Next door to Pinch headquarters lives a puppet maker. He makes fantastical creatures big and small. Feather boas and wool sweaters find new life in ostriches with palm-sized eyes; wood palettes are reborn as giraffe skeletons. We envy our neighbor puppet maker in ways we can't begin to count: his orange van spray-painted with medieval visions, his puppet-master hours, his collection of eyelashes as long as tassels.
Thankfully, we have a little more than a week to live like him. In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre is still in the process of creating their wonderful creatures and nearly-living beings for the annual May Day Parade in Powderhorn Park, which takes place Sunday, May 6. This year's theme is "Somos Agua" (We are Water.) And Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday evenings through May 3 (from 7 p.m till 9 p.m.), volunteers can work with a puppet master at the HOTB theatre to create their own magnificent beast--and they can take it home with them (to feed, if you wish) after the parade.
All you have to do tonight is show up at HOTB at 1500 East Lake Street in a smock or dad's old shirt or any other ready-to-be-dirtied item your elementary-school art teacher would approve of. Then the creating begins, and suddenly you're that guy, the neighbor who brings dreams to life, the dude who can animate lady's clothing, the guy whose art is, like, existence and stuff. And your creature--the thing you brought to life with your very own hands--gets to walk among some of the most magical beings in the universe in Minneapolis' annual parade of everything that makes it so special. The beasts, the politics, the people, the tall bikes! Oh, my!
Heart of the Beast May Day Workshops: http://www.hobt.org/mayday/part/wshops.html
Photo by Yvonne Lai
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