We were a great team and finished the papier mâché work while chatting away about our lives. We worked together on two bird heads and a jaguar head. I got to make friends with my creative partners-a family of three who live in the area. In the process of creating together we transcended personal and societal barriers, becoming a community and a team. Despite the heat, they transformed glue and paper into intricate and emotive masks and puppets. I was amazed and impressed by the dedication, artistry, and enthusiasm demonstrated by the participants. Everywhere I looked, there was such a sense of great diligence and pride in the artmaking going on, and the results were beautiful. The community-made masks are really stunning. What really blew me away was the artistic caliber of work that came out of this workshop. I talked to children, grandparents, teenagers, mothers and fathers while I worked-the whole experience felt like one big family event.
Right away, I found a flamingo mask in need of painting, and the next couple hours completely flew by. The mask-making workshop was one of my favorite things I’ve been a part of at CTG.
Here are some of our staff members’ impressions of the experience, and what it was like to participate in a Center Theatre Group production in a very different capacity from usual! In fact, even before rehearsals began, staff members volunteered their time-on some of the hottest weekends of the summer-to assist with puppet- and mask-making workshops at Self Help Graphics in Boyle Heights, which were designed by master puppet maker Beth Peterson and ETC. Which is why we called on staff members across nearly every department in the company to help out in one way or another. Mounting Popol Vuh: Heart of Heaven this past fall was a highlight of 2015 for Center Theatre Group, and like nothing we’d ever done before-from the giant puppets to the staging in Grand Park to the unprecedented collaboration with Boyle Heights community members and El Teatro Campesino (ETC).
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