Helen Joseph's Puppets

              HELEN JOSEPH'S PUPPETS.





SHADOWS






GUIGNOLS






MARIONETTES





DUANE HARMON.







Cleveland Plain Dealer:


On the hands of Helen Haiman Joseph, writer and manager, puppets acted and danced yesterday to the vast delight of pupils at Broadway school . . . .
Almost 60,000 school children have seen her puppets this year.  Behind the velvet curtains of the little stage Mrs. Joseph and assistants made clowns, the King and Brer Rabbit himself come to life.  King John interested all the children, as well as the Clown who ground a fluffy dog into sausages.  But Brer Fox and Brer Rabbit and the Tar-baby took the cake.  The audience gave candid advice to Brer Fox when he asked them how to make an end to Brer Rabbit.  
Shoot him!
 they shouted.  (May 1, 1925).



Toledo Times:


A mite of a clown who could ask as many questions as most any one of his youthful audience, and found willing conversationalists among that audience, announced the acts of the Helen Joseph puppet show given in the Scott High auditorium Monday evening. . . . .
Mrs. Joseph has developed her show to an extremely high standard. . . . .Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves was displayed with much attention to detail, the entire story being acted out in several scenes; the villainous leader of the thieves being a thrilling rogue, and the beautiful slave girl of the fortunate Ali Baba worthy of handsome Abdullah.The thieves reformed just in time to save themselves a severe scalding with oil, in the hands of the faithful slave, and left the scene of their intended mischief gayly singing a ballad of reformation.  (Nov, 1, 192-).



Ann Arbor Times News:


Watching Helen Joseph's delightful puppets stage the story of 
The Three Bears,
 
Snow White and the Seven Little Dwarfs,
 and 
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves,
 Saturday afternoon at Mimes theater, proved to be a thoroughly entertaining pastime for children and grown-ups alike. . Helen Joseph makes her puppets charmingly human.  Throughout the play is just a big conspiracy between the audience and the characters on the miniature stage.  Informal asides are addressed to the youthful spectators, and there is an eager response of suggestions from the children.  There were sighs of regret when the wicked queen succeeded in doing away with the beautiful Princess Snow White, and gleeful applause and laughter when the seven little dwarfs came giggling and wiggling to the rescue. . . . .


Aside from the human element that enters in to Mrs. Joseph's presentations, which is really the secret of her success with children, there is the technical side that plays no small part.  The small stage resembles large ones in full size theaters, even to the most minute details.  There are lighting effects and 
spots
 turned on the 
stars
 that enhance the effectiveness of the offering immeasurably, not to speak of the apparent ease with which the puppets perform.  A finished presentation in every respect.  (November 28, 1927).





The New York Evening Post:


Helen Haiman Joseph in her beautiful and comprehensive Book Of Marionettes, treats of the puppets and of the many roles played by them in their checkered progress down the centuries …  But Mrs. Joseph's most valuable contribution to the literature of her subject is her informing account of the 
artistic
 marionettes of the present.  (May 20, 1920).




The London Spectator:


Mrs. Joseph in pleasantly outlining the history of puppets in all lands has not only instructed her readers in the ways of marionettes but has also taught them a proper respect for the little figures.  (March, 1923).






PAST PRODUCTIONS



King John And The Abbot Of Canterbury, 
old English ballad


The Black Spot, 
from Stevenson's Treasure Island
.


Puss In Boots, 
from the German puppet show of Graf Pocci
.


Jack And The Beanstalk.


Little One Eye, Two Eye, and Three Eye.


Beauty And The Beast, 
from the French tale of La Belle et Le Bete
.


Hansel And Gretel, 
with Humperdink music
.


Pandora And Epimetheus, 
Greek mythology
.


Punch And Judy, 
18th Century slap-stick
.


Shadowy Waters, 
by William Yeats
.


The Coat of Many Colours, 
Biblical shadow play
.





