They are far removed from high-tech entertainment, but marionettes, invented in the 15th Century, are still delighting young audiences raised on MTV and Saturday morning cartoons.
Puppeteer Tim Reed says the reason is simple. ”There`s a certain kind of magic when you see these little characters that you know can`t be real, yet they`re animated. Puppets ask audience members to suspend disbelief, so it takes a lot of imagination, and you get more into the characters.”
Reed, 36, will perform a marionette version of ”The Wizard of Oz”
Saturday in Barrington with his father, Robin, 62, who began his career as a puppeteer in 1950.
”I used to do shows in the basement of our house in Oak Park, where my dad had built a little stage,” Robin Reed says. ”My brother and I would buy puppet kits, make all kinds of characters and put on shows for the neighbors.”
Robin Reed eventually graduated from the basement to perform his puppet shows professionally, with his wife, Edith. They appeared with the Milwaukee Symphony and on PBS television.
A creative highlight was working with the late Jim Henson. ”We were entranced with each other`s work at an arts festival in Detroit, and Jim asked me to be partners in his new company,” Robin recalls. ”I was a little uncertain, because at that time Henson was just getting started. In hindsight, I guess I should have joined with him.”
Father and son agree that there`s something mystical about their wooden puppet characters. ”It`s kind of like when they`re in the boxes packed away, we don`t think about them,” Robin says. ”But on stage, the puppets assume their own personality, because each one moves a little differently.”
”It`s not like the `Twilight Zone` or something, where the puppets come alive,” Tim adds. ”But the more you work with them, you learn to think more like the character. Puppets really do have a certain personality.”
Tim Reed grew up backstage watching his parents present their puppet show, but originally set out with other careers in mind. ”I got a degree in music, and a master`s in psychology, and then after spending all that money on education, I came back to marionettes,” Tim says.
”I realized it was what I really wanted to do, because it`s such an expressive craft. Doing puppets is basically home theater: My dad and I are the directors, the actors, the technicians. It`s a lot of work, but when you see it all come together, it`s very gratifying.”
For their production of ”The Wizard of Oz,” based on the novel by L. Frank Baum, the Reeds have as many as five characters on stage at a time. The dialogue is recorded, and Robin and Tim scurry around moving this head or that hand.
One of the biggest challenges about operating marionettes, Tim says, is that ”unlike hand puppets, where your character is right on your hand, you`ve got to be able to throw your energy into this object that may be 6 feet away. It really takes the skill of an actor to give life to a marionette.”
”The Wizard of Oz” will be performed by the Reed Company at 1 and 3 p.m. Saturday at Barrington Middle School, 215 John Snow Ave. Tickets are $4. Call 708-382-5626.
