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The master puppeteer tunes into the rhythm of existence
This here is the Hell Mouth," says grey-bearded director and master puppet builder Ralph Lee, emerging from the gaping mouth of a dragon, looking slightly disheveled. He extends a hand in greeting.
The dragon is one of the many fantastic figures Lee has created during his 30-year career. He and his wife Casey Compton, the company manager and founding member of Lee's group, the Mettawee River Company, have been working 12-hour days to unpack and mount a retrospective of Lee's work called "Masks, Festival Figures and Theatre Designs," on exhibit through May 2 at the Library of the Performing Arts at Lincoln Center in New York City.
Lee strides across the room to help hoist his 14-foot Rock Giant puppet to a standing position. With the aid of the crew, the puppet slowly lurches up, his immense grey hands dangling at his sides. There are dozens of Lee's figures arrayed in the library's second-floor gallery. Built from every possible material-rattan, papier mache, burlap, wire, straw, even old hubcaps from cars-they are both otherworldly and startlingly real. But to feel them come alive, you must see them in performance.
One warm September evening last year, my family and I joined several hundred people sitting on picnic blankets on a grassy hilltop in the New York Botanical Garden in the Bronx. We were gathered to see Mettawee perform the Greek myth, Persephone, retold with actors and giant puppets.
As a gold moon rose over the treetops, we uncorked wine bottles and settled in. Candles flickered in the grass, and the notes of a clarinet sounding over the hill signaled the start of the drama. First the mortals appeared, treading the stage wearily. Like us, they had been toiling day after day, year after year. And they were just our size, played by actors-common actors. The gods, however, were something different: huge masks on long poles, robes flowing behind them in a maelstrom of anger, jealousy, lust. Demeter and Persephone flew forward with a fearful urgency. Mount Olympus materialized from a sheet of burlap and lumbered forward like an old beast. The audience, adult and child alike, was transfixed. To the side of the action, Ralph Lee sat...