Me and My Blog
Born in America during Word War II, then trained as an altar boy to respond in Latin, I was attracted to the theater a long time ago. After some twenty years working and teaching as a scenic designer, I left traditional theater, established a studio in Seattle and began making street theater — using puppets.
Puppetsoup Theater of Objects, [PSTOO] gave birth to its first shows on the street in 1982. Performing at street fairs and festivals has its drawbacks, however, and I began thinking of a show that I could do on a large tabletop followed by a soup supper! “The Souptalks Trilogy is a miniature epic that asks:
“Why are there so many weapons when there could be none?”
The first play, “Voice of the Turtledove” premiered in my Seattle Studio in 1989 for 12-18 guests. Five years later, all three parts were presented by Seattle’s On the Boards and the Henson International Festival of Puppet Theater, New York City. In 2001, the work was revised and presented as “SoupTalks Seattle” by the Center on Contemporary Art (CoCA).
Extensive use of video in the project eventually led to making the documentary “Puppet Festival” released on VHS in 2001 just as the world was switching to DVDs! Enough of that nonsense. Two recent movies are distributed online: “LetterHome” and “Eight Songs for a Wheat Harvest.”
Upon renovating, then moving to the former St. Michael Catholic Church of Snohomish — partner Karen Guzak’s big idea — my fascination with the history of our riverside town resulted in a book of historic images released by Arcadia Publishers in 2007, “Early Snohomish.” And I write a monthly column in the local newspaper (and THIS website), “Snohomish: Then and Now.”
Most of 2006 I spent putting together Early Snohomish — a collection of historic images published by Arcadia Publishers. To promote its publication in 2007, and to prolong my love affair with the historic images of Snohomish, I began writing a monthly column for the Snohomish County Tribune called “Snohomish: Then and Now”. Each article features a historical photograph compared with a repeat shot of the same place or scene of Snohomish, along with a short description to give the historic image context.
Snohomish: Then and Now is modeled after the regional gold standard of repeat photography projects begun by Paul Dorpat for the “Seattle Times’ Sunday Magazine” in 1982. Readers are invited to add what they know about the places featured; plus, Snohomish residents are encouraged to look through their family albums for images and stories you wish to share.