Theatre Professor Amy Trompetter to Adapt Pushkin for New Music
and Puppet Theatre
Amy Trompetter, a puppeteer and Barnard theatre faculty member, is working on a new music theatre and puppet adaptation of the Alexander Pushkin story, "The Queen of Spades," in a collaboration with Russian composer Alexander Bakshi and director Kama Ginkas.  "The Queen of Spades" is not only a beloved short story, but also a revered Tchaikovsky opera. Composing a new piece that rivals that icon is daring and Trompetter noted: "Bakshi's colleagues in Russia advised him not to try, but a reinterpretation focusing on the perils of money speculation, rather than the romantic hook, appealed to him."
She was invited to take on the project after St. Ann's Theatre Warehouse staged a revival of her giant puppet opera, "The Barber of Seville," in 2003. She proposed the collaboration to Bakshi, who agreed that the naïve formalism of puppetry was right for Pushkin.
Trompetter received a Jim Henson Foundation Project Grant to develop the piece; the plan is to produce the show in both Moscow and New York.
Bakshi came to Barnard last fall, participating in a workshop production that involved 20 students, and a Harriman Institute sponsored panel discussion on Pushkin. A faculty travel grant allowed Trompetter to go to Russia over spring break, where she and Bakshi developed the libretto.
Trompetter discovered puppetry in the 1960s, working with the Bread & Puppet Theater. Self-trained, she spent several years directing global puppetry productions. Trompetter was invited to France and Italy as part of initiatives to revive local carnival traditions, and to Botswana to create a pageant honoring village traditions. "Somehow puppetry is familiar to people," Trompetter says. "The archtypes are known to us, the materials are simple and accessible. Kids can do it, grown-ups can do it--it's not that there aren't skills involved, but the energy of it can be presented in a straightforward way that's very successful and powerful as theatre."
Since joining the Barnard faculty in 1995, Trompetter has been committed to including students in her productions. When the "Barber of Seville" travels to Vienna next year, two Barnard and Columbia alumnae will go with it; last November several Barnard students and alum toured Trompetter's adaptation of Oscar Wilde's "The Happy Prince" with Kentucky Opera. A study-abroad initiative between Barnard and the Moscow Art Theatre School is feeding into another Pushkin adaptation; Trompetter is currently working with Barnard theatre students fluent in Russian, and next fall the Slavic and Theatre Departments will bring Moscow Art Theatre's Sergei Zemtsov to campus for an acting-puppet intensive.
Trompetter is equally proud of winning the 2006 Emily Gregory teaching award at Barnard, which she called "a real celebration of puppetry," and credited Barnard students for excelling in the medium. "There's so much possibility in puppetry," Trompetter says, noting how it can be a vehicle for opera houses or street festivals. Right now her students are touring a hand puppet show about incarceration and prison expansion to a conference, festival and several social service programs. "Barnard students have such spirit and enthusiasm, they're willing to work hard and they take strong ethical stances. It's been tremendous to work together and invent new forms."
--Ilana Stanger-Ross —4/25/06 |
