As the summer event season approaches, the Somerville Arts Council is launching yet another decentralized event series that will take place throughout Somerville. Events such as PorchFEST, Dancing in the Streets, and Puppet Palooza allows the community to participate, interact, and engage in non-traditional ways while cultivating the idea of Somerville as a cultural arts incubator without walls.

Puppet Palooza is a collaboration between the Somerville Arts Council and East Somerville Main Streets –a series designed to bring the art of puppetry to east Somerville in unexpected places. Join us in East Somerville for a three-part puppetry extravaganza. This June and July, we’ll hit the streets, courtyards and parks, showcasing local, national, and international performing companies. Great for kids and adults and 100% free.

The Puppeteers’ Cooperative is a group of artists and puppeteers working in cities around the nation to create giant puppet parades, pageants, and ceremonies of celebration and complaint, using simple materials and movements to build community cardboard extravaganzas. They have worked with groups the throughout the US and Canada as well as First Night of Boston and First Night International and with First Night creating both experimental commissioned parade works and sections, and spirited and colorful community group parade pieces. Now, they will be bringing their festive pageantry puppetry to the street of east Somerville. Egyptian Gods will revive briefly to visit the courtyard of the East Somerville Library. Three giant puppets will dance, shake hands (or paws, or hoofs), and play with the public through the mystic intercession of the Puppeteers Cooperative.

website info : http://www.gis.net/~puppetco/index.html

Puppet Showplace Theatre is New England’s premier presenter of puppetry arts. Founded in 1974, the theatre annually presents hundreds of performances by nationally recognized puppeteers in its Brookline Village location and on tour across the region. Through its “Incubator” program, PST collaborates with local artists to create new works for the puppet stage. “Goldie” was created as part of the “Think Big” giant puppet class taught by PST’s Artist-in-Residence Brad Shur, and received a public performance during a Puppet Showplace Slam.

“Goldie” is a touching story of a person who is reunited with a lost goldfish. The audience follows a performer carrying an empty fishbowl through an area plastered with “Lost Goldfish” posters and flyers. The performer only speaks one word: “Goldie?” In interactions with audience members, the performer follows up on several humorous false leads, but to no avail. Exhausted, the performer finally gives up and plops down on the ground. In the distance, a giant 10’ goldfish emerges from hiding, crosses the performance space, and hides again. The performer looks up… and sees nothing. This game of misdirection continues until the audience is invited to blow bubbles, make the sound of waves, and participate in creating an irresistible seascape. Finally, Goldie emerges into the open and a glorious, frolicking reunion takes place. The performer shows the tiny fishbowl to the goldfish, who shakes her head no. He then takes out a snorkel. She nods, and performer and goldfish exit together towards the nearest body of water.

website info : www.puppetshowplace.org

During the countdown to the first Gulf War in 1990, a group of puppeteers was looking for a direct and immediate way to respond to current events. So they began a serial drama using texts and images quickly cut from the daily newspaper. This ultimately led to the founding of Great Small Works, and the reinvention of the Victorian era performance style called “Toy Theater.” In July, Great Small Works (based out of New York City) and the Somerville Arts Council will present two international performing companies–Barbara Steinitz and Bjorn Kollin (from Berlin) and Facto Teatro (from Mexico City), to introduce Toy Theater to east Somerville.

A picture book written and illustrated by Ms. Steinitz is brought to life by puppets, performed out of a suitcase, with live music created and played on an array of instruments by Mr. Kollin. The story goes something like this… It’s often said that dog owners look like their dogs—but there are some exceptions. Take Leonora, who loves operas more than anything and shares a happy life with her dog Fidelio, who doesn’t look like her at all. Two blocks from their home lives another odd couple, Joshua and his dog Pistachia, who share a passion for home made chocolates. In the street people wrinkle their noses and laugh about Leonora and Joshua who don’t match with their dogs at all. This is a humorous love story about outsiders who overcome their loneliness and people’s prejudices by accepting themselves.

Based on a story by the Mexican writer Eraclio Zepeda, Facto Teatro’s Don Chico lives in the mountains of Chiapas, Mexico. To go from one village to another he must come down the mountain, cross the jungle, then the river and up the opposite hill. He decides he needs to fly and builds a pair of wings, to reach the sky before national holidays. A story of ingenuity, creativity, surrealism and human adventure, which tells us that, for some, the sky is the limit. Created and performed by Alejandro Benítez, Mauricio Martínez and Antonio Cerezo.

website info :