Mountain Marionettes





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Mountain Marionettes
PO Box 8
Cedar Mountain, NC 28718
(828) 862-8122
marionettes@mtnisp.com

Teachers Guide


Puppeteer, Susan VandeWeghe with a singing bug and ballerina puppet


World of Puppets

Almost every culture in the world has some form of puppet tradition. From Asia to Africa, puppets are an important part of their culture. The beginnings of puppetry are lost in the mists of time. We do know however, in prehistoric times the shamans used forms of puppetry and masks to impress upon the tribe his skill in dealing with the mysterious spirit work. Over the years, each country has developed it's own puppetry tradition. One puppet character that became a common thread through many different countries was Mr. Punch, a braggart and a coward. He has many different names: In Italy he is Pulcinella, in France, Guignol and in Russia, Petrouchka. In Japan there is an ancient tradition of puppetry called BUNRAKU. Classic plays are performed with very large puppets that require three highly trained men to manipulate each figure. It takes twenty years to become a master puppeteer and manipulate the head.

Marionettes

Calloway the Lion

Marionettes have been popular in Europe for many centuries. According to legend, they got their name during the Middle Ages when puppeteers (usually the priest) would present the Christmas Story. The most admired character in these Nativity Scenes was always the little string puppet that represented the Virgin Mary. People began calling this type of puppet "Little Mary" or in French, "Marionette". Soon all puppets that were operated by pulling strings were known as Marionettes.

Mountain Marionettes uses short strung marionettes with the puppeteer in full view of the audience. This form of Puppetry is call Cabaret Style and was developed in the 1930’s by Frank Paris to perform in night clubs but had been adapted for audiences of all ages.





Want more information! Here are a few books that you may find in your library.


The Muppets Make Puppets
A wonderful book by Cheryl Henson, the daughter of Jim Henson of Muppet fame.

The Art of the Puppet
By Bil Baird

Marionettes
By Edith Flack Ackley

The Puppet Theatre Handbook
By Marjorie Batchelder

These organization's web sites are filled with information about the ancient art of puppetry. Hit the hot link and take a tour.

Puppeteers of America is the National Association open to everyone interested in puppetry.
UNIMA-USA The USA division of the international puppetry organization.

Click on the Hippo to learn more about the music and the performers that recorded it for "Jazzy Strings".



Click on the Nutcracker to learn more about the music and Glenn Miller and his Orchestra who performed "In The Nutcracker Mood".



Click on the Bunny to learn more about the music of the Blue Ridge Mountains.




The Music of Jazzy Strings

Want to learn more about the jazz of the first part of the 20th century?
Check out these web sites. Just hit the hot links and enjoy.



The first place to look is the Web site for PBS' wonderful series
JAZZ - A Film By Ken Burns.

Here you will find biographies of the Jazz Greats and a historical Time Line comparing the the development of Jazz to events in America as well as around the world.

The following are a number of the artists featured in Mountain Marionettes production of "Jazzy Strings." These, of course, are only a small sampling of the wonderful musical artists of the time.

Scott Joplin's wonderful Rag Time is the beginning. The "Maple Leaf Rag" is an excellent representation of this.

The Original Dixieland Band - In New Orleans, Dixieland music became so prevalent that bands would march in parade like fashion down the streets; if two Dixieland bands met face-to-face, a spontaneous "battle of the bands" would ensue, to the enjoyment and delight of merchants and onlookers. Back then, bands were either all-black or all-white, resulting in differing styles. While the white bands may have been technically precise, many of the black bands were looser, more improvisational, and more creative. It wasn't until several years later, when musicians began to choose their bandmates, rather than have them determined by social edict, that jazz as a musical form began to come of age.

Billie Holliday (1915-1959) Following in Bessie Smith's Footsteps, a singer named Eleanora McKay Holiday, known to us a Billie Holiday, became one of jazz's most sympathetic and renowned vocalists. In the early 1940s, Billie wrote "God Bless the Child," a song that is as poignant and enduring today as when it was first released. Over the years, she sang with Teddy Wilson, Count Basie, Lester Young (who gave Billie the nickname "Lady Day) and Artie Shaw.

Ella Fitzgerald (1918 - 1996) Ella Fitzgerald was discovered when she won first prize at amateur night at the Apollo Theatre in Harlem. She joined Chick Webb's band in 1934 and soon became a celebrity of the swing era. For decades Fitzgerald has been considered the quintessential female jazz singer.

