GREENSBORO — The puppet protagonists of Jabberbox Puppet Theatre are conspicuous and ornate by nature, with their large heads, round expressive eyes, plump pink lips and brightly colored clothes.
But when it comes to one of the play’s most laugh-inducing kickers, Greensboro-based puppeteers Marianne Gingher and Deborah Seabrooke approach it with a bit more stealth.
With the stage dimly lit, a puppet saunters onstage so unassuming the audience barely notices at first. But then the chuckles come as the unexpected emerges — puppet nudity, in all its glory.
Such antics are a staple of Jabberbox Puppet Theatre, which longtime friends Gingher and Seabrooke founded in 2009. The adult puppet theater company typically incorporates current events and social commentary into its stories while offering ample silliness that invites adult audiences to let loose.
Gingher and Seabrooke will perform their second play, “Little Town, Big Stars,” Saturday and Sunday at Mack and Mack in downtown Greensboro as part of 17 Days Festival, a citywide celebration of theater, music, dance and visual art sponsored by the United Arts Council of Greater Greensboro.
The approximately hour-long show includes a 10- to 15-minute intermission and a meet-and-greet after the curtain closes.
“(The play) is about the astronomical ambitions of two local citizens who live in Little Town in the great state of Molasses,” Gingher said. “It’s a comedic satire about science, politics, astronomical ambitions and gingerbread. It’s about reaching for the stars and sometimes falling flat and sometimes soaring in ways you never thought possible.”
Forging a friendship and creative partnership
Gingher and Seabrooke’s pasts pointed to an artistic future, though not necessarily one filled with puppets.
Both wrote plays as children and went on to pursue writing professionally. Gingher is a professor in the Department of English and Comparative Literature at UNC-Chapel Hill, and Seabrooke teaches in UNCG’s English department.
The roots of their artistic collaboration lie in their friendship, which began in the 1970s when they met while completing their master’s degrees in creative writing at UNCG.
“I don’t think I could do this without Marianne,” Seabrooke said. “She’s such an encourager. She always sees the possibilities, the jokes.”
The duo founded Jabberbox Puppet Theatre shortly after taking a trip to Zambia, where they were visiting Gingher’s son, Rod, who was in the Peace Corps. They began impersonating two women they saw at the airport, who in their quiet improvisation they characterized as rich and naïve. They fantasized about the “clueless pratfalls” the women would have in Africa, which then led Seabrooke to write a play based on the characters.
A friend of Seabrooke’s suggested she try performing the play with puppets, citing an acquaintance who used to perform adult puppet theater in a living room setting. Seabrooke immediately turned to Gingher for a second artistic opinion.
“I thought about it for about two seconds and said, 'OK,’ not knowing what I was getting into,” Gingher said. “We have a long history of having fun together, so we thought we could be artistic and have fun together.”
Experimentations in puppet-making and set building
The misadventures of Gingher and Seabrooke’s characters became “African Queens,” Jabberbox Puppet Theatre’s first play.
Once the script was complete and they began bringing their characters to life in puppet form, the concept began to take shape.
“The play didn’t really come alive until we actually made the puppets,” Gingher said. “Once we get to the art stuff, that’s when we have fun.”
Throughout the development of “African Queens,” Gingher and Seabrooke found a new creative outlet beyond their individual writing projects. They were able to experiment with visual art in puppet-making and set design. Seabrooke discovered a passion for performing, while Gingher found she enjoyed directing. Once they began performing the play, they reveled in the gratification of interaction with a live audience.
But above all, Jabberbox provided the old friends with a collaborative project. Together, they designed the sets and lights, constructed the stage and backdrops, brainstormed marketing strategies and wrote the scripts. They thrive off each other’s honesty, even if it means letting the other know a joke they crafted isn’t funny. “We’re very thick-skinned with each other,” Seabrooke said.
