TEMPLE — Puppeteer/performance artist/political satirist and TV star Paul Zaloom will perform his latest solo comic puppet extravaganza, “White Like Me: A Honky Dory Puppet Show” on Tuesday, Oct. 25, at the Temple Stream Theater.
Zaloom is an Obie-winning puppeteer, filmmaker, actor and performance artist who has written, designed and performed 15 solo spectacles, including “Fruit of Zaloom,” “Zaloominations,” “Sick But True,” “The Mother of All Enemies” and “White Like Me.”
Zaloom has received an Obie, a Bessie, an American Theater Wing design award, an LA Weekly Theater Award and a Guggenheim Fellowship. He is known for his role as the wild and wooly scientist Beakman on the TV science education classic, “Beakman’s World.”
“White Like Me,” which was created with Lynn Jeffries, opens with a short prologue. Zaloom introduces Mr. Butch Manly, an old-school ventriloquist dummy who has been packed away in a box for 50 years. As he updates the dummy on current affairs — particularly race relations — the dummy learns that things are not quite what they seem in 2016. Zaloom is forced to confront his own prejudices, as the wickedly sarcastic doll exposes his self-righteousness, liberal guilt and hypocrisy.
The show segues into “The Adventures of White-Man,” a toy theater spectacle about the male caucasian human.
The puppet cast is drawn from Zaloom’s enormous collection of weird junk, busted dolls, action figures, toy cars, random tchotchkes, and other charming debris. The show is high-definition video projected, so the audience can clearly see the tiny puppet mayhem.
The show is suitable for adults, and parents may find parts inappropriate for children.
Pizza from the theater’s wood-fired oven will be served beginning at 5:30 p.m. Tickets are $15 general admission, and half price for students and seniors, or a pay-what-you-can donation. Pizza and show tickets are $20.
FMI, reserve seat: 207-778-0754.
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