Eugene weekly., June 23, 2016, Page 26, Image 26

O R E G O N B A C H F E S T I VA L
PUPPET MASTERS
Portland’s Tears of Joy Theatre elevates the art of puppetry with The Jungle Book
W
hat was the last puppet show you saw? An
after-school special maybe? Or perhaps a
storybook hour staged by librarians with
their hands stuck up some glorified socks?
Portland’s Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre
wants you to throw out that imagery entirely.
“There are so many puppet shows out there that I’ve
seen that might be great for kids,” says Emily Alexander,
Tears of Joy’s executive director, “but the parents are, how
shall I put this — not enjoying it. For anyone whose idea of
puppets is either Muppets or socks with googly eyes, we’re
out to change that.”
She adds: “This is a wonderful example of puppetry
done right.”
First founded in 1972, Tears of Joy has staged tens of
thousands of shows in the Pacific Northwest and around
the world. The morning of July 9, the theater group brings
one of its most popular shows to the Hult Center.
“The Jungle Book has been through our touring circuit
so many times since it debuted at least 20 years ago, and
we’ve always brought it back,” Alexander says. “I’m sure
it’s had thousands of performances.”
The origin of the puppet show may date back to the 20th
century, but the look is a good deal more contemporary.
“We refurbished the puppets,” Alexander explains. “They
look better than they ever did.”
Those puppets set the show apart. Relatively speaking,
they’re huge. In The Jungle Book, the boy hero Mowgli
is the smallest puppet at two feet tall. Nearly all of the
other puppets are to scale, including Mowgli’s bubbling
bear bestie Baloo, his panther protector Bagheera and his
attacker, the massive and menacing tiger Shere Khan.
Although the characters and story are familiar to anyone
who has seen the Disney version, the experience is unique.
“I love movies, but it’s like apples and oranges,” she
says. “There’s a completely different energy onstage that
comes with that element of the unknown when you have
a stage production. It’s like an exchange between the
audience and the actors onstage.”
The inclusion of The Jungle Book this year at the Oregon
Bach Festival may seem a bit odd because, on its face, the
show has just about nothing to do with Bach. Even then,
in a program packed with weighty performances from
the German master, a trip to the jungles of India offers a
welcome and kid-friendly counterpoint to the likes of Mass
in B Minor.
And just as OBF seeks to re-invigorate the often staid
experience of classical music concert-going, Tears of Joy
offers a similar reinvention of the puppet show as we’ve
come to know it.
“This is one of our finest productions,” Alexander
says. “We’ve brought it back so many times for a
reason. It’s a great chance for puppetry to redeem itself.
— J.D. Swerzenski
Tears of Joy Puppet Theatre performs The Jungle Book 10:30 am Saturday, July
9, in the Hult Center’s Soreng Theater; $8.
BACH THE HOUSE
Some highlights from the musical cornucopia that is the Oregon Bach Festival
T
his summer, Oregon Bach Festival’s theme could have been “Generations.”
The fest features a father-and-son team — Jeffrey and Gabriel Kahane; lead-
ers of two generations of historically informed Baroque violin — Monica
Huggett and Rachel Podger; old and new music — from Baroque and early
Romantic masters to contemporary composers; veteran visitors conductor
Anton Armstrong, pianist Robert Levin and organist Paul Jacobs; as well as to-
day’s rising stars — the terrific singer Nicholas Phan and Artistic Director Matthew
Halls; and tomorrow’s musical leaders — Youth Choral
Academy, Berwick Academy and more.
To open this summer series, OBF just added a free
opening celebration with performances by the Oregon
Brass Society, Cullen Vance and the PICFest Choir, as
well as a talk with OBF’s Halls, 5 to 7:30 pm Thursday,
June 23, in and around the Hult Center. Look for food
trucks, a photo booth and complimentary champagne.
Oregon Bach Festival runs June 23-July 10, and
there’s so much to hear and see. To help you decide, here
are EW’s highlights:
CONTEMPORARY
COMPOSITIONS
After years of looking mostly backward, OBF resumes
its investment in music’s future by commissioning the
great Scottish composer James MacMillan to write
this year’s must-see: a major new European Requiem
premiering July 3. Contemporary music fans should also
check out MacMillan’s June 28 chamber orchestra concert
featuring some of his earlier compositions plus music by
Britten, Shostakovich, Gabriel Kahane’s “Guide to the
48 States” July 8, and the Oregon Composers Forum’s
five-concert “New Pathways” series, featuring emerging
Oregon composers, new music star performers Molly
Barth (flute), former Kronos Quartet cellist Jeffrey
Zeigler, Roomful of Teeth singer Esteli Gomez and
more. There’s even a 20th-century tango show June 26 at Beall Hall.
FAB FIDDLERS
Portland Baroque Orchestra music director Monica Huggett — one of the
pioneers of the historically informed performance movement that OBF has come to
embrace — remains an electrifying, visceral violinist whose bands move onstage
like pop stars. Hugget’s June 30 concert features Baroque tunes by Telemann,
Bach and more. Also at Beall Hall, Rachel Podger, who tops the next generation
of Baroque violin stars, leads the Berwick Academy in
music by Baroque masters Bach, Handel, Telemann and
more July 6, and plays sonatas and partitas by Bach,
Giuseppe Tartini and Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber July 9.
YOUNG BLOOD
Some of the nation’s leading high school choral
singers convene under the direction of OBF veteran
Armstrong to sing Haydn’s Lord Nelson Mass at the
Stangeland Family Youth Choral Academy concert July
3 at the Hult Center. And Portland’s Tears of Joy puppet
theater entertains kids with The Jungle Book July 9.
CORE CLASSICS
Although founder Helmuth Rilling won’t be here, his
successor Matthew Halls leads two of Western music’s
landmarks: Bach’s career-culminating B Minor Mass
(for the first time at OBF, at last, on period instruments)
in the festival’s June 23 opener at the Hult’s Silva Hall,
and Bach’s compilation of vocal-orchestral masterpieces
collectively called the Christmas Oratorio during
the ever-fascinating “Discovery Series” at the Hult’s
Soreng Theater. Appropriately, between those Baroque
masterpieces and the festival’s closing Romantic
masterpiece, Brahms’s consoling German Requiem
RACHEL PODGER
and esteemed music scholar and keyboardist Robert
Levin leads a three-part series (June 29, July 1, July 3)
of music by Classical-era masters Mozart, Haydn and
Beethoven at Beall Hall. — Brett Campbell
Conventional concerts are only part of what makes the festival special. Check the On the House schedule for
various talks, free performances and other events at oregonbachfestival.com.
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June 23, 2016 • eugeneweekly.com