Benny Goodman- (1909-1986) The King of Swing Goodman took his band across the country, playing venues in major cities, but failed to attract special notice. When he arrived at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles on August 21, 1935, Goodman, feeling frustrated by ambiguous audience response, decided to play his and Henderson's favorites, not the "sweet" tunes that topped the charts. The result was incredible - the audience was spell-bound. The sensational opening at the Palomar was the beginning of skyrocketing success for the Goodman band, and some historians say it marked the beginning of the Swing era. Everyone began referring to Benny Goodman as the "King of Swing"

Art Tatum (1909 - 1956) Art Tatum, who was nearly blind, was encouraged to study violin by his piano-playing mother and guitar-playing father. While still a teen, he switched to piano and took his formal early training to the local clubs in his hometown of Toledo, later playing also in Cleveland and other nearby cities. By age eighteen, he had a regular job on station WSPD in Toledo, and began to establish his reputation as an expert solist. In 1932 he went to New York to accompany vocalist Adelaide Hall, and spent the next few years playing and recording in New York and Chicago. Most of Tatum's career was etched out as a solist, playing a private parties and in a featured spot on the Bing Crosby Show, he didn't formally join a combo until 1943, when he and bassist Slam Stewart and guitarist Tiny Grimes formed a trio. Tatum continued to play and record into the mid- 1950s.


The music of
"In the Nutcracker Mood"

Tchaikovsky's third and final musical work for ballet, "The Nutcracker", was written late in the composer's creative life. He composed it in the years 1891-92. Strangely enough, the premiere performance of the "Nutcracker" at the Marinski Theatre in St. Petersburg on December 18, 1892 was a failure. It is believed that Lev Ivanov's choreography was to blame. Tchaikovsky's music, however, was an immediate "hit", as shown by the concert performances, which the composer directed himself on various occasions before the actual premiere. These performances were limited to those movements, which still today, as "The Nutcracker Suite", are more popular than the complete music for the ballet.

"In the Nutcracker Mood" is a very special rendition of this classic holiday favorite performed by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Although you will definitely recognize the melodies, this version really swings!

GLENN MILLER
 In the early 1930s, after stints as a band member with Ben Pollack, Paul Ash and Red Nichols, Miller became a popular studio musician. As an arranger for the Dorsey Brothers, and later for Ray Noble, Miller began to develop a style called "reed section voicing," that is, permitting the clarinet to dominate the saxophones. Around 1938, the Glenn Miller Orchestra enjoyed the height of it commercial success with its hits "In the Mood," "Little Brown Jug," and "Moonlight Serenade".
In October 1942, as a patriotic gesture, Miller disbanded his group and joined the US Army Air Force in the rank of captain. He assembled a high-quality dance band to play for the troops, which in 1944 moved its base to England. On December 15, Miller set off by airplane in bad weather for Paris to arrange for his band's appearance there, but the airplane never arrived, and no trace of it was ever found.
It's over a half century since the Immortal Glenn Miller disappeared just before Christmas 1944. His Orchestra, in the too-short run under his personal leadership, had officially recorded only on Christmas song ("Jingle Bells"). Many of the musicians that had performed in the original orchestra and dance band, were recruited to bring the "sound" and the "swing" of the Glenn Miller sound of the Forties to the songs and holiday joys of the Christmas season.
This recording by the outstanding group of professional musicians, all contribute to the continuation of the Glenn Miller tradition and the joy of the music heard during the Christmas season.

The music of
"Stories from
Aunt Nelly's Mountain Home"

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS

Art - Mountain Marionettes performs with a variety of handcrafted puppets created by Susan VandeWeghe and demonstrated at the conclusion of the show.

Social Studies - "Stories from Aunt Nelly's Mountain Home" takes a look into the culture of Western North Carolina and the Appalachian Mountains.

Aaron Copland's Appalacian Spring

Aaron Copland's life spanned most of the twentieth century, yet he is best-known for music that he wrote during a very short period, from 1938 to 1944. It was during this six years that he wrote his three ballets Billy the Kid (1938), Rodeo (1942) and Appalacian Spring (1943-44) as well as Fanfare for the Common Man and A Lincoln Portrait. This time and style has become known as Copland's populist period. It was not always like this. Copland was one of the first Americans to travel to Paris and absorb the modern rhythms and harmonies of Europe. He brought them back to America, laced it with his own jazzy style and wrote music that was difficult, dissonant and jarring. The most quintessential of his works is Appalacian Spring. This is the music that is most associated with Copland - open and expansive like the landscape he depicts, yet personal and intimate. With folk tunes as his inspiration, Copland defined post-Jazz American music. The story of the birth of Appalachian Spring and how it got its name is a convoluted one. The Library of Congress commissioned Copland to write the score for a new ballet, and Martha Graham to do the choreography.


Susan VandeWeghe and Mountain Marionettes
Susan VandeWeghe began her puppetry career about fifteen years ago as a puppeteer with AniMart Puppet Theater in Chicago. Later, she teamed up with Dave Herzog toured throughout the Chicagoland Area for 8 years. They performed an average of 350 shows per year for preschools, elementary schools, libraries and family events such as Arlington International Racecourse's Family Days and Navy Pier in downtown Chicago.
In September of 1999, Ms VandeWeghe moved to Cedar Mountain, North Carolina. She established her own company, Mountain Marionettes and has been touring throughout North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Florida and Virginia.
Mountain Marionettes is a full time professional puppet company specializing in the Art of the Marionette and entertainment for the entire family. Ms VandeWeghe performs with short strung, trick marionettes in a Cabaret style variety show. Each marionette is designed, engineered and handcrafted by hand in her workshop.