Enda O. Breadon curates the Kolohe Puppet Slam in Honolulu and has
worked as an actor, director, movement coach and playwright across the United
States and Europe. As a teaching artist in
creative drama, Enda employs both clowning and puppetry. His lifelong love of puppets has led him to include
them in a number of shows that he’s written and directed. While living in Atlanta, he was mentored by Clint Thornton and Spencer Stephens, who he met at the Center for Puppetry Arts.
Enda briefly studied puppetry at the University of Hawai’i.
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2008 Photo: Sandra Payne
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Marsian:
So you are hosting, Kolohe Puppet Slam this month?
Enda Breadon: Honestly, I regularly tell myself, “Holy
crap, no one is going to show up to watch or be in this thing.” I don’t know if paralyzing self-doubt is
normally part of the process for other curators, but it is for me.
M: How do you find acts?
EB: ..After deep philosophical arguments with myself about where to find performers
and audience, I email and call
everyone I know on Oahu who has any connection to puppetry. A number see a “slam” as somehow beneath
them, but I’ve seen some seriously gnarly folks getting excited and stepping up
either to spread the word or enter.
M: Like?
EB: Jeff Gere is a local puppeteer who deserves serious props (notice my
hipster use of 90’s street terms, very “slam” they tell me). The biggest support the slam has gotten is
from Mark Branner, professor of puppetry at UH.
He’s championed the slam to his students and has us connected with the
young performers that are the future of the local arts scene. I’ve been on the UH campus a couple of times
badgering his students to take part, with Mark’s support.
M: What inspired you to start
hosting puppet slams?
EB: I am not, by any stretch of the
imagination, an expert at puppetry. I
had three really strong motivations for making this happen:
1. Selfishly as an audience member, I wanted to make sure there were
opportunities for me to see more puppetry happening;
2. Through the puppetry classes at UH-Manoa there are a lot of young puppeteers
here and I wanted to give all of them an opportunity to get in front of an
audience and try out their material in a way that was not based getting a grade
and made them feel like this was a community to stay and continue their
careers;
3. In Atlanta I saw how great puppet slams in were for encouraging
artists to gather and share ideas. We had
a few really great events serving this purpose, but I’d love to see at least
5-10 more.
M:
Have you performed at other slams?
EB: Again, I feel sheepish in
answering this one. Even though I lived
in Atlanta for six years and worked there regularly for almost ten years, I
never once performed in one of their many slams. It was always on my to-do list, but a
combination of a usually pretty-busy schedule and fear kept me on the sidelines
of Atlanta’s slams – mostly the latter.
M: Well, there’s no time like the present…
EB: I still kick myself in the butt for not using slams as a way to try out
the puppets in several shows that I directed.
For example, in 2008 I did a version of Stewart Little that had some two dimensional puppets that allowed
us to do some really fun chase scenes.
The prop designer called them “protest signs.” I thought they worked great and got good
feedback, but to this day I wish I’d had an extra 3-ish hours of rehearsal time
with them. I could’ve tried them out at
a slam, problem solved. But I guess my
head was in my okole.
M: So you have been hosting your slam at The Actors’ Group in Kohole..
EB: First, I think it’s important to say that the slam might not exist if it
were not for the support of TAG’s Artistic Director, Brad Powell. I have directed exactly one show at TAG. About a year ago, Brad asked me to direct Inspector General, which was my very
first interaction with TAG or with Brad. From the beginning it was part of my
concept to have a sock puppet Greek chorus in Inspector. Because Brad and
I were talking about Inspector General
and about puppets, it was a pretty natural fit to do the first Kolohe Puppet
Slam at TAG. And our sock puppets in Inspector (but not the “head puppets” we
also use) got to use the slam as a way to help the puppeteers improve technique
and find out what worked and didn’t work.
M: Will you be having future slams at TAG?
EB: Unfortunately we’ve just had to move the slam out of TAG. I’m not sure if I’ll direct at TAG
again. Brad hasn’t made a specific
offer, but keeps telling me he wants me back.
