The 'Sounds of Westfield' series kicks off on Tuesday, February 18th with a day of puppetry for all ages! Brought to Westfield by the Imaginary Friends Puppet Theater, and with support from the Mass Cultural Council. Its creator and master puppeteer, Bill Kassay, took time for an interview to explain his process.
Ok, first things first. You are an Army Veteran, but you also have a background in Jitterbug, acting, and choreography—even as a Birthday Clown! What drew you to puppetry?
-You know how the sense of smell is the most closely wired to your brain and memory? That’s how I feel about puppetry as a performance art. Almost every adult at one point in their lives played with toys. There is something very nostalgic about toys. A kid, sitting alone in his playroom with his/her toys, has an unspoken wish that the toys could come to life and play with them. When performing for kids, we get to see their imaginations light up because the toys they wish could come to life and play with them are actually coming to life! They want to touch the puppets. They want to talk to the puppets. We’ve had a few kids tattle to the puppets on their parents! Kids see the puppets as kindred spirits and, because of that, the messages and lessons we teach really stick with them. What we see in adults is a reversion to a childlike state. They are just as fascinated as the kids are! We tend to get BIGGER laughs out of kid jokes from the parents than we do out of the kids. My thought is that it hits them right in the nostalgia. As an artist, this allows us to speak to 5-year old mommy or daddy, allowing us to ask that kid inside just what they think of how they grew up? We teach the kids, but get the parents to reflect.
What does bringing your work to an audience, specifically kids, mean to you and the Imaginary Friends?
-We have created a play space for the kids at Imaginary Friends that they can access in a live theater environment. One of our missions is to create a niche that normalizes live theatre to young kids. Being in downtown Harrisburg, there are several other live theaters that do amazing work! The problem is that the programming doesn't really cater until the kids are school age. The shows are very sophisticated and sometimes out of reach of 2-5 year olds, who need more interaction. I think we provide that interaction and we hope to see our audience “graduate” to the other theaters and eventually, as adults, see live theater as a normal option for their entertainment. We feel like we are providing a service that helps the theatre industry as a whole. Plus, woah boy! The kids we entertain have very limited filters and we LOVE THAT!
Why did you name your project/show ‘Imaginary Friends’?
-I get asked this A LOT and I never get tired of answering it! When we were developing the idea, we knew we wanted a live host. Even before choosing our puppets, we looked at that host. We came up with Rylie as a name, mostly because it is non-gender specific and would give us flexibility in casting. In my mind, Rylie is a 10-year old girl. 10-year old girls have problems just like anyone and we wanted to explore those problems, as a lot of them are relatable to adults as well. Why doesn’t so-and-so like me? What is this emotion I’m feeling? How can I be a better person? Rylie is the star of the show, even though she is often upstaged by the puppets. It is through Rylie that every show’s story moves.
The first show we wrote, “A New Neighbor,” dealt with someone strange moving into the neighborhood. This can be a source of excitement for a 10-year old girl, but also a source of anxiety - and imagine what the new neighbor is dealing with? We chose an elephant as the new neighbor. The elephant explained to Rylie that he didn’t have any friends in his old hometown and, although we never said it out loud, we hinted at the fact that he was fat-shamed. This is an all too real problem for kids. Body shaming is a form of bullying and has probably been around since humans learned to talk. Of course, the neighbor is accepted and the show ends with a party celebrating our new friend.
But, again, Rylie is the star of the show. As we started to develop our next show, we, as a troupe, really had a chance to dive into the “Rylie Universe” and what that first show meant. Did an elephant actually move in next door? Of course not. Not in the real world. It was the definition of “the real world” that struck us as important and the best way we could serve this universe we built.
We identified in the very beginning who lived in Rylie’s room. There’s Sasha, her knucklehead shark. Sasha is a goldfish that Rylie won at a carnival. Daisy is a doll that once belonged to Rylie’s grandmother. Fallon is a fruit bat that lives in a tree that exists in the real world as a mural painted on Rylie’s wall. We built Rylie’s universe mostly on accident, but as we began to explore it, we found that there was something deeply psychological about it. Why the fish? Why the doll? As we answered these questions, we were able to expand the canon and eventually start answering the question, “Who is Rylie?” Kind of a backwards way to create, right?
Rylie is a 10-year old girl who’s grandmother recently passed away. Her parents have been having a hard time coping with this loss and, as a result, Rylie has found herself alone quite often. Her parents are still loving and decent people, but there is a distance now that wasn’t there before. Rylie leans on her goldfish, doll, and fruit bat for help exploring her own psyche. Each friend has their own unique personality. Daisy, who was close to Rylie’s grandmother once, is the voice of wisdom a lot of times. Daisy has essentially replaced Rylie’s grandmother. Fallon is whimsical and funny. Sasha is precocious and sweet. We developed a “pet” rat, Franklin, who is actually just a mouse that Rylie sees occasionally running along the wall. He is always creeping around so he knows everything and sees everything, answering Rylie’s questions in riddles.
