Spiral Q Puppet Theater
Encyclopedia
Spiral Q Puppet Theater is a puppet troupe that was founded in 1995 by Matthew "Mattyboy" Hart in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
. After traveling the country he was inspired by the street performance work of the Radical Faeries
and the Bread and Puppet Theater
in Glover, Vermont
. On his return to Philadelphia, Hart founded Spiral Q as a way to use his newfound interest in puppetry
, street theatre
and pageantry
to promote social
and political
change. To this day, Spiral Q seeks to bring the storytelling techniques of giant puppetry, pageantry, and toy theater to the urban backdrop of Philadelphia.
Initially, Spiral Q was a shadow puppet theater that staged performances throughout the community. Local activist groups came to Hart to make puppets, props and effigies
for demonstrations and educational campaigns. Spiral Q's identity springs from this early work in Philadelphia's HIV/AIDS activist and queer communities, particularly with AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP). In 1997 and 1998 Hart organized the week-long Full-On Puppet Festival in Philadelphia. showcasing puppeteers from around the country. Spiral Q also organized an annual Day of the Dead
parade on South Street
up through 1999. Both the festival and the parade were set aside so that the organization could focus on community activism.
Workshops with a local children's garden led to another model of community performance with children and adults carrying giant puppets that they created in parades and pageants. In 2000 Spiral Q started an annual city-wide parade and pageant called Peoplehood. Each October the parade starts at the Paul Robeson House
and ends in Clark Park
. In addition to neighborhood parades and pageants such as Peoplehood, Philadelphians can get involved with Spiral Q through its Justice Works Program and Education Initiatives.
Since 2000, the theater has been located in the East Mantua
section of West Philadelphia
. Hart left the company he founded in 2003 to pursue other interests.
Inclusion/Challenging Discrimination, Freedom of Speech/ The right to be Seen and Heard, Collaboration, and Sustainability. Working from the belief that freedom of speech is both an inalienable individual right and a collective responsibility, Spiral Q strives to use the age-old arts of puppet-making and theatrical pageantry as vehicles for social change.
The 2010 Q Awards and recipients are as follows:
The Artist-activist award - photographer JJ Tiziou
The challenging discrimination award – ACT UP
The free speech award – defense attorney Larry Krasner
The sustainability award – Neighborhood Bike Works
The Collaboration award - West Kensington Ministry, Norris Square Civic Association, Men in Motion in the Community, Richard and Friends in the Community, al-Aqsa Islamic Society and the offices of state Sen. Christine Tartaglione
(D-2nd Dist.) and city Councilmember Maria Quiñones-Sánchez
(D-7th Dist.)
2010, with a project entitled, Silkscreen Resistance and Dissent. The intended project is an investigation of the use of printmaking techniques in the South African anti-apartheid movement of the 1980’s and the application of these techniques in the contemporary moment. This application is to be enacted through the use of a mobile screen print studio housed in an RV, thereby bringing printmaking to the community at large. According to Spiral Q’s website, this project is in the research and development phase and will be developing over the next year.
or engages in the destruction of property. Spiral Q tries to select participants based upon compatibility with its core values and financial need.
1. Intro. to Q, students, routine, project and games
2. Where we come from and journals
3. Character development and story telling
4. Armature building and hand projections
5. Sculpting
6. Mache
7. Mache 2
8. Introduction to painting and color mixing
9. Priming and priming flats
10. Painting details and lettering
11. Painting details 2 and finish flats
12. Costume and hair 1
13. Costume and hair 2
14. Assembly and construction
15. Parade, performance and puppet wrangling
16. Perform parade
While teaching the students how to work as one, Spiral Q tries to convey to students how to be nice to one another and understand each other without stereotyping. According to papers distributed by Spiral Q, “The curriculum is designed to inspire and develop expressive tools, to encourage innovative thinking and experimentation, and to engage students as active citizens in shaping their communities.”
Spiral Q artists also create puppets for the use in festivals, cultural institutions, libraries, schools, museums, and theatres.
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
. After traveling the country he was inspired by the street performance work of the Radical Faeries
Radical Faeries
The Radical Faeries are a loosely-affiliated, worldwide network and counter-cultural movement seeking to reject hetero-imitation and redefine queer identity through spirituality. The Radical Faerie movement started in the United States among gay men during the 1970s sexual and counterculture...
and the Bread and Puppet Theater
Bread and Puppet Theater
The Bread and Puppet Theater is a politically radical puppet theater, active since the 1960s, currently based in Glover, Vermont...
in Glover, Vermont
Glover, Vermont
Glover is a town in Orleans County, Vermont, in the United States. As of the 2000 census, the town population was 966. It contains two unincorporated villages, Glover and West Glover....
. On his return to Philadelphia, Hart founded Spiral Q as a way to use his newfound interest in puppetry
Puppetry
Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance which involves the manipulation of puppets. It is very ancient, and is believed to have originated 30,000 years BC. Puppetry takes many forms but they all share the process of animating inanimate performing objects...
