Shakespeare Improv Weekend to kick off with puppet show, documentary

Shakespeare’s works have been performed millions of times by actors across the world. This weekend, the Bard’s characters will take the stage in a different form — as puppets.

The Shakespeare Improv Weekend, a three-day celebration showcasing the improvisation abilities of human actors and puppeteers in Shakespeare-themed performances, will kick off Nov. 13. Syracuse Shakespeare Festival, the entertainment company responsible for events such as Shakespeare in the Park, is hosting the event in the Central New York Community Foundation’s ballroom.

The weekend will feature performances by a “human” improv team from the Syracuse Shakespeare Festival and a “puppet” team from Open Hand Theater, a Syracuse-based puppet entertainment company.

These are not typical puppets, either. Caitlyn Friedberg, an Open Hand Theater employee who is in charge of contracting and runs programs for children, spoke about how Open Hand Theater makes use of an unconventional type of puppet called a “me puppet.”

“The body of the puppet hangs from your neck and your head is the puppet so you are puppeteering this body but you are actually the head and the personality of this puppet,” Friedberg said.

These puppets will be present in this weekend’s Shakespeare Improv performances and “games.”

The “games” that the performers and audience will be participating in offer a very different performance compared to the typical Shakespeare play. The performers won’t be directly acting out any of Shakespeare’s works, but they will be using some character names and themes from Shakespeare’s plays, off of which the performers will improvise their performance.

Friday night’s festivities will start at 7:30 p.m. with hors d’oeuvres for audience members and a cash bar for wine and beer. After a half hour, a member of the Syracuse Shakespeare Festival’s production board will lead a reading of the “Shakespeare Mystery,” a PBS documentary.

After, puppets and people alike will grace the stage to engage in three improv “games,” that the audience is encouraged to participate in.

The Syracuse Improv weekend offers the audience an opportunity to get cozy with their Muppet-esque entertainers, as audience participation is strongly encouraged during all three performances.

Open Hand Theater uses such games frequently in its various camps and programs that it hosts to help develop young actors. Peter Fekete, a Syracuse native and the artistic coordinator for Open Hand Theater, said he believes that one of the most practical uses of improv games is in helping develop a character or helping an actor get more into their role.

“Usually what helps with special improv games is it helps when finding somebody. So, walking across the stage as not yourself, so as a teacher or a professor, you may be stiff, or as an old person, you may be slow,” Fekete said. “Another game that I use a lot is the party game and they think of their character coming into a party and they talk and walk along like their character and the host tries to figure out who they are.”

Fekete said he believes that the show’s heavy reliance on improv is going to provide a distinct opportunity for the audience to see something performed in a way that it will never be performed again.

“There’s puppetry and you don’t have a script with improv; it all comes together. There’s no real practice, it’s kind of whatever comes out at that time,” Fekete said. “That’s a great thing in a way because you know that’s never going to happen that way, whatever comes out. I’m hoping people are entertained and they like it.”