{"id":10118,"date":"2019-01-25T11:46:01","date_gmt":"2019-01-25T16:46:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=10118"},"modified":"2019-01-25T11:46:01","modified_gmt":"2019-01-25T16:46:01","slug":"sandglass-theater","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2019\/01\/25\/sandglass-theater\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandglass Theater\u2019s Refugee Stories: \u2018Is It Our Responsibility To Help Everyone?\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Woven through <a href=\"https:\/\/www.puppetshowplace.org\/babylon\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">\u201cBabylon: Journeys of Refugees\u201d<\/a> by Sandglass Theater is a version of the American debate about immigrants and migrants and refugees. \u201cIt\u2019s our obligation to open the door when someone in danger knocks.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t know why our country is supposed to care so much about immigrants.\u201d \u201cA person\u2019s life is never a bad investment.\u201d \u201cHow is this our problem?\u201d \u201cIs it our responsibility to help everyone?\u201d \u201cThis is about our history and the harm that we brought elsewhere that now rolls back on our beaches.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The show is presented by Brookline&#8217;s Puppet Showplace Theater at Suffolk University\u2019s Modern Theatre in Boston from Jan. 24 to 26. Each performance is followed by a conversation with local refugee advocates and Boston community leaders.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/player.vimeo.com\/video\/274571683\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Sandglass Theater is known for \u201ccombining puppets with music, actors, and visual imagery.\u201d This is puppetry as part choral singing, part slam poetry, part experimental theater spectacle. These puppets are life-like sculptures of people, a few feet tall, operated by rods in the arms and a handle at the back of the head, animated by a cast of five performers (Shoshana Bass, Keila K. Ching, Kalob Martinez, Raphael Sacks, Alan White) in full view of the audience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe puppeteers and puppets share the stage. And by animating the puppets in the open, as it were, I think we make the point that we are channels for how these stories are told,\u201d Sandglass co-founder and \u201cBabylon\u201d co-director Eric Bass says. \u201c\u2026We are telling other people\u2019s stories in this show. We do not presume to become these characters. That\u2019s why puppetry is a good way to tell these stories.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10122\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10122\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_04w.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10122\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_04w.jpg\" alt=\"\u201cBabylon: Journeys of Refugees\u201d by Sandglass Theater: The Boy from El Salvador. (Photo: Kiqe Bosch)\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_04w.jpg 500w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_04w-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_04w-370x246.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10122\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u201cBabylon: Journeys of Refugees\u201d by Sandglass Theater: The Boy from El Salvador. (Photo: Kiqe Bosch)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cBabylon\u201d begins with a montage of puppets running, balancing, being tossed about as images, tableaus appear and dissolve. Throughout the show there are visions of puppets are caught in a border fence like a net; refugee camps; rafts; a beating and torture; a caterpillar crawling across the floor; men with rifles, long lines of refugees snaking crossing wastelands.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you walk long enough, when you walk far enough, do you leave a life behind?\u201d the cast sings.<\/p>\n<p>Bass says work on the show began before the 2016 presidential election. Ines Zeller Bass, Sandglass co-founder (and his wife), who made the puppets for the show, \u201cis German. So looking at Europe we were hit by the impact of refugees maybe before it was quite so big a story in the United States.\u201d And after visiting El Salvador for a theater collaboration, he says, \u201cIt struck us very powerfully because we\u2019d been down there and to some extent had seen the impact of gangs on children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A friend introduced them to Amila Merdzanovic, director of United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants in Vermont, which led to opportunities to speak with refugees resettled in Vermont.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of misinformation out there that people are really passionate about,\u201d Bass says. \u201cWe want to give voice to people\u2019s concerns.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10120\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10120\" style=\"width: 743px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_02w.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10120\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_02w-743x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\u201cBabylon: Journeys of Refugees\u201d by Sandglass Theater: The Man from Syria. (Photo: Kiqe Bosch)\" width=\"743\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_02w-743x1024.jpg 743w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_02w-218x300.jpg 218w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_02w-768x1059.