March 9, 2004

Adult Puppet Show about Cruelty and Resilience at MASS MoCA

(North Adams, Mass.) -- Erin Eager will bring her Jim Henson Grant-winning adult puppet performance, Savage Nursery, to MASS MoCA on Friday, April 9, at 8 P.M.

The Village Voice described the performance: “A brooding bird with pointed beak and glassy red eyes tends her young fluffballs with snapping beaks to sinister music. Raising her neck, she reveals a woman’s face. At once predator, mother, witch, and clown, she energizes a beautiful and unsettling tableau.”

Savage Nursery is puppet-noir -- a mysterious fairy tale of a bird woman raising her young fledglings, her lone defiant brattling, and the pack of feral children who collect at the foot of her tree. It is the story of how identity is shaped and revealed by hunger, cruelty, and resilience in the face of lost love. Told with music and sounds instead of text, the piece uses rod, hand, shadow, and bunraku style puppets.

Impressive for the cooperative effort and skill required by the puppeteers, Banraku is a uniquely Japanese form of puppet theater. Each puppet is a bit more than half life-size, and is operated by a team of puppeteers who wear black clothing and hoods (they are considered invisible) and bring the big, colorful puppets to life. The puppeteers must perform a delicately coordinated dance to operate the large puppets.

Lickety Split will serve dinner and snacks starting at 7 P.M. when the doors open. There will also be a full bar.

Tickets for Savage Nursery are $12 in advance or $15 the day of show. MASS MoCA members receive a 10% discount. Tickets are available through the MASS MoCA Box Office located off Marshall Street in North Adams from 11 A.M. until 5 P.M. (closed Tuesdays). Tickets can also be charged by phone by calling 413.662.2111 during Box Office hours or purchased on line any time at www.massmoca.org.

MASS MoCA, the largest center for contemporary visual and performing arts in the United States, is located off Marshall St. in North Adams on a 13-acre campus of renovated 19th-century factory buildings.

For Immediate Release
Contact: Katherine Myers
(413) 664-4481 x8113
katherine@massmoca.org