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Autumn Portraits, Side by Side

Sandglass Theater’s Autumn Portraits, Side by Side

On Thanksgiving weekend Sandglass Theater presents Eric Bass’s annual performance of his award winning solo, Autumn Portraits. This year however will honor the changing of the seasons in a physical and metaphorical sense. Eric will be joined by his daughter, Shoshana, to whom he recently passed his signature work. Together they will perform his repertoire, side by side.

The father, daughter duo will perform on Friday and Saturday November 25th and 26th at 7:30pm. Headed into its 35th year of existing repertoire, this show remains a staple of the Sandglass artistic vision and a meaningful influence in the lineage and art of puppetry globally today.

Autumn is a metaphor for that time of life when our thoughts turn inward, when we feel the loss of summer warmth. In Autumn Portraits, five interwoven puppet “portraits” present a moment in one character’s existence. Some are funny, some touching, some bizarre, and all speak to the human experience, as only puppets can. Eric Bass’ handcrafted puppets are characters in the “autumn” of their existence who share their stories in precise and evocative gestures as they meet their pasts, their selves, their deaths.

Autumn Portraits wears a proud and remarkable history. Autumn Portraits has been an ambassador across borders, having performed in about thirty countries since its creation in 1981. Now the show has passed to new hands and is existing within the new work of Shoshana’s When I Put On Your Glove, a piece about artistic inheritance and memory. This may be the only occasion on which Eric and Shoshana will share the puppets for an evening.

The show can be paired with a day touring the Putney Craft Tour on Thanksgiving Weekend (Nov 25, 26, 27). Putney Craft Tour, Next Stage Arts Project and Sandglass Theatre join forces to present this special Thanksgiving Weekend of Arts. Area restaurants also participate by creating a Putney Craft Tour lunch or dinner “special.” The tour also raises funds for the Putney Food Shelf. Meet 22 artisans including blacksmiths, glass blowers, potters, jewelers, weavers, woodworkers – even artisan cheesemakers, a custom bicycle maker and winemaking. Putney Craft Tour is the oldest continuing studio tour in North America. Part of the fun is meandering through the beautiful Vermont countryside, following the map to find these prominent craftspeople and view the works where they are conceived and created. Visitors may start at The Gleanery, 133 Main Street, Putney for info, maps, and a preview exhibition of the artisans’ works. www.putneycrafts.com

Tickets for Autumn Portraits are $16 general and $13 for students and seniors, available online at sandglasstheater.org. Getting tickets in advance is highly encouraged as seating is limited. Reservations may also be made by phoning the box office at (802) 387-4051. Reservations are payable by cash or check at the door. Sandglass Theater is an accessible, 60 seat theater in the heart of Putney, Vermont.