"Simple Magic" @ CalArts

"Simple Magic" Conceived, Written and Directed by Miriam Jones (MFA2 Puppetry).

I was puppetry assistant, helping with drawing and creating objects, and graphic designer.

Preview was this Wednesday!

Performances Thursday-Saturday!

Tickets available @ Eventbrite

or rush tickets @ CalArts Box Office.

It is a beautiful one-woman show about a magician's assistant named Hettie, who is coping with the death of her beloved magician, Thaddeus.  She has created this world for herself filled with hand-made objects and remnants of their life together.  With these objects, she shares the rituals she has created with them.  These objects help her to catalog the details of their love, thus preserving Thaddeus' memory as she copes with his death.

The drawings seen in the show are based on the drawings of Henry Darger (Henry Darger), created as tracings of pre-existing images interpreted in a new way.  It is the hand-made aesthetic that is important since Hettie, who is not necessarily a visual artist, has created all of the seen images herself, in haste or with care, in fits of emotion, whether it be love, rage, or simply a need to remember.

Prop preview!

I don't have scans of the finalized cards, but here are some of the tracings from earlier on in production for a lovely card sequence.

Hettie is replaced by the cabinet and the

cabinet is replaced by Thaddeus bowing.

 

The show is more lovely every time I see it!

Way to go crew and way to go Miriam!