, street theatre
Street theatre
Street theatre is a form of theatrical performance and presentation in outdoor public spaces without a specific paying audience. These spaces can be anywhere, including shopping centres, car parks, recreational reserves and street corners. They are especially seen in outdoor spaces where there are...
and pageantry
Pageantry
Pageantry is a colorful display, as in a pageant. It may refer to:*Beauty pageant*Drag pageantry*Medieval pageant...
to promote social
Social change
Social change refers to an alteration in the social order of a society. It may refer to the notion of social progress or sociocultural evolution, the philosophical idea that society moves forward by dialectical or evolutionary means. It may refer to a paradigmatic change in the socio-economic...
and political
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
change. To this day, Spiral Q seeks to bring the storytelling techniques of giant puppetry, pageantry, and toy theater to the urban backdrop of Philadelphia.
History
Effigy
An effigy is a representation of a person, especially in the form of sculpture or some other three-dimensional form.The term is usually associated with full-length figures of a deceased person depicted in stone or wood on church monuments. These most often lie supine with hands together in prayer,...
for demonstrations and educational campaigns. Spiral Q's identity springs from this early work in Philadelphia's HIV/AIDS activist and queer communities, particularly with AIDS Coalition To Unleash Power (ACT UP). In 1997 and 1998 Hart organized the week-long Full-On Puppet Festival in Philadelphia. showcasing puppeteers from around the country. Spiral Q also organized an annual Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead is a Mexican holiday celebrated throughout Mexico and around the world in many cultures. The holiday focuses on gatherings of family and friends to pray for and remember friends and family members who have died. It is particularly celebrated in Mexico, where it attains the quality...
parade on South Street
South Street
South Street may refer to one of the following:*South Street Seaport, a shopping complex overlooking the East River in Manhattan Island.*South Street , United States of America*South Street , United States of America...
up through 1999. Both the festival and the parade were set aside so that the organization could focus on community activism.
Workshops with a local children's garden led to another model of community performance with children and adults carrying giant puppets that they created in parades and pageants. In 2000 Spiral Q started an annual city-wide parade and pageant called Peoplehood. Each October the parade starts at the Paul Robeson House
Paul Robeson House (Philadelphia)
The Paul Robeson House was the home of internationally renowned American bass-baritone concert singer, actor of film and stage, All-American and professional athlete, writer, multi-lingual orator, human rights activist, and lawyer Paul Robeson from 1966 until 1976...
and ends in Clark Park
Clark Park
Clark Park is a municipal park in the Spruce Hill section of West Philadelphia in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Its are bordered by 43rd and 45th streets, and by Baltimore and Woodland Avenues....
. In addition to neighborhood parades and pageants such as Peoplehood, Philadelphians can get involved with Spiral Q through its Justice Works Program and Education Initiatives.
Since 2000, the theater has been located in the East Mantua
Mantua, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Mantua is a neighborhood in the West Philadelphia section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It is located north of Spring Garden Street, east of 40th Street, south of Mantua Avenue, and west of 31st Street...
section of West Philadelphia
West Philadelphia
West Philadelphia, nicknamed West Philly, is a section of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Though there is no official definition of its boundaries, it is generally considered to reach from the western shore of the Schuylkill River, to City Line Avenue to the northwest, Cobbs Creek to the southwest, and...
. Hart left the company he founded in 2003 to pursue other interests.
Peoplehood
Spiral Q Puppet theater reaches out to the community and promotes connection and diversity through their Peoplehood program. Spiral Q involves numerous communities in the act of collaboration by instructing and facilitating in the making of a variety of puppets aimed at celebrating people and bringing them together. The organization bases its community building programs on core values established as a means of encouraging social justice. The theater identifies its core values as:Inclusion/Challenging Discrimination, Freedom of Speech/ The right to be Seen and Heard, Collaboration, and Sustainability. Working from the belief that freedom of speech is both an inalienable individual right and a collective responsibility, Spiral Q strives to use the age-old arts of puppet-making and theatrical pageantry as vehicles for social change.
The Q Awards
In 2009 Spiral Q began its annual tradition of granting the Q Awards. According to Spiral Q’s executive director, Tracy Broyles, “The Q Awards recognize folks for protecting or advancing free speech in community organizing and standing up to discrimination…I hope this recognition makes more people aware of the important work they’re doing and, even though it’s just small thing, if it can fuel their energy, then all the better. And if it can help engage even more people in their work, then all the better.”The 2010 Q Awards and recipients are as follows:
The Artist-activist award - photographer JJ Tiziou
The challenging discrimination award – ACT UP
The free speech award – defense attorney Larry Krasner
The sustainability award – Neighborhood Bike Works
Neighborhood Bike Works
Established in 1999, the Neighborhood Bike Works is a nonprofit educational organization in West Philadelphia. It seeks to increase educational opportunities for urban youth through bicycling.-History:...
