.

But it was a trip to a puppetry festival in Minneapolis last year that inspired their latest show. Squallis traveled to the Hand Made Worlds Festival using funds from a capacity building grant awarded to them by the Community Foundation of Louisville. There, they were inspired by a “puppetry slam” produced by Open Eye Figure Theatre.

Now Squallis has decided to step back into the world of adult-oriented entertainment after a 10-year absence. On Saturday, March 14, the “Skitchy Puppet Variety Show” has its inaugural outing at The Bard’s Town.

Squallis artist and volunteer coordinator Zach Bramel sat down with Insider last week. He’s the driving force behind bringing the puppetry slam format home from Minneapolis. “This is my baby,” he says. “Or maybe I’m the midwife. I think ‘coordinator’ or ‘instigator’ would be a fair title for my role, too.”

Bramel discussed puppets, the recession, building a puppet-loving community and just how adult “adult” is.

The Minneapolis Experience

“Llama” puppet

“Minneapolis is like a fairy land,” says Bramel. “Theater arts, specifically puppetry, are so alive up there.”

A quick Google search revealed a trove of Minneapolis-based puppet-centric companies, including the Ridiculous Puppet Company, the Puppet Forge, BareBones Productions, In the Heart of the Beast, and Open Eye Figure Theatre. Some feature Muppet-esque collections of characters aimed at kids, others focus on adult performances, and one company is strictly an outdoor performance troupe.

The puppet slam thrown by Open Eye was a chance for all the Minneapolian companies and festival attendees to come together and put their brand of puppetry on stage in five-minute increments.

“People were up for anything, trying all kinds of crazy silly ideas,” Bramel says.

The folks behind the Squallis Puppeteers want Louisville to be just as much a puppet town.

“We’re not there yet, but you gotta start somewhere,” Bramel says.

Collaborating with the “Con” Artists

While the lineup is set for Saturday’s slam, Squallis hopes this will be the first of many, and they want you to be in the next one. Bramel hopes the variety show works as an open invitation for people to collaborate.

“We want this to be an opportunity for anyone to try out puppetry and storytelling,” he says. “If somebody has an idea, we’ll help them with development and then offer them a venue to try it out.”

Since Squallis moved to their current home on Barret Avenue in late 2013, they’ve been actively searching for more artistic partners in the community — they want more puppet people. They’ve had some notable successes, like the rock musical “Beagle Weasel.” That show was built around a song cycle written by local band Lady Pyramid, who introduced Squallis to projection artists Spettra. Finally, the puppets for “Beagle Weasel” were made by another contributor, friend of the company Deva North.

All those artists came together and created a unique vision, growing the puppet-loving community in Louisville. Squallis refers to those who work with them on a single show or limited contract “con artists.”

People who appreciate puppets are plainly pleased by puns.

The Recession

For Squallis, reaching out to new “con” artists comes after a time of pulling in and trimming down.

“DJ Hippie Johnny” puppet

During the recession, like many nonprofit and arts organizations, Squallis saw its numbers shrinking and money drying up.

It was tough, but Bramel says, “we contracted and adapted.”

The budget is now almost back to its pre-recession range, and attendance for their offerings, especially their first Saturday puppet shows and workshops, has surpassed what it was in their old home on Eastern Parkway.

How adult is adult?

“I think the temptation is to assume that since this is for adults, this will be an extension of the puppet sex scene from ‘Team America,'” says Bramel about the upcoming show. “There will not be any puppet sex, as nobody wants to see that shit. But we’ll probably say ‘shit.’ That’s why we’ve called it an adult show.”

Squallis’ last adult show, “Trash,” was 10 years ago, “but there is a demand for more mature programming from Squallis,” he says. “We do primarily kids shows, but we have many supporters that don’t have kids and don’t always know what to do with us. We hope this series will meet that demand.”

Bramel is not wrong about that demand. Last time I hit up one of Squallis’ monthly Saturday shows, the audience was about half hipster, half families.

Of course the venue of choice also adds some adultness — in the form of adult beverages. The Bard’s Town, well familiar with performers who work blue, is a “rowdier venue and they serve drinks, both of which will be key,” says Bramel.

The “Skitchy Puppet Variety Show” begins at 8 p.m. on Saturday, March 14, with house band French Lounge opening. Tickets are $15 at the door. Have a drink, enjoy some puppetry for grownups, and, who knows, maybe you’ll be so inspired that you end up in the next slam.

For additional information on Squallis, visit their website or friend them on Facebook.

Squallis throws 11th annual Puppet Prom this Saturday

Squallis Puppeteers will be celebrating and fundraising this Saturday at the 11th annual Puppet Prom.

This year’s prom is being held in the Gymnatorium of Squallis’s new home in the Highlands.

So what, exactly, is Puppet Prom? Just imagine if those school dances you attended back in high school had giant puppets, catering by Wiltshire Pantry, an open bar, and music by DJ Scott Carney.

Puppet Prom’s activities also include a silent auction and a performance of the puppet show “First Dates.”

Squallis has a lot to celebrate, including a juicy big new grant, exciting partnerships with area artists like Looking for Lilith Theatre, the Davenport Players and Bourbon Baroque, as well as a spacious new home.

This year’s prom will take place in new digs, Highland Community Center (HCC), where Squallis has been performing since September.

The HCC is a mixed-use community center run by Highland Community Ministries, a coalition of churches that has been serving Louisville since 1969.

Squallis makes their home and builds their puppets in two classrooms at the HCC. They also use the stage/gym combo for performances and workshops, and may spill into additional communal multipurpose rooms as needed, especially during summer months, when Squallis operates puppet summer camps.

In addition to providing an ideal set-up for their performances and workshops, The Gymnatorium is a great place for the annual Puppet Prom, since lots of us actually went to school dances in similar rooms.

There is a sliding scale for admission, but a $25 donation is suggested for adults, with a minimum donation of $10. Food trucks Grind and Li’l Cheezers will be slinging vittles in the parking lot. The event is Saturday, Feb. 15 ,from 6-11 p.m. at the corner of Barret Avenue and Breckinridge Street in the Highlands. It’s a family-friendly prom.

Photo from a previous Puppet Prom