The Cashore Marionettes – A Holiday Message
July 30, 2009
A marionette show at a local elementary school shows how perseverance and dedication can help you create wondrous things.
Life is full of challenges – some big and some small. And for many of us, working through these issues can be a challenge in itself. An experience at my daughter’s school last week provided a great insight into how we can tackle these obstacles head-on.
On my calendar last Friday, I saw the following entry: “Marionette Show at Douglas Elementary, 7:00 p.m.” The school had hired someone to put on a marionette show as part of their “cultural arts” program. Now I like the arts as much as the next person, but this wasn’t what I had in mind for that evening. It had been a very long and stressful week, and the last thing I really wanted to do was to see a silly puppet show.
But my daughter had seen the show during the day at school and she thought I would really like it. Then she gave me that pouty look and I had no choice but to go.
I’m glad I did; it was amazing!
I’m sure you have seen a marionette show at some time in your life. The little puppets are controlled by strings, which are connected to a “T-shaped” handle operated by the puppeteer. The movements are usually rough and not very lifelike.
Not these marionettes. Joseph Cashore worked miracles with his collection of characters. One of them “played” a violin concerto, actually moving the bow across the strings in perfect unison with the music. Another marionette “carried” a baby in her arms, lifted it above her head, kissed it, and placed it in a cradle. A marionette horse actually trotted and galloped in a circle on stage, its four legs moving in perfect unison.
All of this was controlled by a single person working a complex network of strings and controls. Although he was standing in plain view on the stage, you never even noticed he was there. The characters were so lifelike and their movements so completely natural that they appeared to be alive.
The method Cashore used to develop his unique control mechanisms was important. He had decided some years ago to develop a marionette that appeared to play the violin, note for note, but he was unable to achieve the necessary level of precision he wanted with traditional control mechanisms. So he experimented with many different methods before he came up with his solution.
Cashore’s marionettes take from six months to a full year to construct. He studies the anatomy and movements of the people and animals he is modeling. And he maintains his creations with care and respect.
December is a time when many people take the opportunity to reflect on the year that is coming to a close and to think about goals and objectives for the New Year. Many of these seem difficult. Some seem impossible, and the tendency may be to let them go – to not even try.
But remember that one definition of impossible is simply “something that hasn’t been done yet.” If you had told me that I was going to witness marionettes so lifelike that I wouldn’t even notice the person operating them; so authentic in their movements that I would be caught up in the show like the children sitting around me, I would have been skeptical. Instead, I was impressed and awestruck.
As you pass through this holiday season, think about your goals and objectives – not just for the next year, but for the next ten, 20 or 30 years. Think about how a puppeteer was able to make a creation of foam rubber, paper mache, cloth, strings, and glue, and appear on stage as a living object. And think about what you can do to bring life to the things you create in your own life.
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