Poster by Erik Ruin.
Curated and hosted by Morgan F.P. Andrews.

An image from THE NOTHING FACTORY.

Shadow puppeteer Erik Ruin and avant-punk musican Reid Books were collaborating on a 40-minute rock opera: THE NOTHING FACTORY. In looking for opening acts, it turned into an evening of "picture theater"—a form of performance that's common at Puppet Uprising events but not often thought of as "puppetry" in more mainstream circles.

The evening began with Morgan F.P. Andrews' slide presentation (with ukelele accompaniment) on THE HISTORY OF PICTURE THEATER, beginning with Al Gore ("our president") and ending wih prehistoric cave paintings. In between we saw images of subversive devices, such as slide and overhead projectors; Italian cantastoria and German bänkelsang banner shows that were punishible by arrest; scrolling wayang beber shadow shows from Indonesia; illuminated pår paintings from Pakistan; emaki, etoki and kamishibai as performative precursors to Japan's manga comics —just to name a few. Then Ryoga Katsuma, born and raised in Kyoto, now living in Queens, graced us with a performance of his original kamishibai theater story, INVITATION CARD FROM PAPA. The audience sucked on candy as an audience of children would have in 20th century Japan where candy sellers performed kamishibai from the backs of their bicycles. "This is very traditional," Ryoga explained. Then he ran around the room and ripped off his shirt while screaming.

Hans Rickheit gave a live broadcast of his Xeric Award-winning CHROME FETUS COMICS with live violin and trombone music from Katt Hernandez and Dan Blacksberg giving it the sensation of a deranged antique film strip. Then the dystopic shadow theater epic THE NOTHING FACTORY demonstated more piture theater techniques: intricately cut shadow window panels, painted and altered slides, giant scrolling projections, and life-size toy theater landscapes that built and destroyed themselves throughout the story's unraveling. Erik Ruin provided and performed all the art. Narration was delivered by Anissa Weinraub with directorial assistance by Sarah Lowry. Reid books wrote the story and songs and led the Aetherial Underpants Orchestra in providing its spookily suspenseful soundtrack—the loudest in Puppet Uprising history.

See Erik Ruin's art here.
Hear Katt Hernandez's music here.
See Ryoga Katsuma's kamishibai here.
Read the Wikipedia entry on kamishibai here. It contians links to other picture theater entries.