Get the Best Family Activities
Open only on Saturdays from May to October, the library sees about 30 to 50 patrons on a given day; many are performers or community groups looking to borrow puppets for street festivals and block parties. Dancing skeletons are popular around Halloween and for Day of the Dead celebrations, but there’s also the occasional activist looking to spice up the next demonstration or rally. Don’t ask for a George Bush puppet, they don’t have them. As Linnihan points out, a Puppeteers’ Cooperative puppet is more likely to pop up in a play about affordable housing and community gardens than in a White House protest. Borrow as many as you can carry, the organization only asks for basic contact information, which is kept in a notebook, and a suggested donation of $5.
Do the puppets come back? “We haven’t had a single theft since we’ve been open,” says Linnihan with a mixture of pride and pleasure in her voice. “It really restores your faith in human nature. I think it’s because when you trust people, they respond in an honorable way.”
Once the fellows from the Jeffersonville Jamboree were on their way, Reinier had a moment between visitors to catch her breath. “It’s kind of a magical space to climb around,” she observed, and she’s right. Just stepping through the yellow door into a hollow arch filled with puppets is like discovering the wardrobe to Narnia or finding Platform Nine and Three-quarters to catch the Hogwarts Express, only it’s all in plain sight. Outside, cars zoom by Grand Army Plaza, shoppers buy fresh corn from the green market across the street, and a real bride and groom pose for the camera, unaware that right under their nose, “City Puppet” waits for someone to take her home.
Bas Sax/The Bass Saxophone, a marionette production from The Czechoslovak American Marionette Theatre, plays every weekend through October 30 at the Memorial Arch. Shows are Fridays at 8pm, Saturdays at 3 & 8pm, and Sundays at 3pm. For further information, visit www.czechmarionettes.org.
