Puppet master

Matt "Lucky" Yates squats behind a tree stump set-piece with a puppet named Foolio on his hand.

"Hi, drunk people!" Foolio screeches to the audience.

Foolio's a rustic hand puppet with bright clothing and a plastic sneering head that looks like he was yanked from some kid's jack-in-the-box 30 years ago. He's just one of the many alter egos Yates embodies as host of the second official Puppet Slam at Dad's Garage Theatre.

More than 50 dedicated puppet watchers arrive by midnight on this cold Saturday in November to claim a seat. It's slim pickings in the newly renovated space. Who knew that a puppet slam would sell out?

What follows is an unpredictable show that redefines what most people think a puppet show should be. There are hand puppets, finger puppets and a marionette made out of tampons. There are paper puppets on fire. Ugly puppets mocking pretty girls. Pretty puppets singing to nerdy boys. Puppets getting spanked. Puppets playing the saxophone. Puppets shooting their brains out. And for the finale, a man in a cardboard car bites off a puppet's head, runs over a puppet squirrel and destroys everything that looks like a puppet.

It's an hour-and-a-half of raw, guerrilla theater with a hell of a lot of puppets put together by a group of friends who share a love of all things puppet. They are the spawn of the mothership of puppets — the Center for Puppetry Arts. The Center has put Atlanta on the map as a vibrant center for the art of puppetry, and the talent it's attracted is taking root outside of its walls. The Center is the reason puppets can be seen on stage next to live actors at Dad's Garage, the Alliance, Horizon or opening for bands in East Atlanta and performing at gallery openings downtown. Look around, puppets are everywhere. And Big Bird's not allowed.

Atlanta's puppet phenomenon originated back in 1978 when the Center for Puppetry Arts was founded. Muppets creator Jim Henson (along with Kermit the Frog) cut the ribbon at the opening of what has become the largest nonprofit organization in the country dedicated to the art of puppetry.

The man who started it all is Vincent Anthony. Before coming to Atlanta, Anthony was studying to be an actor in New York City. But that changed after he auditioned for a job as a puppeteer. That fateful encounter with his first professional marionette led to an epiphany that reads like a religious conversion.

"Holding that puppet in my hand made a career decision for me. I can't quite put my finger on it, but it felt comfortable," he explains. "I felt this is what I want to do with the rest of my life. I made a career choice that moment."

What sets puppetry apart from standard theater, Anthony says, is its breadth of possibility. When you enter a traditional theater space, there are certain expectations. You know you're going to see people around 5 feet to 6 feet tall populating a world similar to your own. In puppet theater, there are no givens — characters could be anywhere from one inch to 100 feet tall.

"You say to the artist, 'Here's a blank canvas, here's an empty stage, create a world in here,'" Anthony says. "That's an exciting challenge to gifted artists."

Anthony performed as a puppeteer for a few years before starting the Center for Puppetry Arts. The city looked ripe for a renaissance in the arts, he says. At that time, the Woodruff Arts Center was under construction and Anthony had faith that Atlanta would be the best testing ground for his experiment.

"I knew I was going to be making a lot of mistakes, and I thought if I went to a place that didn't know any better, that they could grow with me," explains Anthony.

The Center now stands as a major theater in Atlanta with three stages totaling 590 seats. Its annual operating budget of $3 million sets it apart as one of the few mid-size theaters in the city.

By no means does the Center have a lock on the art form. New York, Los Angeles and Chicago have vibrant puppet communities, but no other theater dedicated to puppets in the country has the type of budget or wealth of programming for both adults and children found at the Center.

"When puppetry artists, globally, want to be recognized for their innovation, they come here," says Anthony.

Jon Ludwig has been a puppeteer for 22 years at the Center, and he is currently the associate artistic director. He writes, directs and performs in both family and adult-oriented shows as well as serving as mentor and teacher for budding puppeteers. Although he is continually attracted to new puppet projects in other cities and countries, he keeps coming back to the Center.

"I stick around because I can pretty much do what I want. It's always been the case," he explains. "This is one of the few places that I know where you can just come in and say, 'I got an idea.' And more than likely, they'll just say, 'Fine.'"

That freedom to design, create and perform has attracted a hefty amount of talent to the Center, and puppet makers and performers from around the world have taken up residency over the years. It's one of the few places in town where performers can make a living. The Center's pay is comparable to what an Equity actor would make, despite there being no union.

And with all that talent, it's inevitable that it's going to spill over to the rest of the arts community. Puppets have left the Center for Puppetry Arts and are populating theaters, concert halls and alternative spaces in Atlanta.

"We don't own puppetry [at the Center], we're kinda like missionaries," says Ludwig. "We constantly try to convert people to our cause. Puppets are cool. We want to spread the word!"

Anthony is pleased that the Center is a conduit of creativity for the arts community in Atlanta, but he sees the expansion of puppetry in Atlanta as part of a bigger movement.

Look at Jim Henson 30 years ago with the Muppets and the recent phenomenon of Julie Taymor's award-winning adaptation of Disney's The Lion King that uses masks and puppets on Broadway.

"Puppets are making a tremendous impact on popular art forms," says Anthony. "And the Center is part of that trend ... but I think you're looking at a much bigger bubble."

Watch out: First Atlanta. Then the world.

jerry.portwood@creativeloafing.com

For more on Atlanta's puppetry scene, click on a story below:

Clobber puts the punk in puppets

Brown gets freaky with puppets

Lucky Yates swears by puppets

Huey flouts convention with puppet films??