Puppets, projections create 'Gossamer' dream world

The author of more than 30 books, Newbery Medal-winning Lois Lowry, had never tackled a play until two children's theaters asked her to adapt her 2006 novel Gossamer for the stage.

The tale of John, an abused boy, his lonely caregiver, his struggling mother and magical dream-givers, "Gossamer" was first performed in 2008 by the Oregon Children's Theatre in Portland and First Stage Children's Theater in Milwaukee. It makes its Chicago debut on Saturday when Adventure Stage Chicago opens its season at the Vittum Theater. Lowry will be on hand for the show, which incorporates projection and puppetry to emulate dreams, dreamgivers and the nightmare-inflicting Sinisteeds.

Lowry said she found the playwriting experience "exhilarating," and she's looking forward to seeing what director Brian Bell and puppet designers Cynthia Von Orthal and Tiffany Lange have created.

Only one of the two original versions of "Gossamer" used a puppet and that was to portray the old woman's dog, Toby. Told that the Adventure Stage interpretation uses more puppets, Lowry was intrigued.

"That will be interesting and that will be very different," she said. "It's an interesting procedure because a theater director takes the script that I've written and turns it into something unique for that theater. I'm very interested to see what they do in Chicago."

Bell said the dreams, dream-makers, Sinisteeds, and the dog made "Gossamer" challenging in terms of scale.

"The whole idea of scale is what led us to the puppetry element," Bell said. "Another element was the dog. The dog was such a huge part of connecting the boy to the woman. ... He transcends the human and the dream world a little bit ... [so] we decided to make him a puppet, as well."

The story switches back and forth between humans and the tiny dreamgivers and hulking Sinisteeds. So while the two main dreamgivers, Littlest One and Thin Elderly, are played by human actors, there are mini-puppet versions of them, which the actors manipulate. The same goes for the Sinisteeds, only those actors handle big puppet versions of themselves. In scenes with just the dreamgivers, the audience sees only the actors, Bell said. Puppets appear in scenes that put human characters and dreamgivers or Sinisteeds together.

"As a director, I'm very sensitive to theatricality and trying to do onstage what theater does best: abstracting things," he added. "That's where the puppets and projection are coming from."

The ACS collaged modern images to create a layering effect; these collages are projected to help the audience enter the story's dream world.

"Projection is a way to open up the window on these dreams," Bell said. "Whenever there's a bestowal [a good dream] or an infliction [a nightmare], we have these moments of projected images that become a dream collage of what's going on in the character's head."

"Gossamer" tackles tough, relevant issues, and that's what makes it a good fit for ASC, according to Bell.

"What's striking about this script is that it's pretty raw," he said. "It goes right to the issues that a lot of our audiences are dealing with: foster care, isolation from parents and abuse. ... They are encased in this story, which is so fantastic and magical and poetic and elegant that it allows those issues ... to be received by the audience in a way that is impactful and constructive rather than being damaging or too raw."

He added, "It speaks directly to our audience while at the same time giving them a theatrical experience that will be very rich."

The Harris Theater's 2009-2010 Kids Series kicks off with Street Beat -- Dance Through the Decades, featuring the River North Chicago Dance Company, at 1 p.m. Saturday. Tickets are $10. The theater is at 205 E. Randolph. Call (312) 334-7777 or visit the Web site www.harristheaterchicago.org.

• Wiggleworms director Laura Doherty performs a family show at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N. Lincoln. Tickets are $12. Call (773) 728-6000 or visit www.oldtownschool.org.

• The Christmas Schooner runs Nov. 12 through Dec. 20 at the Theatre at the Center, 1040 Ridge Rd., Munster, Ind. Tickets are $36 to $40. Call (219) 836-3255; www.tickets.com.

Jennifer Burklow is a local free-lance writer.