Blow Up

In Atlanta, an experimental puppetry program explodes the boundaries of subject and technique

By Jon Ludwig

XPT stands for Xperimental Puppetry Theater. EPT would be a more accurate spelling, but as one of the founding members pointed out: EPT also stands for “Early Pregnancy Test.” We could have stretched the point to say we were looking for “New-Birth-in-Puppetry,” but it was 1983, and the letter X was a lot cooler.

Now 20 years old, XPT is the wild and woolly laboratoty at Atlanta’s Center for Puppetry Arts, the nation’s largest organization dedicated to puppetry, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. Actually, no experience in puppetry is required to become involved. In the beginning, any interested person who showed up on Wednesday evenings could participate in the design, construction, rehearsal and final production of an XPT show. These days, life is a bit more organized, but the open-door policy remains. 

XPT is not a showcase. Anyone may submit a proposal for a 15-minute piece or excerpt. Members of the center’s artistic staff coordinate each XPT production and devise an evening from among the proposals. There is no rating system like at a slam. A moderated talkback, taking place after the performance, helps the participants better understand what the audience thinks of their piece. Participants have included those you might suspect (puppeteers and puppet-makers, as well as painters, sculptors, poets, musicians and actors), and those you might not (electricians, carpenters, office workers, computer programmers, building maintenance personnel and theology students). For the person seeking a career in the arts, XPT has a healthy honor roll (but we’re not dropping names here). Those with no practice in theatre or the arts bring their refreshing desire to try something new to the table.

Because puppetry is so often confused with work that is only-for-children, there is this overwhelming urge to do something called “adult.” XPT does not discourage works for children per se, but the majority of the works challenge mores rather than support the standards. 2001’s The Three Little Pigs, for example, was performed with dildos and other sex toys, giving new meaning to “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow....” While sex and violence may be popular topics, they are usually handled in a humorous or ridiculous manner.

In a 1996 piece, The Immortal Mr. Pee-pee, a puppet continually berated the puppeteer for his bad puppeteering until the puppeteer cut the head off the puppet, sparing himself and the audience any further verbal abuse. But the puppet’s head sprang to life and began the barrage all over again. The puppeteer, desperate to quiet his tormentor, didn’t know what to chop off next. In this piece and others, puppet blood spilled, spewed and sprayed about with every other imaginable excretion. At XPT, countless puppets have been blown up, set on fire or smashed to smithereens. Outrageous behavior has a strong appeal in puppetry.

Many XPT works derive from the personal and the political. Some have been thinly veiled autobiographical tales of sexual abuse, life with alcohol and alcoholics, or depression and loneliness; others err on the more cheery side of love, kindness, spirituality and hope. In one bittersweet performance, a man’s puppet persona talked with the objects in his room about the woman he was too shy to meet, and, of course, the objects offered their own advice. Another work was an extremely angry piece about the deadly incident in Philadelphia between the police and members of the radical group MOVE. The language was so harsh and the rage at a white racist society so strong that the audience—of all racial backgrounds—squirmed in their seats. As part of its credo, XPT does not censor its performers, who, like the audience members, are restricted to 18 years old and up. Also, the audience is warned in advance that what they are about to see might make them laugh, cry, think, be confused—or it may piss them off.

Technique is one of the more varied and up-for-grabs forays for the XPT-er. This is puppet-geek heaven. Here, you can concentrate totally on materials—to name but a few: robotics, magnets, fire, water, helium balloons and even male genitalia (way before Puppetry of the Penis). One project was to create a teenage-angst punk-rock trio operated by one puppeteer through the clever use of strings, foot pedals and wires. “Clobber,” as the band is now known, has gone on to be named by one of the local music magazines as “the best band in Atlanta.” Often the goal is to mix the “tried-and-true” ideas/techniques with the most outlandish and improbable, like mad scientists mixing up chemicals just to see what happens. Explosion or fizzle—it is all XPT. 

Jon Ludwig, associate artistic director at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, is currently at work on his upcoming project, The Secret Adventures of Leonardo da Vinci, which premieres in August.

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