The hulabaloo I’ll go into later has me wondering if that would be a
wise decision. The great upside of the
story is that ARTsmith, a venue and artist-collective, stepped up and in the
space of two phone calls was really excited to give our a home to our slam this
month. ARTsmith is about to do some
reorganizing and in the shuffle we may be homeless again. I would love to get
advice from other curators who have gone through this kind of thing.
M: What was it like hosting your very
first slam just a few weeks ago?
EB: I co-hosted with Judy Doodee (Howdy Doodee’s former trophy wife). She was there to shill her new biography, Woodies I Have Known. Apparently, the section on Pinocchio is
pretty steamy.
M: I haven’t seen that title.. I guess it must be too hot for the
Puppetry Store. . .
EB: I wore an Aloha shirt, I guess because I believe in reinforcing
stereotypes. Before the opening, I was sweating in places the FCC doesn’t like
you to talk about.
M: I hear botox can help with that.
EB: The whole day leading up to it my wife and I were making trophies for
the slam. They turned out appropriately
crappy I think. The winner trophy had a
sign on the back that said, “Quit looking
at my ass!” The Russian sock puppets from Inspector General took second place. While not puppeteering, I interacted as part
of their performance. It was later in
the evening, so a lot of the nerves had worn off. But we had judges, so even though I was
co-host and curator, I’ve got a little bit of defense against favoritism
charges.
M: Are you working on anything particular for your next slam?
EB: My friend Lani Murray and I have half-written a dirty puppet piece
about the Bronte sisters using Barbie puppets.
We’re tentatively going to try out at the third Kolohe Puppet Slam. I’m hoping when my wife and I bring our new
baby to the mainland to meet family I can also go to some slams and enter the
Bronte piece. Just FYI, Lani is the
funniest, dirtiest 79-year old I have ever known. On the day we met she told me, “You know the best thing about my double
mastectomy is that I can go topless on Halloween.”
M: It’s a real gift to be able to make your own cancer hilarious. What’s the most exotic location you’ve seen a
slam?
EB: While Honolulu would probably be pretty exotic to a lot of
puppeteers, in comparison to here, I guess the most exotic place I’ve seen a
slam/cabaret was in Dublin. My parents
are from there and my cousin has worked the cabaret circuit with a really
hilarious character I’ve seen her do twice.
Unfortunately the second time I was watching it with my mom and my
cousin’s mom. When she started her dirty
ditties we all tried not to look at each other.
I’m pretty sure she’s taken that character to London and Edinburgh, but
not positive. I also once saw a poetry
slam in Cardiff, Wales, that was really fun because the big name poets – the
big draws – were mostly plastered and didn’t give a shit. One of them joked about how he’d lost a slam
at a boy’s school earlier in the day because the student judges all voted for
the “busty female gym teacher.”
M: What’s the edgiest slam piece you have witnessed?
EB: As for edgiest, it might have been our winner last time. It was a puppet that manipulated his own
puppet, who had just gotten out of prison.
It was really cool. The judges
gave the award to Chucky, the puppet, and not to the puppeteer ultimately
working them both. In the interest of
full disclosure, that puppeteer was Nicole Deslauries, who designed my Russian
sock puppets that got second. I only met
Nicole when she expressed an interest in the slam. So you can point out how awesome she is
and/or point out how the slam is already drawing people together
M: Done! What was the worst slam you’ve been to?
EB: Nothing jumps to mind as far as puppet slams. However, I was once a judge for a high school
acting slam/competition that was beyond painful.
M: What made it a disaster, beyond the obvious?
EB: It was the complete level of bullshit from the parents and
teachers. They were hostile to the
judges, all of whom were professional actors doing it as a favor to the host
school. Just thinking about that now is
a reminder how important it is for me to keep the slam here all about having a
good time. If people are getting angry
emails a week later because of the results and it isn’t fun, nothing else
probably matters. I won’t say the name, but it was pretty prestigious private
school in Atlanta. I hope for the
students’ sake the drama teacher there has grown up a little and it has rubbed
off on the parents.
M: Join us for part 2 of our interview with Enda O. Breadon where we talk more about the Honolulu puppet slam scene…
