February 21 – March 3, 2013 – Salvage Vanguard Theater, Austin, TX (Workshop)
May 22 – June 7, 2014 – Salvage Vanguard Theater, Austin, TX (Full Production)
January – February 2015, ZACH Scott Theatre, Austin, TX (The Six Seasons)
June 6 – 14 , 2015, National Puppetry Conference, The Eugene O’Neill Theater Center
Written and Directed by Caroline Reck
Originally performed in 2013-2015 by Connor Hopkins, Gricelda Silva, Rommel Sulit, Noel Gaulin, Parker Dority, and Kate Taylor
Original Scenic & Puppet Design by Caroline Reck, Lighting by Stephen Pruitt, Sound by K. Eliot Haynes, Costumes by Lucie Cunningham
Original Puppet and Scenic Builders include Ia Enstera, Cami Alys, Kyle Zamcheck, Taylor Harrison, Susan Peterson, and Amanda Maddock
Once There Were Six Seasons, was originally begun as a workshop in Spring 2013, and has seen multiple productions and a number of reinterpretations in the past 8 years. It is an interaction of human performers with manipulated landscapes, miniature puppets, and environmental forces.
A visual feast of objects and textiles, from string and paper to recycled Styrofoam packing shapes, re-imagined as rainclouds and river valleys, mine workers, polar bears, and islands sinking into the sea. It observes the ripple effects of changes in migratory patterns, population surges and decreases, and other natural phenomena; it follows those ripple effects into a near, and a far future, one that includes rebirths, dead ends, and adaptations throughout the natural world.
Through manipulation of small puppets and their large environments, the piece observes ecosystems from the Americas, Africa, India, Asia, and the Arctic where we watch as the tiny humans and animals struggle against drought, flood, heat and violent storms. Once There Were Six Seasons asks, “what have we done and what can we do?”
Recipient of a Jim Henson Foundation Project Grant 2014
Featured in the PBS Documentary from Arts in Context: Tiny Puppets (or see below)
Recipient of The Visionary Vivifier Award from the Austin Critic’s Table and Outstanding Sound Design from the B. Iden Payne Awards
