After years of attending Paperhand Puppet Intervention Summer shows at the Forest Theater in Chapel Hill and thinking “I want to be in that band!”, I’m finally in the band! We’ve been rehearsing in the sweltering Paperhand headquarters in Saxapahaw and the process has been exciting and interesting. The musicians are led by multi-instrumentalist and violinist extraordinaire Jennifer Curtis. The head puppeteers provide us with a framework and Jennifer has been composing pieces but it all evolves together as we put puppeteers and musicians together with everybody contributing. The pieces grow through repetition and improvisation and happy accident. The stories are crafted and refined by head puppeteers Donovan Zimmerman and Jan Burger. It’s a wonderful collaboration. The other musicians for this show – all multi-instrumentalists: Eric Kuhn, Peter Lewis, Alan Best (also a puppeteer!).
Check my performance calendar for show dates. Note that the last weekend of the show is at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh. All other shows are at the Forest Theater on the UNC Campus. Here’s the show poster: