The Dennos Museum Center at Northwestern Michigan College will present the Cashore Marionettes production Life in Motion on Saturday, February 28, 2015 at 8:00 PM in Milliken Auditorium. Tickets are $25 advance, $28 at the door and $22 for museum members plus fees. Tickets may be purchased on line at www.dennosmuseum.org, or by calling the Museum Box office at 231-995-1553; also at 1-800-836-0717 or www.MyNorthTickets.com.
The Cashore Marionettes are unmatched in artistry, grace and refinement of movement. The internationally acclaimed Cashore Marionettes redefine the art of puppetry. The moving and humorous performances have astounded audiences in Europe, the Far East and across North America including stops at the Kennedy Center, Annenberg Center, Kravis Center, and many others.
In the performance Life in Motion, Joseph Cashore presents his collection of marionette masterworks. Characters of depth, integrity, and humanity are portrayed in a full evening unlike anything else in theater today. The performance is a series of scenes taken from everyday life and set to beautiful music by composers such as Beethoven, Vivaldi, Strauss, and Copland. Through a combination of virtuoso manipulation, humor, pathos, classic music, and poetic insight, The Cashore Marionettes take the audience on a journey that celebrates the richness of life. Life in Motion is a powerful, entertaining, surprising, theatrically satisfying, one-of-a-kind evening for adults and young adults.
Joseph Cashore has received numerous awards for his artistry including a Pew Fellowship for Performance Art, based upon his artistic accomplishment; a Henson Foundation Grant, an award intended to help promote puppetry to adult audiences; and a Citation of Excellence from the UNIMA-USA, the highest honor an American puppeteer can receive. The Cashore Marionettes are so well conceived and projected, the movement so convincing, the illusion so powerful, that the result is a compelling and unforgettable theatrical experience.
The 2014-2015 performance season at the Dennos Museum Center is made possible with support from Arts Midwest, the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Robert T and Ruth Haidt Trust, and the Osterlin Performance Endowment with media support from WNMC 90.7, WCMU Public Broadcasting, Northern Express and TV 29&8 – 7&4. Housing for our performers is provided by the Cambria Suites and Country Inn and Suites.
The Dennos Museum Center is open daily 10 AM to 5 PM, Thursday’s until 8 PM and Sundays 1-5 PM. For more information on the Museum and its programs, go to www.dennosmuseum.org or call 231-995-1055. The Dennos Museum Center is located at 1410 College Dr., Traverse City, MI 49686, at the entrance to the campus of Northwestern Michigan College.
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Biography: Joseph Cashore
At the age of 11, Joseph Cashore created his first marionette from clothespins, wood, string and a tin can. It was while playing with this puppet that he was startled by the sudden but momentary sensation that the puppet was alive. This illusion had nothing to do with the appearance of the marionette and everything to do with the quality of the movement.
After graduation from college Mr. Cashore made his second marionette. He remembered that first marionette from childhood and thought he would try to make a puppet that could sustain and extend that sensation of being alive. He quickly discovered that in order to have the fluid motion he sought; he would have to create his own control designs. For the next nineteen years, while pursuing a career in oil painting, Mr. Cashore experimented with the construction of the marionettes and devised totally new control mechanisms.
During the late 1980s Mr. Cashore had a breakthrough. He had always admired Ralph Vaughan Williams’ The Lark Ascending and decided to make a puppet which would convincingly “play” the violin solo note for note. “It seemed almost impossible to get the quality of movement that I wanted,” Mr. Cashore explains. “But once I began to solve the technical problems and gain subtle control of the marionette body, I saw that there was the possibility for greater depth of expression with the marionettes.” That puppet, Maestro Janos Zelinka, was the turning point in Mr. Cashore’s career and became the impetus for his present productions.
Mr. Cashore has been performing full-time since 1990 across North America, Europe and Asia. He has received numerous awards including a Pew Charitable Trusts’ Fellowship for Performance Art, based upon his artistic accomplishment. He has also received a Henson Foundation Grant, an award intended to help promote puppetry to adult audiences. Mr. Cashore has been awarded the highest honor an American puppeteer can receive, a UNIMA Citation of Excellence. UNIMA states that Citations are “awarded to shows that touch their audiences deeply; that totally engage, enchant and enthrall.”