If there is one thing that Sarah Frechette learned by witnessing her grandpa play the double bell euphonium (a rare baritone horn) happily until the day he passed away at the ripe old age of 88, it’s that you can do whatever makes you happy on this planet until the very end. The classically-trained clarinetist/actress/puppeteer who makes up the Night Shade collective with her partner, Jason Thibodeaux, seems to be precisely following in her grandfather’s footsteps. Frechette doesn’t have to pause wondering when puppets became a part of her life when asked as Night Shade gears up and tinkers in the studio for this weekend’s trifecta of Puppet Scream performances featuring bands and collaboration with fellow puppeteer Poose the Puppet,
“I played with dolls until I was a teenager,” says Frechette, as you can hear an effortless energy in her voice, noting the specific worlds she created for her toys and their respective costumes. “My high school guidance counselor talked to me about it and suggested I turn my focus [from dolls] to puppets.” The Vermont native, whose dad drove her to the campus of the University of Connecticut during her senior year to explore her interest in majoring in marine biology, discovered the uni’s Dramatic Arts department had a puppetry arts program. On the ride home, she declared she would be studying puppets instead of aquatic life and her parents, who felt they had been deprived of a creative life, encouraged her wholeheartedly.
Her partner in love and art, Jason, a New Orleans-native and film student of the Miami International University of Fine Arts & Design, also had a family supportive of his creative side. “ I saw Miss Pussycat when I was 14 — my brother took me to see her at Pussycat Cavern. It was cooler than punk or any other thing going on at the time and influenced the way I have done things ever since.”
In true punk rock fashion. Frechette and Thibodeaux met when they were both working at The Arm (a letterpress shop in Brooklyn) and ended up collaborating with Pratt Institute’s avant-garde but wildly popular punk rock breakout band, Japanther. Frechette at the time met puppeteer, Pandora Gastelum who was originally from New Orleans relocated to the city due to Katrina. Gastelum and Frechette would work on mascots and porcelain dolls together in a tiny studio on New York City’s Canal Street where Frechette entered the realm of Pandora’s creativity. Gastelum would return to New Orleans to found and foster the Mudlark Public Theatre while Frechette and Thibideaux would take their cinematic, DIY, and puppetry prowess to Portland, Oregon.
During their Portlandia days, the two cobbled together impressive career credentials such as working on the Academy Award-nominated 2012 stop-motion animation film, ParaNorman (on which Jason was a painter) and Adult Swim/Cartoon Network’s The Shivering Truth (where Sarah worked costuming 10-inch puppets made of silicone, and voiced by actors like Janeane Garofalo and Trey Parker). Not only was The Rose City busy helping catapult Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armison to stardom, it was a hot bed of animated activity.
Now Frechette and Thibodeaux are working on White Knives, which will be a prominent feature of the Second Annual Puppet Scream event with the aforementioned Poose the Puppet. White Knives, in essence, is a multidimensional shadowy play with music that revolves around a punk rock couple, Nadia and Dead Mike. When Mike is alive, he is in a band with his girlfriend, who has morticians for parents. When he dies of a Fetanyl overdose, Nadia naturally tries to resurrect him.
Not only does Thibodeaux lean into his more punk rock roots for this production, he says he looks to French, Japanese, and other European cinema to influence the metaphorical value of the imagery involved. “[Those kind of filmmakers] are saying something without saying it. I think that’s what puppetry at its best does. We trust the viewer – it’s a big thing in our show. We don’t make a statement up front and center. We want the audience to make a revelation about the work all by themselves.”
The two seem to agree that White Knives is a “creepy but beautiful romance.”
“Going back to the metaphorical kinda thing, I came to puppetry in a very rebellious kind of way. I didn’t study it like Sarah – I came to it in a way that was trying to change the form and make it more punk and blow up the scene. In some ways we’ve done that. The lighting system we came up with is really innovative. I had a lot to learn about the symbolism that’s apparent in it and the history. This is really us together coming into that type of creativity where it’s working on many levels,” explains Thibodeaux. Frechette, who adores shadows and marionettes, emphasizes the importance of shadow work in the performance and the way in which the different dimensions operate like a collage that needs to be manipulated all at once while projecting live.
When asked why she thinks puppets, such as Lil Amal (who just last week made huge steps in the Bywater neighborhood) are having such a “moment” right now, Frechette laughs and references Puppeteer Jim Rose, whose parents created the legendary Howdy Doody puppet. “Jim Rose would say, in response to that question, ‘Well! I guess [puppetry] has been dying for thousands and thousands and thousands of years!” Like a true scholar of her profession, she mentions the ancient Chinese form of terracotta warrior puppets and how Native Americans told narratives with figures on strings.
“It’s interesting what it takes for things to be mainstream with the internet,” she says. “At one time it was comedy and now it’s puppetry. It used to be more prolific in just main cities but now you can do all the things rurally. There’s nowhere I go now where I don’t meet a puppeteer.To me, it doesn’t feel like anything new — it’s more kitsch for some people but watching people follow Lil Amal around, they are obviously starstruck.”
Now, the pair muses together, they just hope the newfound interest in puppetry arts will convince audiences to take a chance on venues like the Mudlark and not just assume all puppets are just for kids.
Catch White Knives Friday, Saturday, and Sunday evening at the Mudlark Theater, 1200 Port Street. Tickets are $20 in advance and available here. Guest performers on Saturday night include My Cousin Christina, Atlanta rapper Michael Myerz, and Choose Hellth. All performances will be with Poose the Puppet. For more information on Night Shade, click here. Follow them on Instagram @thehandandtheshadow.
