Dive With Two Hands Into the Soup of Characters in "Avenue Q"
(Above photo: Many of the cast of “Avenue Q” at Algonquin Arts Theatre react in a scene during a rehearsal. (Photo by Cie Stroud)
What if some colorful puppets with large eyes and mops of hair told you today what was really going on with the people and influences in your life during your youth? Would you have an aha moment? Would you be able to laugh out loud at the fresh perspective? You may likely want to shield your children’s eyes and ears.
Bethany Miranda animates the right arm of Nicky while Will Platt animates the left one, and the puppet’s head and torso, and says his lines during a rehearsal. (Photo by Cie Stroud)
“Avenue Q” is a musical that won the Tony Triple Crown – best musical, score and book – and tells the story of a recent college graduate named Princeton who moves into a New York City, settling on an apartment on the more affordable Avenue Q. While he searches to find his way, much discovery is had by means of an unprogrammed course in the adult world provided by the people in his neighborhood. Princeton and most of his neighbors are puppets. Or, are they an extension of the puppeteers, who are actors?
The cast in this production at Algonquin Arts Theater in Manasquan has plunged, in some cases with both hands, into the soup of the characters in “Avenue Q.” There are hand puppets, one- and two-rod puppets for which a puppeteer controls a rod attached to the hand of the puppet, and live-hand puppets requiring two puppeteers – one for a hand and the head/mouth of the puppet, the other for the puppet’s other hand. The puppets are Muppet-sized and only have torsos.
Matthew Johnson adds lower body movement to his puppet, Princeton, during a rehearsal. (Photo by Cie Stroud)
None of the puppeteers are concealed. They move about the stage and mimic the puppets’ upper-body gestures. They exaggerate the puppets’ facial expressions. And, they add lower body movement to the puppets with their own – a recoil, a seductive swagger – giving attitude to the characters and dimension to the stage.
“What the puppet can’t do, the actor can,” explains Chris Coleman (Boy Bear), whose character is one-half of the devilish duo, the Bad Idea Bears, who encourage Princeton to indulge in bad behavior. Coleman recently completed an off-Broadway run of Sesame Street: the Musical, where the puppeteers are concealed behind a set, holding their arms and puppets above their heads. The facial and body expression added by the actors in “Avenue Q” follows the initial step of giving life to an inanimate object, he explains, as he picks up a pair of scissors from the refreshment stand and brings them to life, holding them upright and dancing them across the bar. But, he adds, the actors can’t do some things that the puppets can. The puppets can have their heads knocked off and sewn back on, and they can fly.
They can also steal the show. The absurd sight of two puppets sharing an open-mouth kiss with their clamshell jaws made the cast and crew laugh. Later, the lifelike precision with which two torso-only puppets have sex compelled the onlookers to either videotape it or look away, to laugh or to squirm. This puppet show is NOT for children, as Algonquin’s website clearly states.
Relationships, homosexuality, coming out, pornography, schadenfreude, racism and sex workers – all are subjects on the stage.
Also for inspection are the finer points between love and a ‘waste of your time,’ or worse – making someone a mixtape, wanting to just be friends, being coaxed, seduced, stood up or jilted, or stereotyped or labeled.
Daisha Davis (Gary Coleman) sings a number during a rehearsal. (Photo by Cie Stroud)
A mixtape puts us in the 1980s, and wouldn’t you know it, child star Gary Coleman is here too. One of the three non-puppeteer roles in the musical, the character indeed portrays the former child actor but as someone who is now the apartment superintendent for a living after he fell prey to having his money stolen. He continues to beat himself up about it.
Played by Daisha Davis, a theater graduate of Kean University and full-time performing arts teacher in Newark, she says that she can recognize the ying and yang of the ‘Garyisms’ – his sweetness and callousness. She has this advice for her character: “You’re OK. Keep doing what you’re doing.” She feels Gary’s self-deprecating jokes can stop because he found a community that became his family.
Jackie Nuzzo (Kate Monster) says that she appreciates that her character is career-orientated but longs for a partner and has this advice for her character: “Have more confidence and trust your instincts.” She feels Kate Monster is smart but can get wrapped up in the idea that fantasies can come true. And yet, to perform in “Avenue Q” was one of Nuzzo’s wishes since she saw it on Broadway 20 years ago. She says that productions of the musical are hard to find because of its content but feels that the message is one of the human experience, and the lesson one of inclusion.
Director Sean Openshaw agrees. He performed in a production of “Avenue Q” 10 years ago and reached out to Algonquin when he heard it was in their lineup. He says that a lot of talented actors come out when there’s a casting for “Avenue Q,” that it attracts them because of the difficult subjects, amount of comedy and medium of puppetry, all unusual for a musical. “Nothing (in the show) is done for the sake of vulgarity,” he says. “Life is not black and white. We all experience these feelings. Through the voice of a puppet, it’s palatable.”
Chris Coleman animates the right hand of Trekkie Monster while John Short animates the left one, and the puppet’s head and torso, and sings his lines. (Photo by Cie Stroud)
Suann Chen (Christmas Eve) addresses directly addresses Rod, a puppet animated by Michael Morch. (Photo by Cie Stroud)
From her seat in the orchestra pit, pianist Beth Moore watches the actors through a hole in the stage floor for timing. (Photo by Cie Stroud)