REPERTOIRE 1928-1929



Ali Baba And The Forty Thieves, 
from the Arabian Nights' Tales
.


Sleeping Beauty, 
from Grimm's fairy tales
.


Red Riding Hood, 
from Charles Perrault
.


The Three Bears.


The Very Merry Clown.


Dancing Dolls, 
musical pantomimes
.


Snow White And The Seven Little Dwarfs, 
from Grimm's Fairy tales
.


Adventures Of Pinocchio, 
from the book by Collodi
.


The Life And Death Of Doctor Johannes Faust, 
from old German puppetshow
.


Robin Hood And His Merry Men, 
from old English ballads and romances
.


The Golden Fleece, 
from the Greek myth of Jason and the Argonauts
.






For further information
Address
HELEN JOSEPH'S PUPPET THEATRE


Office
, 2556 Overlook Road

Telephone
, Fairmont 3782

Workshop
, The Cleveland Play House.





From ancient times and distant continents the marionettes have come down to us, always vivid and vital,—passed on from the hand of one craftsman to the next, and played before generation after generation of the people.  The ancient history of the puppets has been recorded often in Italy, Germany, and France but until recently there has been no complete chronicle in English.  Helen Haiman Joseph has compiled and written the first English history of the age-old, ever fascinating marionette.




In all the cities of Europe; in Prague and Pilsen, in Vienna, Munich, Berlin, Baden-Baden, in Paris, Lyons, London, Brussels, Geneva, Turin, Milan and Rome there are marionette theatres flourishing today:  and Helen Joseph has travelled about and found them, visiting and gossiping with the many showmen, artists, and literateurs who are interested in marionettes, over there.  She has published plays and articles and given lectures about the puppets.




Now in America the marionettes are becoming popular also, and Mrs. Joseph has established her own puppet theatre in Cleveland.  Her plays are written or adapted from the legends and literatures of many lands, and to the ingenuity and art of the old puppet craft has been added all the equipment of a modern theatre, lighting effects, new settings, double proscenium, etc.  In the workshop are found all types of puppets suggested by tradition,—by the Javanese Wajang shadows, the French Guignols, and the burratini of Italy's 
Orlando Furioso
.  There are the hand-puppets who perform in their little black booth, grotesque comedians, and very much alive!  There are the shadow figures that move with picturesque dignity through Biblical tableaux.  And of course, there are the string marionettes, more familiar to American audiences.




Mrs. Joseph's puppet sympathies are wide:  
Punch and Judy
 do not offend her for theirs are classic, valiant vulgarities:  and the tenuous overtones of Maeterlink's 
Death of Tintagiles
 or of Yeat's 
Shadowy Waters
 are not too dreamlike for her more mystic marionettes Fairies and sandmen flit at her fingertips, witches fly off on broomsticks, robbers and pirates prowl in their dens, devils and hangmen, archbishops, princes and patriarchs, court jesters and clowns, dogs, cats, bears, rabbits and foxes—a motley procession.  This play may please or that:  one production follows another at the opening of the little turquoise curtains,—a long pageant for the wondering eyes of children, arranged by one who is equally interested in puppets and in children.




Every season Helen Joseph's puppets perform for over fifty thousand children in Cleveland, Toledo, Detroit, Ann Arbor and other near by cities,—at public and private schools, clubs, churches, factories, hospitals, and in private homes.  Everywhere there bursts forth clamorous applause for the merry-miniature actors,—and an invitation to 
come again.




A Teacher:
  Dear Mrs. Joseph, You probably do not realize how much joy you put into the lives of our little ones at __________ School.  Some of the classes begged to be allowed to dramatize the plays they saw.  Brer Rabbit was the most popular with the clown running a close second.




A Child:
  GEE, it was a hot show, as good as a movie!




Another Child:
  Aw say, it was better'n a movie.  Movie's aint little like puppets.  And movie's don't talk, and movie's aint got no Tar-baby!  Kin you come again, Missus?