Artist Statement
"In the microcosm of theater, the puppet is a means of integrating, of pulling back together pieces torn apart from each other. The puppet is the embodiment of a world no longer ours ,an abstraction of a memory, a dream which is recalled. It is other than us, but it lives through us. We grasp it, and in grasping it, it takes hold of us. Indancing with the puppet, we are dancing with our more secret side. We are integrating parts of ourselves."
Autumn Portraits
Autumn Portraits is a compelling evening-long solo puppet-and-mask performance, a series of five interlocking vignettes, eachexploring one puppet character and its interplay with its manipulator, who might appear as a masked figure, or simply a voice from the sky. Eric Bass's handcrafted rod puppets are characters in the "autumn" of their existence that act out their stories in precise and evocative gestures as they meet their pasts, their selves, their deaths. In 1999-2000, Autumn Portraits celebrated its 20th anniversary season.
Isidor's Cheek
Lazy Isidor never went out. He just stayed at home merely lolling about ... So begins the song, which begins the story, which begins the adventure...One day, something drives Isidor from out of his little grey existence. His cheek runs away, and Isidor must search around the world to find it again: a world of color and beauty, as well as loneliness and evendanger...
Ines Zeller Bass has been performing with puppets since 1968, when she became a member of the Munich Marionette Theater, Kleines Spiel, where she worked for ten years. In1982 she co-founded Sandglass Theater with herhusband, Eric Bass. Her production of "Isidor's Cheek," performed atthe Jim Henson Festivalof Puppet Theater in New York City in September 1996,earned a UNIMA Citation of Excellence. Her "Box Show" was presentedby the Lincoln Center Institute and toured Germany, Finland, Japan, France and Spain.
Eric Bass has worked in the theater as a director, playwright, performer and mask and puppetmaker. He was a member of Jean Erdman'sTheater of the Open Eye in New York City for five years, until he left in 1980 to create his Autumn Portraits which won awards in Europe, Australia, and the US including the prestigious UNIMA Citation of Excellence. In 1991, Mr.Bass was awarded the Figurentheater Prize of the City of Erlangen, Germany forhis contributions tothe field of Puppet Theater. He currently directs an intensive puppet theater-training institute with members of the Sandglass Companyat the University of Connecticut.
www.sandglasstheater.org