The Collaboration award - West Kensington Ministry, Norris Square Civic Association, Men in Motion in the Community, Richard and Friends in the Community, al-Aqsa Islamic Society and the offices of state Sen. Christine Tartaglione
Christine Tartaglione
Christine M. "Tina" Tartaglione is a Democratic member of the Pennsylvania State Senate who has represented the 2nd District since her election in 1994.- Accident and recovery :...
(D-2nd Dist.) and city Councilmember Maria Quiñones-Sánchez
Maria Quiñones-Sanchez
Maria D. Quiñones-Sanchez is a Democratic Councilwoman representing the Seventh District on the City Council of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. She has served since 2008.-External links:* official city website...
(D-7th Dist.)
Collaboration with Philagrafika
Spiral Q has announced plans to participate in PhilagrafikaPhilagrafika
-Philagrafika 2010:In 2010 Philagrafika produced the first international, multi-sited art exhibition and festival in Philadelphia that celebrated the printed image as a core strategy for artists today. Titled Philagrafika 2010, it debuted as one of the largest art events in the United States and...
2010, with a project entitled, Silkscreen Resistance and Dissent. The intended project is an investigation of the use of printmaking techniques in the South African anti-apartheid movement of the 1980’s and the application of these techniques in the contemporary moment. This application is to be enacted through the use of a mobile screen print studio housed in an RV, thereby bringing printmaking to the community at large. According to Spiral Q’s website, this project is in the research and development phase and will be developing over the next year.
Justice Works
Justice Works is Spiral Q’s program that supports social change. It does so by assisting organizations in creating materials such as puppets and banners to aid in the dissemination of messages in the context of public demonstrations. According to program director Ted Enoch, Spiral Q will not assist any organization that employs hate speechHate speech
Hate speech is, outside the law, any communication that disparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such as race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or other characteristic....
or engages in the destruction of property. Spiral Q tries to select participants based upon compatibility with its core values and financial need.
Education
Spiral Q has collaborated with a number of schools and programs such as Huey School, Lea Elementary, the Norris Square Civic Association's after-school program at McKinley Elementary, Feltonville Intermediate, J.S. Jenks School, Reynolds and Vaux Schools, and the Communities in Schools (CIS) Initiatives at Peirce and William Dick Schools , some of which have limited access to the arts, through programs and activities that teach the students the logistics of constructing a puppet as well as encourage student’s right to be seen and heard. According to the Program Director at Spiral Q, the theater concerns itself primarily with showing students how their thoughts and ideas can be communicated through the construction of puppets. The theater encourages students by providing the vehicle through which they can express themselves.The Puppets
Spiral Q helps children construct their vision of a puppet by providing as much recycled materials as are donated to them. Major elements of the puppet making process are the creation of a working marionette, introduction of new materials, and learning how to work as a team. Depending on the age group Spiral Q will teach this in a 16 week time frame. According to information provided by Spiral Q this is a time line that artists and theater facilitators might use.1. Intro. to Q, students, routine, project and games
2. Where we come from and journals
3. Character development and story telling
4. Armature building and hand projections
5. Sculpting
6. Mache
7. Mache 2
8. Introduction to painting and color mixing
9. Priming and priming flats
10. Painting details and lettering
11. Painting details 2 and finish flats
12. Costume and hair 1
13. Costume and hair 2
14. Assembly and construction
15. Parade, performance and puppet wrangling
16. Perform parade
While teaching the students how to work as one, Spiral Q tries to convey to students how to be nice to one another and understand each other without stereotyping. According to papers distributed by Spiral Q, “The curriculum is designed to inspire and develop expressive tools, to encourage innovative thinking and experimentation, and to engage students as active citizens in shaping their communities.”
Spiral Q artists also create puppets for the use in festivals, cultural institutions, libraries, schools, museums, and theatres.
Living Loft Puppet Museum
Open by appointment only, the Living Loft Puppet Museum features many of the giant puppets used by the theater. Visitors may see six-foot human heads, birds, fish, costumes and other giant creations. There are also toy theater displays of Philadelphia landmarks. Tours include art-related activities and a history of the theater company.See also
- PuppetistaPuppetistaPuppetista is a word coined in 2000 by a group of puppeteers who make and use puppets in street theater and political demonstrations. Formed by combining the words "puppet" and Zapatista, the term originated in the Northeastern United States and quickly picked up use in the South, Midwest and on...
- Medieval pageant
- In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask TheatreIn the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask TheatreIn the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre is a puppet company from Minneapolis, Minnesota. HOBT began in 1973 as Powderhorn Puppet Theatre, named for a neighborhood park and lake in Minneapolis, and changed their name in 1979...
- Superior Concept MonstersSuperior Concept MonstersSuperior Concept Monsters is an ensemble of performing artists and theatrical technicians devoted to pageant puppetry and processional art. They are best known for creating the large-scale puppet performances that lead New York's Village Halloween Parade...