By C.J. Hirschfield
Our puppet-theater director, Randal
Metz, is also a respected historian of puppets and puppetry. Recently, while
researching the history of puppeteers in California, he came across an article in
the Puppetry Journal – the quarterly magazine of the Puppeteers of America –
that caught his eye. It wasn’t about puppets or puppeteers: It was about shoes.
And not just any shoes: the special footwear used by some height-challenged puppeteers
to make them tall enough to do their job.
Puppeteers' shoes suggested by Nick LeFeuvre, via the Puppetry Journal |
At Fairyland’s Storybook Puppet
Theatre, for example, if you don’t happen to be between 5 feet, 6 inches and 5
feet, 10 inches tall, you can just forget about being a puppeteer for our hand
and rod puppet shows. If you’re at the shorter end of this spectrum, you’ll
need to put on 4-inch platform shoes that allow you to lift your arms high enough
to do the job. And that’s easier said than done, given all the movement that
has to take place behind the scenes.
If you’re over 5 feet 10, your head
would be prominently featured in the show, and that just wouldn’t be right.
Randal is exactly 5 feet 10, and so our puppet-theater proscenium is set to
that “magic” height.
Back in 1973, Nick LeFeuvre – a
puppeteer in Monterey who also created many beautiful puppets for Fairyland –
recommended to us the homemade wooden height-adding shoes shown in the
illustration. Since then, we’ve found more fashion-forward companies that have
supplied better, more comfortable shoes.
Even so, three out of our seven current
puppeteers also need to stand on a 2-inch platform to attain the right stature.
“If I told them they were too short, they’d be very disappointed,” Randal said.
“The shows are often the high point of their day. They love it when children
recognize them in the park.” Indeed, our puppeteers are the equivalent of movie
stars to the younger set.
On average, five of the seven shows
we present each year feature hand or rod puppets; the remaining shows employ marionettes,
which are manipulated from above, not below. Randal told me that hand or rod
puppets are used for shows that require sensitivity and subtlety. Marionettes
are better for showing off costumes and scenery—in other words, the spectacles.
Randal Metz and Atessa Shahkar need no extra height to perform "Why Mosquitoes Buzz in Our Ears" (through July 12) |
So what do those 4-inch-heel shoes
look like? Ugly and strange would be the answer, except for some our former art
director discovered online, which are hip and trendy. One pair is no longer in
use, which is a good thing, since it looks and probably feels like a torture
device. Another pair is a throwback to the disco era. Yet another pair is a
custom job done by a former employee who combined parts of two different shoes
with industrial epoxy for an unattractive but very stable pair of puppetry
shoes.
Shoes worn by our shorter puppeteers while performing. Photo: Jacqui June Whitlock |
I don’t mean to shatter any illusions,
but sometimes guys have had to wear the female pair of shoes if they were the
only ones that fit.
So the next time you’re at the park,
enjoying the shows at America’s longest-running puppet theater, think of the
bravery and sacrifice of the young puppeteers among us for whom height is,
unfortunately, destiny.
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C..J. Hirschfield has served for 16 years as executive director of Children's Fairyland, where she is charged with the overall operation of the nation's oldest storybook theme park.
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C..J. Hirschfield has served for 16 years as executive director of Children's Fairyland, where she is charged with the overall operation of the nation's oldest storybook theme park.
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