Lunatique Fantastique's Chicken Stock: Innovative Puppet Troupe Tells Story of Avian Flu
The Marsh San Francisco Mainstage Theater (1062 Valencia St. San Francisco, CA 94110)
- Full Price:
- $15.00
- Our Price:
- $7.50*
* Additional fees apply.
All offers for Lunatique Fantastique's Chicken Stock have expired.
The last date listed for Lunatique Fantastique's Chicken Stock was Sunday September 14, 2008 / 1:00pm.
Currently at The Marsh San Francisco Mainstage Theater:
FWD: Life Gone Viral - A Comedy about Living Life on the Internet
- Full Price:
- $20.00 - $25.00
- Our Price:
- $10.00 - $12.50
Charlie Varon and Jeri Lynn Cohen's FWD: Life Gone Viral is a comedy about life in the modern age, where privacy is an idea from the past, and people let it all hang out on the internet. Cohen and Varon each play multiple roles, including an oncologist, her patient, their ex-spouses and an expert commentator. Marriage, divorce, child-rearing, terminal illness, transmogrified flies and beef jerky all find their way into the play. Varon's previous plays have enjoyed extended runs in San Francisco, toured, been released on CD and won numerous awards. Learn More
8 Goldstar Member Reviews
Mr. Z
Though short, it is a performance worth seeing as there is ever seldom a hand/found art puppets act shown. Kudos to the crew for their dedication to the craft.Written on Sep 08 2008
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Goldstar Member
I know it's a work in progress and it already is fantastique!Written on Sep 28 2008
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Dennis
This event was a "workshop" performance for (I think) a full on version to be done in December so it was short. However, this performance group is wonderful in everything it does so we highly recommend seeing anything they do! Only caution is that you want to be sure to get their early enough to get seats in center section. We ran late & sat in the bar stool seats at the back. Unfortunately, a good deal of the performance was done on a low table in front center stage so we had difficulty seeing when they did the parts on the table. We still loved the show!Written on Sep 16 2008
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Mangohappiness
So imaginative and well-executed I was engrossed, and almost forgot the birds were, well, not real.Written on Sep 15 2008
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More Information About Lunatique Fantastique's Chicken Stock
Website
http://www.themarsh.org/chicken_stock.html
Quotes & Highlights
- "Found puppet genius." --San Francisco Chronicle
- "A remarkably clever and moving form of visual poetry." --San Francisco Bay Guardian
- "Her work strikes an instant chord with audience members." --SF Weekly
Description
The Marsh is proud to present a workshop performance of Liebe Wetzel’s Lunatique Fantastique in its new show, Chicken Stock, the uncanny story of avian influenza as seen through the eyes of domesticated birds and migratory water fowl. Using newspaper, plastic bags and plastic forks, the animators bring the Henpeck and Mallard family to amazing life as they encounter the deadly flu. The emotions evoked by these puppets, created from everyday objects, is as surprising as it is haunting.
In 1997, after years of schlepping heaps of props and juggling equipment in her job as a mime, stilt walker and clown at county fairs, Wetzel decided to focus her creative drive on whatever light-weight stuff was lying conveniently around and found-object puppetry was born. A stampede of everyday things soon clamored for her attention: a 30-inch remnant of upholstery foam transformed itself into the French star Foame; she was waylaid in Ace Hardware by a troupe of PVC pipe that did a Busby Berkeley thing; her grandmother's heirloom silver got up a crab impersonation. Beset from all sides by these theater hopefuls, Wetzel, who wanted to work collaboratively anyway, began adding and training other pairs of hands – and Lunatique Fantastique was born.
In 1999 the company’s “Objects in Predicaments” made a big splash at the San Francisco Fringe Festival. Having found her life's work, Wetzel got serious in 2000 with an adult offering, “Snake in the Basement: the Prosecution of Rev. Bill Pruitt,” a true story about a pedophile Presbyterian minister starring newspaper, table napkins, three boxes and a swath of scarlet fabric. “Snake” brought Wetzel the Goldie Award as "Local Outstanding Discovery." By the end of 2000, the objects had achieved so much fame they were begging for higher wages as well as better living conditions so in January 2001 Lunatique Fantastique became "the object theater company”-in-residence at The Marsh. The objects also formed a union, Objequity. With fame came more accolades and larger venues. “Brace Yourself,” an award-winning story about polio and lifelong disability, starring a leg brace, cane, high heels and bike wheels in was the top box office hit at the San Francisco Fringe Festival and won "Best of the S.F. Fringe." Keeping in touch with pure nonsense, in 2000 and 2001 Lunatique Fantastique kicked off an annual sold-out holiday show for kids, “The Wrapping Paper Caper,” which returns to The Marsh this December.
In 2002 the company contracted the services of several lemons, artichokes and assorted vegetables for “My Dinner with Lunatique Fantastique,” which played to sold-out houses at the New Conservatory Theatre. The Japanese tea set from “My Dinner” became the centerpiece and star of Executive Order 9066, about the World War II internment of Japanese Americans and the first in Wetzel' s War Trilogy. The second, the award winning “Fixed Boundary,” used only toilet paper rolls, a plunger and a yardstick to evoke the complexities and tragedy of territorial war inspired by Middle East events. Who else could make you cry with toilet paper or a teacup and napkin? “Construction Cabaret,” a hardware variety show and burlesque premiered at the New Conservatory Theatre in November 2003. Only a company committed to fostering the secret lives of ordinary objects would bring you pieces of string falling in love and literally "tying the knot" or reveal the company mascot Foame's amorous adventures in "Foam Sex."
In 2004 the company renegotiated its Objequity union contract to include travel for its stars. In March, The Presbyterian Church in Dallas presented “Snake in the Basement: the Prosecution of Rev. Bill Pruitt” to the survivors of Rev. Pruitt's molestations. In April, the objects flew to England where they had a sold-out run of “Objects in Predicaments” at London’s Drill Hall and later toured with “Cirque de Celery” and “The “Wrapping Paper Caper.” In 2005, when the San Francisco Opera featured Lunatique Fantastique in their production of “Queen of Spades,” conductor Donald Runnicles said, "How do you expect me to conduct when what you are doing is so utterly charming?" The Topaz Museum brought the tea pot, teacups and manipulators to Delta, Utah to perform “Executive Order 9066” in honor of the 60th anniversary of the closing of the internment camp. Meanwhile the objects danced together in “Nutcracker Nutz and Boltz: a Found Object Nutcracker,” which premiered at The Marsh in December. The following year, a bra, a rose and gardening tools starred in “Beauty and the Breast,” commissioned by the Exit Theatre for Diva Fest 2006.
Lunatique Fantastique is an artist-in-residence at The Marsh.