photo: Niccolai Maurizio
On any given afternoon, Matt and Sarah Cotten can be found in their workshop, working with fabrics and papier-maché, making frames of PVC pipe and wood, and painting faces on characters that promptly dance off the work bench. The Cottens combine theater and storytelling, visual art and moveable sculpture to become Puppets Amongus.
“We like to make the visual elements beautiful enough to be in an art museum, with the added bonus of moving around and telling a story,” Matt Cotten says. “Part of the vision of Puppets Amongus is to bring performance down to a personal level. We are unplugged and spontaneous.”
With a three-person troupe of Sarah, Matt, and a guest musician, “we are as comfortable on the street as we are in a nice quiet theater.”
In the intimate Screening Room downtown, Puppets Amongus will be unfolding their latest show, The Case of the Stolen Smell, which highlights classic stories from Old Japan. “We continuously pour over children’s literature with our kids, looking for stories that will translate well into puppetry.
The Japanese stories of old trickster wise men are a perfect combination of humor and intrigue,” Matt says of the new show, premiering during 2nd Saturdays Downtown and showing again the next day.
Perhaps the best thing about puppets is their marriage of theater and visual art, and to the Cottens, this makes them perfect storytellers.
“Sometimes stillness, or silence is the best element in telling a story,” Matt explains. “Abstract or non-linear storytelling can be really intriguing, even for children—especially for children. You don’t have to spoon feed the narrative to the audience. They are smarter than that, and they want to be challenged."
"Puppetry can be anything.”
Performances of The Case of the Stolen Smell are at The Screening Room, 127 E. Congress St., on Saturday, June 11 at 5pm, 6:30pm and 8pm; Sunday, June 12 at 3pm. Cost is $4 for children, $5 for adults. Visit PuppetsAmongus.com for more details.
