ATLANTA -- Eric Bass, the internationally acclaimed puppet master and co-founder of Sandglass Theater, is bringing two award-winning productions to the campus of Atlanta’s Oglethorpe University this September. During the first weekend of the fall, Autumn Portraits and Isidor’s Cheek will each have two performances in the Conant Performing Arts Center, sponsored by Oglethorpe University and Georgia Shakespeare and presented as part of Oglethorpe’s Arts & Ideas fall season.

Autumn Portraits, conceived and performed by Eric Bass, is a compelling, adult-oriented, solo puppet-and-mask performance with five interlocking vignettes, each exploring one puppet character and its interplay with is manipulator. The handcrafted rod puppets are characters in the “autumn” of their existence who act out their stories in precise and evocative gestures as they meet their pasts, their selves and, ultimately, their deaths. Autumn Portraits runs Saturday, September 24 at 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, September 25 at 7:00 p.m.

Isidor’s Cheek, performed by Sandglass co-founder Ines Zeller Bass, is a children’s show suitable for all ages. Based on a German children’s book, the play tells the tale of Isidor as he searches around the world to find his runaway red cheek. Performed on a revolving stage with all the details of Isidor’s miniature world, the audience sees Isidor travel from his small gray house through a forest of apple trees and an unfriendly city, across a sea of turtles and into the smallest circus in the world. The five-and-a-half inch puppet Isidor is an appropriately small hero for a story with a big heart. Isidor’s Cheek runs Saturday, September 24 at 11 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

The two shows by Sandglass Theater are part of Oglethorpe’s Arts & Ideas fall season. The Fall 2005 Arts & Ideas season includes Focus on Realism: The Permanent Collection, on display at the Oglethorpe University Museum of Art; a lecture on Ritual in Theatre: Why Study the Classics? by Fulbright Scholar-in-Residence Dr. Miroslaw Kocur; W. A. Mozart’s Cosi Fan Tutte presented by the Capitol City Opera Company; A. R. Gurney’s Love Letters; two harpsichord concerts by David Buice; Conversations with Directors: Caryl Churchill’s Futuristic Dramas, in co-operation with 7 Stages; the University Singers and University Chorale Fall Concert; and, to close the season, Oglethorpe’s annual Boar’s Head Ceremony and Holiday Concert.

For date, time and location information, visit www.oglethorpe.edu (keyword: calendar). For additional information on the Arts & Ideas season or to sign up to receive our twice-a-year newsletter, contact Mark DeLong at 404.364.8447 or mdelong@oglethorpe.edu.

 

What: Autumn Portraits conceived and performed by Eric Bass
When: Saturday, September 24, 2005, 8:00 p.m. and Sunday, September 25, 2005, 7:00 p.m.
Where: Oglethorpe University’s Conant Performing Arts Center
Tickets: $10; free with Oglethorpe ID. For reservations, call 404-504-1074. Limited seating.

 

What: Isidor's Cheek conceived and performed by Ines Zeller Bass
When: Saturday, September 24, 2005, 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
Where: Oglethorpe University’s Conant Performing Arts Center
Tickets: $5; free for the Oglethorpe community. For reservations, call 404-504-1074. Limited seating.