The Summer Spectacular
Puppets, public space and good stories about our world.
In the summer of 2014.
For Jacob’s continued work outside, see the Nakai Landscape Project
Labyrinths, wings, wax, water, the internet, the sun and overzealous despots. Oh my.
In 2014 Small Wooden Shoe returned to the Toronto Fringe Festival – this time in a park.
We made a show that brings our interests in science, history and internet into the bright daylight of outdoor theatre.
The story woove the mythic, historic and science fictional
into a walking tour of Frankel Lambert Park (north of Dupont on Christie.)
Georgina, Jacob, Christopher Stanton, his absurdly cute child, Michaud Garnau, Sochi Fried, Susanna Fournier.
Christopher Stanton, Sochi Fried and Georgina Beaty along with host Jacob Zimmer
tour the mythologies of Daedalus and Icarus,
Aaron Swartz and a new (barely) science fiction story.
More on the stories
Process shots
The site
"Outdoor public work is important to the culture and something that live performance is uniquely able to do - the community gathering and the transformation of our daily lives into something magical and complex is needed and it might needed especially to be outside of the mainstream theatre buildings. The separation of “puppet theatre” or “community spectacle” and “contemporary theatre” in Canada and Toronto is false and harmful for everyone involved. Nor should it be left to Warhorse budgets or the sole responsibility of historic “puppet companies."
Jacob's history with this stuff
"As a youth I was exposed to Mermaid Theatre and took classes with their performers – I also worked at the Halifax Children’s Library where the weekly, largely improvised, puppet shows were a part of my job I enjoyed and, to my own surprise, was good at. In Vancouver, I worked with Public Dreams, working on Illuminares as a technician, stilt and fire performer and manipulating the body and head of the backpack-rig puppet of Babba Yagga in Parade of the Lost Souls."
The 2014 Summer Spectacular has been made possible through individual support and by Nightswimming Theatre and Canadian Stage through the Ontario Arts Council's Theatre Creator's Reserve. Thanks!
Toronto Fringe Festival July 2014
Labyrinths, wings, wax, water, the internet, the sun and overzealous despots. Oh my.