The flat puppet s ha ve movable joints that are animated by using rods. I n Javanese, wa yang means “shadow,” “imagination” or “spirit,” and kulit means “skin” – the puppets here are usually made of leather. In Indonesia it is known as wayang or wayang kulit, and is common in Java and Bali. This tradition has been picked up all over Southeast Asia. Sometimes the shows are performed by families of itinerant puppeteers. The shows are usually staged during Hindu festivals and stories drawn from Indian epics feature prominently. Shadow puppets have a long history in India and different parts of the sub-continent have their own versions of the art. It's a topic Augustson says he's been yearning to address through the shadow puppets that he himself cuts.One of the arts spread through the indianization of Southeast Asia is shadow puppetry. D espite one of its protagonists being a chicken with a comically shrill voice, Bury Me Under I-5 tells the story of two characters and the circumstances that bring them to a homeless encampment under I-5 in Seattle. 'It’s like it’s humor, it’s talking animals, and then it kind of surprises you when you… get caught up in a way that you didn’t expect to.'

It's more than one would expect of funny voices and animal puppets, but Augustson says that it’s a purposeful shock. 'That’s actually one of my strategies,' he says. Rigsby’s plays often examine darker themes, like abusive relationships and trauma, through serious drama imbued with raunchy humor. It’s a simple format, and one that Augustson and Hando initially found attractive as it didn’t require costuming their actors. Center stage sits a framed, illuminated scrim where Augustson commandeers animal cut-outs as lines are read. The shows typically unfold like this: voice actors sit at a long table with mics and sound effect equipment (bells, planks of wood to knock, things like that), much like the cast of an old radio show. As someone only recently introduced to shadow puppetry herself, she scrambles to explain the spirit behind Bury Me Under I-5's startling dark humor and depth. “They automatically think Sesame Street, sock puppets,” says Montes, who voices more than 20 characters for the show. It’s why one the show’s four voice actors, Jordi Montes, has to explain herself whenever friends find out about her latest gig.

Rigsby shows, like their 2015 run of The Ballad of Karla Fox.īut for most, puppets don’t exist outside the realm of Jim Henson or street performance, much less with an emphasis on dark drama. Most shows cross sex jokes with somber themes, like Augustson's. It's a rare place that regularly garners audiences looking for serious puppetry through annual 'puppet slams.' Small as it may be, the theater's nighttime performances are usually packed with regulars or people just looking for something a little different (cautiously prepped with a drink in hand from the theater's bar). The theater's foyer resembles the inside of an adobe house and stringed lights hang above the audience seats in its tiny performance space. In recent years, the troupe found a home at the Theatre Off Jackson-a small, quirky venue holed up by a pho restaurant in the International District. Since then, the duo have produced these local shadow puppetry shows, each with varying degrees of humor and drama. The shadow puppetry group has been operating in some form or another for 23 years after founders Augu stson and Stephen Hando put on their first show at the Rebar. Rigsby and His Amazing Silhouettes, managed to carve out a space for their craft in the city's theater scene. Adult puppetry is pretty niche, even for Seattle.

Indonesian shadow puppetry