Both women are inherently creative, but designing the actual puppets was a new venture. They attended the National Puppetry Festival in Atlanta to glean ideas before bringing their characters to life.
“We saw such amazing puppetry that we left (Atlanta) very depressed,” Gingher said.
But by the time they returned home, they were ready to get creative.
For “African Queens,” Gingher and Seabrooke crafted the puppets from papier-mâché and fabric. They were characterized by large heads, bright colors and wide-open eyes and mouths. They even had costume changes.
It’s an ever-evolving design process. They tweaked the formula in “Little Town, Big Stars” by experimenting with a plaster concoction and adding digits to the puppets’ hands.
Gingher and Seabrooke crafted about 17 glove puppets for each play, plus a few smaller stick puppets.
“You can do such crazy, stupid things with glove puppets that you can’t do with marionettes,” Seabrooke said. “They’re just comic from the minute they’re onstage.”
The perfect setting
The duo decided to pursue their puppetry venture in a salon-style living room setting, with about 20 audience members per show. The performance style was cost-effective and allowed Gingher and Seabrooke to test the waters as first-time puppeteers. But after a few performances, Jabberbox Puppet Theatre transformed from an idea to a word-of-mouth success.
“We knew we could invite our friends to begin with and that maybe they would invite their friends,” Seabrooke said. “But we’ve sold out every show. We even put people on a waiting list. It’s just so different from a regular theater.”
Gingher and Seabrooke performed “African Queens” 12 times during May and June 2010 in Greensboro, Chapel Hill and Wilmington. To enhance the laid-back, intimate atmosphere, they included wine, popcorn and homemade desserts in the ticket price (although those Jabberbox offerings will not be included at the Mack and Mack show).
They also decided to use their newfound craft to help students in need — 20 percent of proceeds from tickets sales go toward the Lumpampa Village School in Zambia. Gingher and Seabrooke were first exposed to the school of about 700 elementary and middle school students through Gingher’s son.
A portion of the funds will go toward the completion of a basketball court, and the remaining proceeds for the school will benefit a scholarship fund for Lumpampa Village School students who want to advance to high school.
“I think people who come to the shows like that feeling, that it’s for a good cause,” Seabrooke said.
Gingerbread and satire
Soon after wrapping up Jabberbox’s first season, Gingher and Seabrooke began work on their newest production, “Little Town, Big Stars,” which they performed 17 times in May and June. But developing a story and characters from scratch proved more difficult.
“For the second play, we had nothing,” Gingher said. “We were going to base it on a fairy tale Debby had written for her kids, but it completely morphed from there.”
Gingher and Seabrooke rewrote the story about four or five times before they settled on the tale of the residents of Little Town, Molasses.
The play combines elements of political satire and domestic comedy. Narrated by a therapist, it explores how the ambitions of the Spudnik family — particularly those of the scientist father and anarchist daughter — impact the other residents of Little Town. Their antics grow too big for the small town, ultimately attracting the attention of the puppet personas of a few national political figures.
Throughout rewrites, Seabrooke said they were guided by one key question: Why are puppets necessary to tell the story?
“If there’s something that can only be done with puppets, you use puppets,” Seabrooke said. “We’ve learned it’s more about the gesture than the words.”
Since ending Jabberbox’s second season in June, Gingher and Seabrooke have been in the midst of writing their third play, which will revisit the “African Queens” protagonists on a new adventure.
Jabberbox’s third season won’t open until May 2012. In the meantime, their special off-season performance at Mack and Mack will mark Jabberbox’s largest show to date, with an audience of about 40 to 50 people. But Gingher said fans can expect the signature Jabberbox style — a hilarious, puppet-filled take on current events that invites audiences to have as much fun as Gingher and Seabrooke.
“The rowdier the audience, the better,” Gingher said. “Sometimes I think adults don’t know how to put on their silly hats. It’s all about getting adults in the spirit of having fun.”
Contact Alexa Milan at amilan87@gmail.com
