Press

“The original creative genius behind Redmoon Theater… the proficient and ambitious Shelton is remarkable… …Thomas’ inspired design is wondrous, strange and enticing – he is not only a fabulous craftsman, but a zany mechanic as well… …A glittering example of why this ancient form endures.”
Hedy Weiss, Chicago Sun-Times

“Thomas is a remarkable artist – technique and commitment nothing short of staggering.”
Chris Jones, Chicago Tribune

<back

Description

Blair Thomas, whose “work so impressed festival organizers that they practically built [the festival] around him,” Pittsburgh City Paper, founded Blair Thomas & Company. in January 2002, following his work with Redmoon Theatre Company as a founding member in 1989. Supporting the development of his puppet-based visual theatre work, The Chicago Tribune states: “the technique and commitment on display is nothing short of staggering.”

Since its inception, Blair Thomas & Company has performed at museums, theaters, festivals, university classrooms, and in open fields. The artistic excellence of  Blair Thomas & Company has been recognized by The Chicago Community Trust, The Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, the Jim Henson Foundation, the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs, among others.

<back

Blair Thomas Biography

Blair Thomas has been selected as the 2006-2007 Jim Henson Artist-in-Residency position at the University of Maryland, College Park. He has been on the faculty of The School of the Art Institute of Chicago since 1991.

In the fall of 2006, Thomas’s puppet and set design will be featured in Trinity Rep Company’s Christmas Carol and an original adaptation of the Snow Queen directed by Frank Galati at Chicago’s Victory Gardens Theater.
 
In the fall of 2005 Thomas premièred Fast Fish Children’s Puppet Theater, Blair Thomas & Co’s wing devoted to high quality productions for young audiences, with The Rabbit’s Tale. This bunraku show is staged to a live piano performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. In April 2007 it will be premièred to Ravel’s orchestration of the same work with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Symphony Center.

In summer of 2003 Thomas self-published an artist’s book, titled Blackbird Book. This rendering of his scroll and shadow puppet show, based on Wallace Stevens’ poem “Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird” and Ben Johnston’s microtonal string quartet No.4 was printed in a limited edition of 1000. In the winter of 2005 Thomas premièred Pierrot Lunaire: A Cabaret Opera - an original theatrical staging of Arnold Schoenberg’s chamber music song-cycle in collaboration with the contemporary chamber music group eighth blackbird and soprano Lucy Shelton. This show toured over the past year with another eighth blackbird collaboration Reflections on the Nature of Water, an original buraku puppet show staged to Jacob Druckman’s composition of the same title to such venues as San Francisco State University, Chicago’s Museum of Contemporary Art, and Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival.

In January of 2002, Thomas founded  Blair Thomas & Company to support the development of his puppet theater vision. In the past four years his new company has produced six original works of puppet theater. In that time he has been awarded the UNIMA (International Puppetry Association) citation for excellence in puppetry in 2002 and 2004 as well as two Fellowship awards from the Illinois Arts Council.

One of the first projects Blair Thomas & Co undertook was a long-term collaboration with composer/percussionist Michael Zerang entitled 108 Ways to Nirvana. Over the past four years they have completed seven installments of this collaboration including the video/live music short Good Air, the puppet/percussion piece Buster Keaton and the Buddha, and the video installation Light Tree Forest. His one-man band puppet show based on texts by Federico Garcia Lorca titled The Poet, the Puppet & the Prisoner premiered for a two-week run at Pittsburgh's Blacksheep Puppet Festival, where Thomas was the featured artist. This presentation wad followed by a seven-week Chicago run at Pegasus Players Theater in the fall of 2002.

<back

Repertory

Pierrot Lunaire (44 minutes) and Reflections on the Nature of Water (20 minutes)

Pierrot Lunaire and Reflections on the Nature of Water tour together, a collaboration with eight blackbird (touring in conjunction with ICM Artists). Pierrot Lunaire, Schoenberg’s landmark twelve-tone cabaret opera, features soprano Lucy Shelton.

Extended description coming soon…

Rabbit's Tale (40 minutes)

Written, Directed and Designed by Blair Thomas
staged to Modest Mussorgsky's "Pictures at an Exhibition"

In this wordless story, a rabbit befriends a young boy only to be swindled away by two long-nosed twin tricksters. A dancing wise man and a clumsy giant ogre each try to assist, but ultimately it’s the gentleness of the rabbit that warms the hearts of his captors. Full size Bunraku puppets larger than human scale costumed characters are employed to perform this simple though powerful story.

Running time: 40 minutes
Ideal age group: 3-9 year olds
Audience size: 100-500

Presenter’s space requires:
Grand piano (tuned) 6 – 9 foot
Stage size: 28’wide, 20’deep and 12’ tall
No lights or sound equipment needed

Company Size: 7 – 5 puppeteers, pianist and tech manager
Set up time: 1hour before performance
Strike time: 30 minutes

Fast Fish Puppet Theater a division of  Blair Thomas & Company is devoted to the creation of touring productions for young audiences. The Rabbit Man’s Tale is its first production.  Blair Thomas & Company gratefully acknowledges the support from Elizabeth Cheney Foundation, Richard H. Driehaus Foundation, Frankel Foundation, Irving Harris Foundation, Morris and Mayer Kaplan Foundation, O’Donnell Family Foundation, the Weasel Foundation, the Illinois Arts Council, a state agency and the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.

Ox Herder's Tale (estimated 80 minutes)

The Ox-Herder Tale is 80 minutes of visual theater, with 3 puppeteers, 4 performers (including the stilt walkers), 2 percussionists, and two crew/staff (total touring company of 11). Michael Zerang will create the score and perform with his long-time collaborator Hamid Drake. Leslie Buxbaum will serve as clown director. Tatjana Radisic is designing costumes and Chris Binder designing lights. I will design and build all puppets.

This new work for the theater is an interpretation of a collection of 10 paintings and their accompanying texts that is variously referred to as “The Ox-Herder Tale” or “10 Bulls.” The work sets a vision of an ancient eastern narrative in the context of a contemporary western world. In doing this, the work combines the disparate performance styles of contemporary clown, Japanese bunraku puppetry, traditional burlesque dancing, and stilt walking - all staged to a dynamic live drumming score. Thomas creates a clown-world of comic confusion from which a journey towards the serenity of enlightenment is made via the theatrical staging. The story is told without any intelligibly recognized spoken word.

The historical collection of paintings does not originate from a single source, but is rather like a spiritual folksong seasoned over centuries of use as a Buddhist parable. In it is seen a man searching for a bull that he must capture, tame, and ride home. Once he achieves this he realizes he no longer needs the whip or rope he used to gentle the bull, nor in fact does he even need the bull. With these realizations he is able to return to his original nature and finally reenter the world with an open heart and helping hand. Thomas chooses as primary sources the verses from the 12th Century master Kakuan and the pictures from the 15th Century Japanese artist Shobun.

Blair Thomas and Company premiered The Ox-Herder’s Tale at the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center in Maryland, Sept 21-23, 2006. A co-commission of Clarice Smith PAC and City of Chicago’s Silk Road Project, Ox-Herder’s Tale is based on an ancient Buddhist picture parable, featuring the drumming duo Michael Zerang and Hamid Drake.

<back