By Gail Siegel, WSU Performing Arts
PULLMAN, Wash. – Puppet strings will tug at heart strings when the internationally acclaimed Cashore Marionettes present “Life in Motion” at 2 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 26, in Jones Theatre in Daggy Hall at Washington State University.
Vignettes from everyday life set to music by Beethoven, Vivaldi, Strauss and Copland will strum emotions playful to poignant in the show presented by WSU Performing Arts. Because of its evocative content, “Life in Motion” is recommended for those ages eight and up.
Reserved seating tickets are available at TicketsWest outlets, including Beasley Coliseum (open 10 a.m.-2 p.m. Monday-Friday); online at http://TicketsWest.com; by phone at 800-325-SEAT (7328); or at Daggy Hall beginning two hours before the performance. Tickets cost $10 adults, $8 seniors and $5 students and youth.
Cashore crafted his first marionette from clothespins, wood, string and tin when he was 11 years old. After graduating from the University of Notre Dame, where he studied sculpture and portraiture, he built his second puppet and realized that to achieve the fluid motion he sought, he would have to devise totally new control mechanisms.
Experimenting over the next 19 years while working as an oil painter, Cashore had a breakthrough in the late 1980s when he decided to make a puppet that would convincingly “play” the violin.
“But once I began to solve the technical problems and gain subtle control of the marionette body, I saw that there was the possibility for greater depth of expression,” he said. That puppet, Maestro Janos Zelinka, became the impetus for the present productions.
“Life in Motion” weaves stories of a girl’s high-spirited and humorous misadventures with homework, a spirited battle between a pasture horse and a dragonfly, the moving plight of a homeless man and more.
Cashore has been entertaining audience in Europe, the Far East and North America full-time since 1990. He has received numerous awards, including a Pew Charitable Trust Fellowship for Performance Art, a Henson Foundation Grant and a Citation of Excellence from the Union Internationale de la Marionnete (UNIMA).
See performance promos at http://www.cashoremarionettes.com/promos.php.
Contact:
Gail Siegel, WSU Performing Arts, 509-335-8522, gsiegel@wsu.edu