Mark Carrigan and his wife have put on puppet shows about elephants, about bullying, and about dragons and princesses.
It’s simple: If there is a play or story out there that the two of them like, they turn it into a puppet show.
The couple behind the Schenectady-based Puppet People are both big fans of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol. But when they first considered turning the tale of Christmas past, present and future into a puppet show, they had reservations.
`All of our other shows are good all year long,` Carrigan said. `It takes us a year to build a show. Was it worth the investment to do a show we could only perform for about a month?`
Before he and his wife, Michelle Smith-Carrigan, took the leap and made all the puppets and sets for the show, they approached schools and theaters where they had performed to gauge interest in `A Christmas Carol.` The response was strong. So Carrigan and Smith-Carrigan got busy building Bob Cratchit, Tiny Tim, Ebeneezer Scrooge and other characters and working on the show’s script.
That was five years ago.
`A Christmas Carol` has been a part of the Puppet People’s repertoire ever since. They take the show on the road — they have a weeklong engagement in Philadelphia next month — and they perform it throughout the Capital District. On Sunday, Nov. 30, they’ll be at Old Songs in Voorheesville for a 3 p.m. show.
It’s the third year they’ve appeared at Old Songs — a favorite venue of Carrigan’s because he likes taking his puppets to small towns that aren’t overflowing with entertainment options.
Andy Spence, Old Songs’ executive director, thinks that’s one of the reasons `A Christmas Carol` has proved a big draw at Old Songs.
`There aren’t any other family shows here,` she said.
The Puppet People’s version of `A Christmas Carol` differs a little from what families might be used to seeing on stage. There’s the obvious: the characters are puppets instead of real people. But beyond that, Carrigan and Smith-Carrigan had to pare down the cast since there are only two of them controlling the puppets, and they had to condense the story to about 50 minutes to accommodate kids’ attention spans.
`A Christmas Carol` as it’s written has a lot of characters, Carrigan said. Bob Cratchit, for example, comes from a large family. To portray those relatives, the Puppet People rely on shadow puppets. Instead of creating elaborate puppets for each person, they use simple puppets whose shadows give the appearance of a crowd.
The show also features a 9-foot-tall parade puppet that wades into the audience — `People really go for that. They think it’s really neat,` Carrigan said — and a slew of traditional marionette puppets that Carrigan and Carrigan-Smith control from above with a series of thin strings.
The pair have been manipulating puppets for more than 20 years. Carrigan has a degree in sculpture from the University of Massachusetts; his wife has a degree in theater from the University at Albany. After graduation, both landed jobs with the now-defunct Bennington Marionettes. They traveled with the troupe and put on puppet shows, falling in love along the way.
When the Bennington Marionettes went out of business, Carrigan and Carrigan-Smith got what he called `regular jobs.` But they kept putting on puppet shows on a part-time basis as a two-person team.
The Puppet People were so successful that Carrigan-Smith eventually made it her full-time job. About eight years ago, they had the financial footing for Carrigan to do the same.
They have performed at churches, theaters, festivals and schools. Their offerings include `The Elephant Child,` Rudyard Kipling’s tale of how elephants got their long noses; an anti-bullying program called `Bully Busters` and a variety show called `Puppet Potpourri.`
`We like to use a lot of different puppets,` Carrigan said, and `Puppet Potpourri` lets the couple do just that. The show includes hand puppets, mouth puppets, rod puppets and trick marionettes.
`A Christmas Carol,` meanwhile, is a special show to perform because he and his wife have both loved the story since they were young. In addition, it’s a fun way to introduce kids to a classic author like Dickens, he said.
Tickets for the Old Songs show are $10 for adults and $5 for children 15 and younger. Call Old Songs at 765-2815 to purchase tickets.“