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 had beencollaborating on a 40-minute rock opera called The Nothing Facotry. 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," a back-in-time journey from Al Gore's apocalyptic PowerPoints to the prehistoric cave painting. In between we saw such subversive devices as slide and overhead projectors; Italian cantastoria and German bänkelsang banner shows that were punishible by arrest; scrolling wayang beber shadow plays 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 children would have in early 20th century Japan where candymen 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 violin and trombone music from Katt Hernandez and Dan Blacksberg amplifying Rickheit's deranged antique film strip aesthetic. Then the dystopic shadow theater epic The Nothing Facotry demonstated more picture 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.