Basil Twist (his real name) is an internationally respected designer, director, puppeteer; founder and Director of The Dream Music Puppetry Program at HERE Arts Center in New York City.
Appreciation of the art was almost organic. Twist’s big-band leader grandfather would sometimes bring realistically detailed marionettes of Harry James, Cab Callaway, and others on stage. (These are currently on display at the lower level of HERE.) As a member of a puppetry club, his mother put on shows in hospitals and at birthday parties.
Twist made his own first- paper- puppets in a room festooned with pictures of Miss Piggy. Observing commitment, his dad built a wood stage. He recalls being gifted The Master Puppeteer (by Katherine Paterson) which tells the story of a boy who becomes a Bunraku puppeteer. Perhaps a seed was quietly planted. That Japan’s puppet tradition is serious may have appealed even then. (Most people marginalize puppetry, confining the idea of it to children’s entertainment.)
Trajectory never veered. Every aspect of puppetry was discovered and explored with the inherent drive of a salmon swimming upstream. The young man knocked on stranger’s doors. He’s the only American to have graduated from the esteemed École Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette in northern France. Wide curriculum included Japanese puppetry taught by a Bunraku specialist.
“The term Bunraku is overly used. You can’t do Bunraku unless you’re a member of the Bunraku Theater company in Osaka Japan. (Established 1805) You can only create something like it or be inspired by it.” Just because puppeteers are visible and manipulated by means of rods doesn’t make it authentic.
The Fox with Yumiko Tanaka
Twist was at a puppet festival in France when he saw a display of Japanese puppets from the island of Awaji where Dogugaeshi originated. (There were once 80 companies in situ.) Next to the exhibit a video ran. After what appeared to be Bunraku, a succession of elaborate, overlapping screens slid across one after the other. These, he tells me indicate a palace. “I was absolutely captivated.” Twist had experienced the art of Dogugaeshi: dogu= set; gaeshi= flipping.
In 2001, Japan Society invited him to create a show all but expecting Bunraku. Instead, Dogugaeshi came immediately to mind. Traveling to Awaji Island he saw the genre’s recreation in a museum, but could find no contemporary productions. I ask why he thought this was. “I think all performing arts struggle. Even the famous Bunraku had half filled audiences. Traditions are dying out. People pay attention to western art…I know and respect how much work it is to physically make something that involves a lot of stuff. It’s not cost effective, not practical for touring.”
In the basement vault of Awaji Ningyo Joruri Museum, Twist found old beat up screens he was certain he recognized from the original film. There were also historic puppets including a beautiful, white, nine-tailed fox with gold teeth. (Multiple tails indicate longevity.) Foxes or Kitsune, have been revered in Japanese culture since ancient times. They’re associated with fertility and good fortune, but can also be tricksters.
The artist felt this fox was part of his story. “For me, he’s a spirit guide.” He recreated the creature. There’s no speaking in the production, only occasional titles. “It’s not a real narrative, yet still a quest with beginning, middle, and end… ‘Impressionistic.” After the fox, 88 images (an auspicious number) emerge successively with two to twelve screens combining to form each visual. Puppeteers bear the responsibility, not scene changers. Running time is 60 minutes. “My Dogugaeshi clips along; others might’ve been slow.”
Accompanying score is composed by shamisen Master Yumiko Tanaka who added both traditional and some modern music to the repetitive, archetypal theme. Music will be played live by Tanaka at every evening show and by Yoko Reikano Kimura during matinees.
Basil Twist
Originally presented in 2004 at Japan Society to honor the 150th anniversary of the U.S.-Japan Treaty of Kanagawa, Twist & Company also performed the piece several times in Japan. I ask how it was received. “Most people were bewildered; unaware of the tradition. Audiences at a puppet festival, however, were excited.” When the artist went back in 2015, he was shown developmental work that seemed to derive from Dogugaeshi. Twist was, he tells me, very pleased.
“I just never forgot that film. I hope people here have the experience of seeing this wonderful thing that may be almost extinct. It’s not definitive. It’s Basil Twist from New York who went to Japan in awe of the mystery and tradition and is trying to reconstruct its glory.”
All quotes are Basil Twist
All pictures courtesy of Japan Society
Production photos Richard Termine
Photo of Basil Twist – Billy Erb
Basil Twist’s Dogugaeshi – September 11-19 – almost sold out
Japan Society 333 East 47th Street
Only 75 tickets each performance
Ningyo! A Parade of Puppetry continues starting October 3. Click for full program.
