Joseph Cashore made his first marionette at the age of eleven.
“I had seen a marionette in a store, asked the lady if I could try it out, and she wouldn't let me,” he told a group of Hillsdale theater majors and faculty at a workshop on Friday. “So I went home and made my own.”
It was not until after graduating from the University of Notre Dame that Cashore made his second marionette. Later, Cashore created the puppet Maestro Janos Zelinka, an old man holding a violin, which inspired Cashore to make a marionette show in which he did not have to remain behind a backdrop. To ensure that his presence on stage would not be a distraction, Cashore designed and built the marionettes himself so that limited movement from him still allowed the puppets to exhibit a broad range of motion.
At the workshop, Cashore allowed the students and faculty to examine the marionettes and even allowed them to try operating one. He also showed them an elephant marionette on which he worked for three years. He had trouble at first because the puppet was too heavy, but he finally created a harness that allowed the weight to be placed on his hip instead of his shoulders. Laughter rose from the students as the elephant paraded across the stage, waving his ears and swishing his tail.
“I make everything in the show, everything you see,” Cashore said. His vast knowledge on marionettes is completely self taught. “I've read every book I can find on the subject.”
Cashore draws inspiration from the scenes his puppets portray by watching day to day occurrences.
“Everyday things,” he said. “Just observation of things in nature.”
Later that evening, Cashore and his wife Wilma charmed a full house at Markel auditorium with the marionettes they made in a program called “Simple Gifts.” The audience was moved from laughter to tears as they watched a young “man” shaking with nervousness as he clutched a trapeze bar and later saw an old lady resting her hand on the tombstone of her beloved. The performance was set to music by several classical composers and portrayed everyday scenes, such as a mother rocking her baby to sleep.
For several of the students who watched the Cashore Marionettes perform that evening, it was the marionettes' ability to imitate human mannerisms such as a mother dangling her baby or a student performing the Michael Jackson moonwalk across the stage that sparked their interest.
“Since he made [the marionettes] himself, I thought that his attention to detail was outstanding,” said sophomore Rachel Ward. “I thought it was amazing … it was very intricate.”
Sophomore Marianne Rodriguez had a similar reaction.
“I really liked it because of the artistic detail that Mr. Cashore used to bring his puppets to life,” she said. “He showed the little details of motion.”
George Angell, professor of theater, who helped bring the Cashore Marionettes to Hillsdale, was pleased with the caliber of the performance and the audience response.
“The focus of all three of this year's Arts Performance theatre choices is to provide high quality, artistic performance experiences for the community's families and children,” he said. “I wanted programming that would appeal to adults as well, a ‘bring the whole family' kind of approach. We certainly achieved that with Fred Garbo's Inflatable Theatre last semester, and judging by the audience response I'd say we did it again with the Cashores.”