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_02w-370x510.jpg 370w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_02w.jpg 1170w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 743px) 100vw, 743px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10120\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u201cBabylon: Journeys of Refugees\u201d by Sandglass Theater: The Man from Syria. (Photo: Kiqe Bosch)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u201cBabylon\u201d tells of an Afghan woman, a Burundi man and daughter, a Salvadorian boy fleeing violence and war in their homelands. A Syrian man rides a boat turned back at the coast of Greece. \u201cIt is death to return to our country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThey\u2019re all amalgams of people\u2019s stories,\u201d Bass says. \u201cOne man told us about his shoes. When you walk 200 miles, there\u2019s nothing left of your shoes. \u2026 Another man we talked to had been in a refugee camp for 20 years and it had become the closest thing to a home. \u2026 And a number of stories that were considerably more gruesome than that.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10121\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10121\" style=\"width: 500px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_03w.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-10121\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_03w.jpg\" alt=\"\u201cBabylon: Journeys of Refugees\u201d by Sandglass Theater: The Woman from Afghanistan. (Photo: Kiqe Bosch)\" width=\"500\" height=\"333\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_03w.jpg 500w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_03w-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_03w-370x246.jpg 370w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 500px) 100vw, 500px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10121\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u201cBabylon: Journeys of Refugees\u201d by Sandglass Theater: The Woman from Afghanistan. (Photo: Kiqe Bosch)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A man in southern Vermont told them of his mother\u2019s flight from Afghanistan. Bass says, \u201cWhen the Taliban came to her village and she had to flee, she only had a minute to grab something, so what she took was 50 pounds of flour, which she carried on her head, not knowing when she\u2019d next have food to feed her children.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The image is incorporated into \u201cBabylon.\u201d Puppeteers sing, \u201cTake something quick, the rest you lose. How can the children still be fed?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Bass says Sandglass \u201ccan\u2019t look at what people call the refugee crisis detached from the ways U.S. policy has made that inevitable or set it in motion perhaps.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>He adds, \u201cWhat we hope for is that we listen to each other\u2019s stories, that we not just look at a situation and throw up our defenses against it, that we find ways or create ways to hear what people are actually experiencing, so we make our decisions on a more real connection.\u201d<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><em>If this is the kind of coverage of arts, cultures and activisms you appreciate, please support Wonderland by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.patreon.com\/wonderlandlandfanclub\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">contributing to Wonderland on Patreon<\/a>. And <a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/subscribe\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">sign up for our free, weekly newsletter<\/a> so that you don&#8217;t miss any of our reporting.<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<figure id=\"attachment_10123\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-10123\" style=\"width: 723px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_01w.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-10123\" src=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_01w-723x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\u201cBabylon: Journeys of Refugees\u201d by Sandglass Theater: The Man from Syria. (Photo: Kiqe Bosch)\" width=\"723\" height=\"1024\" srcset=\"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_01w-723x1024.jpg 723w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_01w-212x300.jpg 212w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_01w-768x1087.jpg 768w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_01w-370x524.jpg 370w, https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/01\/picBabylonSandglass_01w.jpg 1170w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 723px) 100vw, 723px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-10123\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">\u201cBabylon: Journeys of Refugees\u201d by Sandglass Theater: The Man from Syria. (Photo: Kiqe Bosch)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Woven through \u201cBabylon: Journeys of Refugees\u201d by Sandglass Theater is a version of the American debate about immigrants and migrants and refugees. \u201cIt\u2019s our obligation to open the door when someone in danger knocks.\u201d \u201cI don\u2019t know why our country is supposed to care so much about immigrants.\u201d \u201cA person\u2019s life is never a bad [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10127,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[110],"tags":[316,123,422,514,515,196],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10118"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10118"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10118\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10135,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10118\/revisions\/10135"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10127"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}