Puppeteers please Valley families at local shows

PALMER — Take a hundred or so giggling children, a couple of handfuls of marionettes and mix in lots of string, a pair of merry puppeteers and what do you get?

That’s right — Stevens Puppets’ Alaska tour, which provided a practically perfect way for people in Palmer to pass an hour enjoying summer, classic fairy tales and a bit of history.

Dozens of parents and children spent part of Thursday evening at the downtown pavilion laughing at Dan Raynor’s silly blend of slapstick and magic before he and his wife, Zan, and daughter, Magnolia, stepped behind the stage curtains to give life and voice to the marionettes.

The Stevens Puppets tour also included two shows in Wasilla Thursday, and the three were packing up and driving to Homer after Thursday’s shows for a performance Friday. The group is touring the state thanks to funding from the Rasmuson Foundation, the Alaska State Library and Friends of Palmer Library. Their tour includes shows in Ketchikan, Sitka, Petersburg, Skagway, Juneau, Pedro Bay, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Delta Junction, Healy and Nenana.

Dan and Zan said they got their start with the company after answering a newspaper ad in 1993: “Looking for retired couple to tour marionette show. One state.”

Over the years, the Raynors bought Stevens Puppets and say they plan to add a European tour next summer.

Between Stevens and Raynors, from 1965 to 1993, another couple toured with the show.

But Stevens Puppets traces its roots back even farther to 1933 when Martin Stevens created the touring show. He ran the show until 1965, one year after he was invited to perform his original production of “Rumplestiltskin” at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York.

That’s the bit of history folks in Wasilla and Palmer were treated to Thursday at the show. This year is the 50th anniversary of that classic Stevens’ production, “Rumplestiltskin,” and the marionettes featured in the show, are the same ones Stevens carved for the World’s Fair show, as are most of the costumes and the script.

Restoring the show was a family effort. The Raynors’ 16-year-old daughter Magnolia did most of the restoration work to the puppets and her mom, who painted new sets and scenes based on the originals, and her mended or made new costumes for the show’s original cast of marionettes.

Dan said the show’s original sets used in the 1964 World’s Fair will be donated to the Smithsonian Institution. That’s because in the world of puppets, Stevens is well known as a Peabody Award winner, preeminent American puppeteer and founder of the Puppeteers of America. He and wife Margi created groundbreaking work and are still cited as artistic benchmarks and industry standards, Dan said.

One of these original innovations — the “fly-apart” marionette — is featured in “Rumplestiltskin.” After being warned throughout the show by more judicious characters that someday he would just get so mad he would “fly-apart,” the show closes with Rumplestiltskin’s head, arms and legs flying off, leaving him a disheveled mass on the stage as the curtain closes.

So how do they do it?

After the show, Dan showed the audience Rumplestiltskin’s stunt double, which is built especially to fly apart.

When the dancing bear menaced a fellow marionette cast member, the show took on a uniquely Alaska twist.

“Play dead!” a voice from the crowd shouted.

Contact managing editor Heather A. Resz at 352-2268 or heather.resz@frontiersman.com.