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| - The following is an article about Roger Mara published in The Puppetry Journal, Spring of 2007 Roger Mara: Artist, Inventor, Entertainer and Mentor -Elizabeth Luce There’s excitement in the air because the puppet show is about to begin. The puppeteer is out in the audience, conducting “man on the street” interviews with the kids. He disappears behind the stage, starts the music, raises the curtains, and the audience is transported to the ebullient, joyful world of Snapdragon Puppets. This time it’s my favorite show, The Big Little Circus, but whichever the show, the allure is always the same: lively, endearing characters, humor for all ages, technical wizardry and gizmos, precision manipulation, and a really rollicking tale -all presented with the skill and handling of a true master of his craft, Roger Mara. Olaah Flamand, the flirtatious French flamingo walks her tightrope, Henry the timid janitor is persuaded to fill in for all of the death defying feats of Mr. Majesto (who “has the sniffles”), Gunki Bearski, the clumsy, loveable bear, never actually succeeds at balancing on his ball, Paddy and Mick O’Malley, the Irish ducks, finish their nattering and acrobatics, and other characters entertain and depart. When the show ends, there is a happy buzz in the air. The children quote Rigatoni, the tiny, indomitable clown, -“bounsa, bounsa, bounsa,” while bouncing themselves. Rigatoni has won hearts yet again, which delights me, because he is one of my favorites as well. The Big Little Circus was one of the delightful shows in the repertoire of Snapdragon Puppet Productions, the puppet company of Roger Mara. Roger passed away this winter, at the age of 54, due to complications from stomach cancer. His passing is a great loss to the puppet world. I’ve been fortunate to work with Roger for the last 15 years. We met when both of us were leaving Los Angeles and making shifts in our careers. I was moving from theatre design to graphic design, and he was beginning a new puppet company. Together we’ve been the creative team behind Snapdragon Puppet Productions and Snapdragon Video Productions, building new shows and working on video puppetry projects. Typically, Roger wrote and scripted the shows, I designed the characters and props, and we built together. He was a craftsman and builder of great caliber, and we egged each other on to new challenges. In reality the division lines of work were always blurred, each of us contributing in all areas, picking up the slack for one another. In the end however, the most important element was how each character was brought to life by Roger’s skill as a performer; he could make a simple sock puppet be brilliant. Once a production was built, he was the one to perform the countless hours of shows that it takes to be one of the best. Snapdragon shows have been written up in newspapers, won awards, (including a Regional Emmy for a video version of The Mousecracker), and are beloved by children and adults everywhere. Roger’s shows were marked by a distinctive wit and strong performance style. He had a keen sense of humor, saying that he simply created material that entertained himself, and what worked for him, worked for his audiences as well. An exemplar of the phrase "the show must go on,” Roger was a professional performer who never gave less than his best, as well as a precise and dependable businessman. As a natural born tinkerer and a gadgeteer, Roger’s shows were full of clever mechanisms, all uniquely his own, from foot pedal controlled entrance doors to moveable mouths in his hand puppets. Roger's shows played well for children, but worked equally well for adults, with humor on multiple levels. Roger felt that performing for children was the only practical way to make a grant-free, dependable living as a full-time puppeteer in the U.S., but in turn, he truly enjoyed performing for kids, whom he called "the best audience in the world -they're so honest." Early in his career, he performed shows coast to coast in the U.S., and in Canada. Eventually a fear of flying developed which prevented him from having the national, even international, exposure he deserved, but a confidence in his own work and an independent spirit left him pleased with where he was at, both artistically and professionally. He worked in television productions and commercials, as well as performing thousands of shows for libraries, schools, fairs, festivals and preschools -"anywhere puppets are needed." Snapdragon Puppets may represent a culmination of Roger’s working style, but his talent was well established long before. He had a career that spanned over 35 years, beginning at the age of sixteen. Roger had the soul of a true vaudevillian, and once he put his feet on the path of puppetry, he never looked back. Career History It was 1969, when a teenaged Roger was hired to perform Emile the fox and other characters for a PBS pilot called Rockadaisy Den. This was a show produced in his hometown of Syracuse, New York, under the auspices of WCNY TV and Syracuse University. Marla and Ellis Evans were the talented couple behind the show. Their company, Mar-El Marionettes, performed large marionette productions throughout upstate New York. Working with Marla and Ellis gave Roger a solid foundation in puppet performance. The experience also revealed his aptitude for character voices, a factor that Roger felt was extremely important in puppetry. During these high school years, Roger appeared in plays, family created comedy sketches, and public speaking competitions for which he took first place several times. He and his three sisters presented plays in the neighborhood, always directed by the oldest, Susan. Roger went on to receive a full scholarship to first RPI, then Columbia University, graduating with a degree in Social Anthropology. In keeping with the climate of the times, Roger was socially conscious, and at one Viet Nam war protest march had the opportunity to see Bread and Puppets Theater in action. During summers off from college, Roger was hired to work with The Puppet Wagon, a mobile puppet company, for the Syracuse Parks and Recreation Department, creating, traveling and performing shows for children on location at parks and playgrounds. Roger always appreciated the strong support he received from his mother, who encouraged him, built some of his early puppets, and helped him to get his job with The Puppet Wagon. A Junior Year Abroad program in Paris exposed Roger to the work of international puppeteers at the first