The puppets are truly Rylie’s imaginary friends who come to life when Rylie needs emotional help. They aid her in figuring out what she’s feeling, or how she’s supposed to act, or how to interpret something that happened in the real world. Through Rylie, we can tackle complex questions of emotional intelligence. We’ve looked at cultural differences, being brave for her first sleepover, and taking accountability for your actions and stopping a cycle of abuse. The Imaginary Friends all truly believe that love makes the world a better place.
Who is your favorite puppet (c’mon you must have one!)
-Buck! He will be featured in our storytime series opening in a few weeks. He is a 10-year old boy with a beard that looks a lot like mine! He’s a little dim, but VERY confident. In the Rylie Universe, Buck is a kid from her school that she thinks is hilarious!
Imaginary Friends is performing two shows at the WWC in February: what can we expect from the first show vs. the second?
-The first show, “The Case of the Cookie Thief” is written for a young audience. Rylie stayed up late last night making cookies with her mom and can’t wait to share the cookies with her friends! BUT, someone stole the cookies! Rylie and her friends piece clues together to figure out what happened! This show is fun because it allows the audience to help identify what the clues might mean. This is the first appearance of Franklin, the pet rat who always answers in riddles! This show teaches the importance of honesty and sticking up for your friends.
The second show, “Rylie’s Rotten Day” is a little more mature. Rylie is late getting home from school and is in a terrible mood. She takes this frustration out on her friends until Daisy teaches her that bullying can create more bullying. This show is more musical than the first show and includes a game at the end that will get everyone dancing! This show teaches about recognizing anger as an emotion and the importance of making your friends feel safe.
Showtimes:
11am: 'The Mystery of the Cookie Thief'
2pm: 'Rylie's Rotten Day'
Tickets are $10 each, or 2 for $15
You are the recipient of the Jim Henson Award for Puppetry. What does this award mean for you? How does Henson inspire what you do?
-Oh man, it was a terrific honor when I received that award! Second question first:
As a child of the 70s, I grew up on the original Muppet Show. A few things fascinated me about that show. First, the puppetry. The writing was exquisite and the technical aspects of the show were/are flawless. Second, the guest stars! As a kid, you ride around in your mom’s car while she listens to the radio and you get to know the music your mom likes. This was before MTV, so a 6-year old kid had no way of knowing what Elton John looked like!! Seeing the music from the radio performed on stage with the Muppets was AMAZING!
In 2018, I earned a role in a production of Animal Farm. The animals were mostly actors dressed up like pigs, or horses, or dogs, etc.. But the farm was rounded out by puppets. I immediately fell in love with puppetry. I developed a pre show routine where I would strut the rooster, or a puppy, or a sheep around the audience, sniffing at sneakers or peeking into bags. Total commitment! Eventually, I took a puppetry class at University of Maryland (Henson’s alma mater!) and learned the technical side of the industry. COVID hit and suddenly, I had time to create. I developed a few films and a web series. My playwriting instructor saw the announcement about the Henson award being offered and I jumped at it!
Your evening film is quite different from the daytime events, and geared towards adults. Tell us a bit about ‘Exousia’. Where did the idea come from?
-This was my Henson project. I was doing a lot of writing about ancient ideas and traditions translated into today’s world, reading about mythology and folklore. About what water meant in stories and what crossroads meant in music for example. I came across this ancient Greek word, Exousia. It translates to power of authority. Back then, it most likely described the power a master had over his slaves, or a man had over women. Or the Gods’ power over humans. It seems like it's an outdated word, but the more I thought of it, the more I realized that the term is just as relevant today as it ever was.
Exousia was originally going to be a stage play, although the story wasn’t fleshed out. I knew that I wanted to explore a power dynamic that was absolutely evil and there was nothing that could be done about it - all set in a modern place with modern problems.
I would explore capitalist greed and colonization. But, man, that wasn’t the first thought even. The first thought was of a Whack-a-mole game!
The first time I saw a Whack-a-mole machine was in a run-down Chuck E Cheese in like 1986. I liked the game. The moles had these syrupy little smiles on their faces and the machine had a whir to it that made you want to be a little careful so as to not be the one to break it. You got like, 1 minute, to whack as many moles as you could and got a gift ticket based on how many you hit. I don’t know. I guess it was fun.
But, what was in it for the moles???
The Blood Diamonds stories come to mind. What is essentially slave labor going into mines for valuable diamonds and the money from the sale funding private militias and funding violent unrest. Honestly, there’s about 700 years or more of these same stories happening all over the world. All in the service to free market capitalism. We have human moles and people are getting prize tickets for their pain and suffering. Exousia.
When the show was presented for the first time, I was working at a restaurant and couldn’t get my shift covered. It was still COVID, so they presented it online. I hid my phone back in the server alley and checked the online comments as often as I could. EVERYONE was rooting for the moles! That’s the power of art. Now, to make the connection between the “Moles Universe” and the real life.
6pm: Screening of 'Exousia' followed by
Q&A with Bill Kassay
This event is FREE, with a short reception to follow.
What else can your audience look forward to?
What I hope they can look forward to is a full day of music, comedy, and learning. My advice to anyone who comes out to see the show is to clear your mind and let the puppets talk to you. Have fun, obviously, but be prepared to be self-reflective. As Sasha says in Rylie’s Rotten Day, “Love will always make the world a better place to live in!”
For more information about
Imaginary Friends Puppet Theater:
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