Marionettes, made culturally famous by the story of "Pinocchio," are beyond mere hand puppets.
"The audience believes a marionette in a way that they don't believe a human actor," award-winning marionette maestro Joe Cashore said. "People understand it and go with it emotionally. It's like visual poetry."
Presented by the Sun Valley Performing Arts/nexStage Theatre, The Cashore Marionettes will make an appearance in "Simple Gifts," at the nexStage, in Ketchum.
Cashore is a master handler, and manipulates his beautifully created marionettes to classical music by composers such as Beethoven, Vivaldi, Strauss and Copland. The "Simple Gift" vignettes, taken from everyday life, run the gamut from humorous to tragic. Each marionette is approximately 27 inches tall and is controlled by more than 17 strings each.
For more than 30 years, Cashore has been building his magical marionettes. Based in Pennsylvania, he works with his wife and assistant, Wilma, and travels about 10 months of each year performing. The performances have thrilled audiences in Europe, the Far East and across the United States, including stops at the Kennedy Center, Annenberg Center and Kravis Center, among others.
Cashore studied art and anatomy at Notre Dame University from which he graduated in 1971.
Cashore has received numerous awards and grants including a Pew Charitable Trust's Fellowship for Performance Art based upon his artistic accomplishment. He has also received a Henson Foundation Grant, an award intended to help promote puppetry to adult audiences and the UNIMA Citation of Excellence, the highest honor an American puppeteer can receive.
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"Simple Gifts"
· The Cashore Marionettes
· At nexStage Theatre in Ketchum.
· 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, May 9 and 10.
· Tickets: General admission tickets are $20, at Iconoclast Books in Hailey or Ketchum, or call 726-4TKS.
A Cashore marionette.
