It's been a staple of the Syracuse fine art scene for decades, and houses the International Mask and Puppet Museum. Matt Jarchow takes us to Syracuse's Northside, where the Open Hand Theater is bringing puppets to life.
SYRACUSE, N.Y. -- It's bringing puppets to life.
"Open Hand Theater, our mission is to celebrate the human experience through puppetry, mask, and theater traditions from around the world," Managing Director Andrew Wandersee said.
These performances aren't always the cute, cuddly puppets or performances that may come to mind.
"Open Hand Theater has a lot more depth and breadth from that, and we talk about celebrating the human experience because we're not necessarily strictly interested in giving people a fairy tale, happy ending story," Wandersee said.
Instead, the shows vary almost as much as the puppets themselves.
"We build puppets of all shapes and sizes," Wandersee said. "We build all of our own puppets, so we don't purchase puppets from anywhere else. We handcraft them."
Then, the puppets are brought to life inside a handcrafted display.
"We've made a number of small puppet theaters, with different scenery and different either marionettes or hand puppets, and the theaters in themselves are a work of art," Wandersee said.
The Open Hand Theater first took the stage locally in 1980. For decades it has traveled across Upstate New York and as far as Russia while calling Syracuse home.
"We have people who have been supporting us as audience members and as donors since the mid and early '80s, who have just been really consistent and really caring about coming to the shows and bringing friends and sending their kids to circus camp," Wandersee said.
The Open Hand Theater will perform 39 Steps and the Wizard of Oz in the month of May.
For more information or tickets to those shows or any upcoming performances, visit them at this link.