SUMMER AT PUPPETRY CENTER
The Center for Puppetry Arts’ exhibits are closed during construction of the wing that will be home to the “Worlds of Puppetry” exhibits, but the shows go on at the Midtown attraction.
The schedule:
- Through July 26: "Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type," a puppetry center-produced world premiere based on the 2001 Caldecott Honor book. Jon Ludwig and Jason von Hinezmeyer have adapted the tongue-in-cheek tale about bovines who refuse to provide milk until their farmer gives them electric blankets.
- July 28-April 9: "The Reluctant Dragon," about how a bookish boy and a famous knight join with the newly arrived dragon to calm villagers' fears, by Tears of Joy Theatre of Portland, Ore.
- Aug. 13-Sept. 20: "The Tortoise, the Hare & Other Aesop's Fables," a Theatre for the Very Young (ages 2 and up) show adapted from Aesop's fables by Michael Haverty.
- A series of sensory-friendly programming modified for patrons with autism spectrum disorder kicks off with "Click, Clack, Moo" on July 19 and " The Tortoise, the Hare" on Aug. 30.
1404 Spring St. N.W., Atlanta. 404-873-3391, www.puppet.org.
10 JIM HENSON COLLECTION OPENING HIGHLIGHTS
1. Big Bird
2. Kermit the Frog
3. Miss Piggy
4. Fozzie Bear
5. Bert (rare full body figure)
6. Ernie (rare full body figure)
7. Scooter
8. Elmo
9. Red from “Fraggle Rock”
10. Mokey from “Fraggle Rock”
10 GLOBAL COLLECTION OPENING HIGHLIGHTS
1. Pre-Columbian pieces
2. Gumby and Pokey
3. Rod puppets from Korea
4. Hand and string puppets from Iran
5. Punch and Judy puppets from England
6. Water puppets from Vietnam
7. Indonesian shadow puppets
8. Stop motion pieces from “Coraline”
9. Scar and Mufasa prototype masks from “The Lion King”
10. Sogo bò puppets from Mali
Center for Puppetry Arts staffers have casually taken to calling the olive hue planned for the exterior of the Midtown attraction's new $14 million museum wing "Kermit green."
That's Kermit, as in the most famous Muppet, who helped puppet master Jim Henson cut the ribbon for the center's opening celebration in 1978.
It’s not known yet if the furry frog or another megawatt star in the Henson stratosphere will be available to cut the ribbon for the museum wing’s grand opening, where Henson family and members of his extended family of puppetry artists will be special guests.
But The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is exclusively reporting Tuesday that the years-in-the-making “Worlds of Puppetry” permanent exhibit will open on Nov. 14. The AJC also has deeper details about what the public will finally get to see in its side-by-side Jim Henson Collection and Global Collection galleries.
Just as the steel girders running along Spring Street are starting to take the form of a modern, two-story building, with some jaunty roof line curves and a few playfully tilting windows adding interest to the design by Suwanee firm Clark Patterson Lee, the plans for what its 15,000 square feet will feature are taking shape.
Through a burgundy-curtained interior entrance fashioned in a style that evokes an old-time theater, visitors will pass from the center’s longtime headquarters building into the new wing.
On the other side of the glass doors, they will make the acquaintance of Orlando, a Sicilian rod marionette displayed in a round informational column, providing an at-a-glance introduction to the two galleries. It’s the guest’s choice whether to turn left into the Jim Henson Collection gallery or right into the Global Collection gallery.
A photo mural of a smiling Henson surrounded by Kermit, Miss Piggy and other puppet pals will greet visitors to his gallery. A profusion of Henson doodles will be reproduced on the wide frame surrounding the picture.
The Center for Puppetry Arts claims that what awaits will be the world’s most comprehensive exhibit of Henson’s puppets, props, scenic elements and other items.
The Los Angeles-based design agency Thinkwell Group plans to make the encounter with the more than 75 Henson artifacts that will be displayed at one time (with pieces swapped out after no more than a year for conservation reasons) highly interactive.
The order of major displays is chronological, starting with a midcentury living room setting with an old cabinet-style TV showing clips from Henson’s first TV show, “Sam and Friends,” which aired in Washington from 1955 to 1961.
A rendition of Henson’s work office will be lent authenticity by his original desk and the papier-mache moose head that for years hung above it and some of his Emmy Award statues, among other personal items lent by his family.
A creature shop exhibit will evoke Henson’s Muppet Workshop in New York where the famed cast was designed and built. Kids will be able to pull out drawers stocked with eyes and noses and other creature features.
Individual exhibits well-populated with puppets from “Sesame Street,” “The Muppet Show” and “Fraggle Rock” will be attention-grabbers for fans of different generations, as will one on Henson’s fantasy films “The Dark Crystal” and “Labyrinth.”
But a mock television studio, where museumgoers can perform with a variety of Henson hand and rod puppets and watch their work on a monitor, should appeal to children of all ages.
The interactivity will extend to the adjoining Global Collection gallery, where some 175 puppets and artifacts will span five continents, illustrating how puppetry traditions are a window on the world.
Though the story here is ordered by geography, there will be a large shadow puppet exhibit with controls that will allow guests to move puppets from different nations to and away from the light. In another exhibit, they will be able to perform with marionettes.
Most of the media attention for "Worlds of Puppetry" since it was formally announced early last year has focused on the 500-plus piece trove of Henson puppets and artifacts, many currently undergoing restoration, donated by his family in 2007.
But center exhibitions director Kelsey Fritz said there is no other museum in the U.S., and possibly nowhere else in the world, that boasts the depth and breadth of the Atlanta center’s 2,000-plus-object international collection.
There was a much smaller grouping of global puppets on view when Kermit cut the ribbon in 1978, the collection having grown exponentially through donations by New Orleans collector Nancy Lohman Staub (for whom an expanded research library on the wing's lower level is named) and other patrons. Major additions of puppets from Korea and Iran were among the 100 works that entered the collection last year alone.
"This will be a very unique museum in that we've collected historically as well as culturally, so there are pieces that are a couple of thousand years old up to puppets from today," president and executive director Vince Anthony said in an exclusive interview with the AJC. "We can say we're very unique. That's why it's called the 'Worlds of Puppetry.' It's different worlds created by different artists and different cultures."
A close friend and professional colleague of Henson’s, Anthony said that he believes the rare works by the Muppet creator and the international collection dovetail naturally.
“Jim was an international star — his stuff was, and still is, seen all over the world,” Anthony said, “and he has influenced generations of artists internationally.”
That’s why the center’s founder hopes to line up a high-profile Henson representative, be it one in fabric or in the flesh, to cut the “Worlds” ribbon.
One of the holdups is that after starring in popular movies in 2011 and 2014, Kermit, Piggy and pals are heading to prime-time TV. With the ABC premiere of "The Muppets" set for Sept. 22, production schedules are still getting worked out.
Twenty-five years after his death, Henson’s puppet world is still spinning and recruiting new followers.
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