ever, Festival Mondial des Théâtres Marionnettes (now the largest puppet festival in the world, lasting 10 days, with over 150,000 people attending). He found much inspiration in the work of the great French puppeteer, André Tahon. Roger wrote, "his work was so brilliant, keeping a multi-lingual audience enthralled in three languages simultaneously, that right then I decided to pursue a career in the art of puppetry." Roger was also inspired by the work of Albrecht Roser and Dick Meyers. During college Roger created Danaberry Puppets, and later, with a refined version of this show, began working extensively in the Midwest, in both Kansas and Colorado. For several years he toured with The Colorado Chautauqua Festival, and was also part of the Artist-in-Residence program for the Colorado Arts Council. A Chautauqua tour was similar to a traveling circus, with a caravan of diverse artists (Roger and his partner had a converted van) traveling to small towns where tents were set up. One large, central tent served for evening performances by everyone, and satellite tents served as workshops during the day. One of Roger's puppet characters, Uncle Charlie, often acted as the Master of Ceremonies. For the Chautauqua shows, he first worked with a talented, young actress, Allison Walker. Later, his sister Mary Mara, now a professional actress for theatre, motion pictures and television, joined him. Danaberry Puppets also played for many Santa Breakfasts, Easter Bunny events, and opened for a variety of acts including Frank Sinatra Jr. Throughout this time, Roger continued to remain active in theatre, working as a make-up artist and performing leading roles, including King Philip of France in The Lion in Winter, La Comte in Moliere's The Pretentious Young Ladies, and Lt. Cable in South Pacific. It was for the Artist in Residence workshops that Roger first developed his notable "eyeball puppets.” These simple, but theatrical, puppets were originally created for use in children's building and performing workshops. By just gluing on a little cowboy hat, or a bit of princess hair, kids were able to come up with terrific shows and take home a satisfying, complete creation. Roger taught kids from all over Colorado to make these puppets. Since these skits were so much fun, he decided to create his own live show. He designed and built an "instant pop-up stage" to accompany his "instant puppets.” It was a long, narrow box (four feet long by 12" wide and deep) that set up in under a minute, accompanied by lively patter, miraculously transforming into a seven-foot tall stage, with front, side, and rear curtains, full proscenium, and a built-in sound system. Roger debuted The Mara Berries in Denver’s Larimer Square, an Old Town visitor’s attraction which encouraged street performances. His new show was a resounding success. By 1980, Roger packed up his puppets and moved from Denver to Los Angeles, taking a temporary job as a tool repairman for Black and Decker. Already a tinkerer and an inventor, this job gave him even more experience and ideas that were to become part of the signature mechanical inventiveness of his future shows. Seeing an article in The Puppetry Journal about an upcoming regional puppet festival in San Diego, Roger decided to perform The Mara Berries show in the Festival’s evening Pot Pourri. Reported Roger, "Wow. A standing ovation! That was one of the biggest thrills in my puppet career." From there, Roger was invited to be on the main stage of various puppet festivals, and he went on to perform his show at numerous other fairs and events. He tried a smaller “suitcase and stool” version of his stage, but eventually returned to the original "instant stage.” He took pride in a booking by Luman Coad for a performance during the closing banquet of the Vancouver Festival, on a double bill with Jean-Paul Huber, the brilliant French hand puppeteer -another big thrill for a young performer. While in Los Angeles, Roger began work with Jim Gamble Puppet Productions and quickly became an integral part of that company, winning an UNIMA Citation of Excellence for his work on Peter and the Wolf. He performed many live marionette and hand puppet shows, while doing occasional television and movie work in between. Roger was the first puppeteer admitted as a regular member to the Magic Castle, the prestigious magician’s club in Hollywood. Roger was pleased in particular with one show he created, wrote, and directed for Jim Gamble Puppet Productions. This was an Ansanti story called Talk, which debuted at the Hollywood Bowl Summer Children’s Program in ‘92. It featured an inventive style of large hand/mouth rod puppets whose feet where connected to the operator's knees. (Author’s note -this was where Roger and I first met when, as a member of the building team, I designed the puppets for this show.) Eventually tiring of Los Angeles, and restless to have his own company once again, Roger moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. Here he began Snapdragon Puppet Productions, with its eponymous signature character, Snap, the little smoke-breathing dragon. Which brings us to the beginning of our history. Snapdragon Puppet Productions ran for over 15 years, first in the San Francisco Bay Area and then in Seattle. The Man Behind the Puppet Feisty, funny, generous, occasionally irascible, always big-hearted, nothing pleased Roger more than to pull off a remark that made the room laugh. Prepared for anything, he often "saved the day" for other folks -from pulling out a pocket flashlight in a darkened movie theatre so someone could find an earring, to fixing a fuse that allowed a halted theatre performance to continue. He had a fierce intelligence, was a limitless book reader, avid science fiction devotee, flashlight connoisseur, lover of toys, and a radio controlled airplane builder. Half Irish and half German, he had the storyteller's gift from one side, the intricate mechanic's ability from the other, and a love of a good beer from both. Roger always took the time to guide up and coming, new puppeteers. He contributed shows and workshops to his Guilds, as well as serving as an officer. He felt it important for professional puppeteers to be a part of their Guild. Roger lived a life that was true to himself. He was a successful artist who followed the path that he wanted and was content with it -not something all can claim. Thousands of children and adults were made happy by his shows. He was much loved, greatly appreciated, and will be deeply missed.
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