Phillyist Interviews... Robert Smythe

Could you speak briefly to why you started Mum Puppettheatre 23 years ago?
Twenty-three years ago, and longer, there was no way to do the kind of work that I wanted to do without some kind of infrastructure. I had been the prop master at People's LIght and Theatre company and been promised that I could produce my work in their second stage, but that never happened. They did ask me to produce a children's tour after I reproduced my senior honors thesis late at night during their new play festival. After a month of touring, PLTCo was no longer interested in continuing past the grant period, but schools were continuing to call to have us come to perform for them. I decided it was time to act, and Mum was born. A few years later I asked PLTCo if they would help us by including our work in their schedule, but I was told that if they were going to be experimental they would do so with their own work. So pretty much from the beginning Mum has set out to do its own work and been forced to go it alone. Even when we have worked with some of Philadelphia's greatest actors, their training and experience doesn't prepare them for working with puppets, either as manipulators or people who react to them. Puppetry creates an environment that owes nothing to the real world and it takes time to learn that. Other theaters can hang out the audition shingle and see dozens of people who have spent hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars, on their own training and in three weeks, voila! a play. Not so for Mum. We made all of our own actors, one way or another.

Looking back, what are some of your favorite productions?
That's like asking a parent which of their children is their favorite. Come on. Which is your favorite?

What happens to the physical space that is Mum Puppettheatre when Mum is gone?
The landlord has made it very difficult to work in that building. The furnace completely broke down in January because its chimney had partially collapsed. Not only did he not repair it, he recently informed the company that he would not repair it in the future. Robert Daponte and I rehearsed and performed Master and Margarita in a space that was about forty-two degrees. The board had been working very hard with a local theater company that wanted to take over the space and keep it going as a theater, but the landlord has refused the offer. A lot of people don't realize that it cost over $75,000 each year to rent, heat, cool, and electrify the place. The fact that the building was falling down around us wasn't our fault! I also think that maybe people thought I owned the building because the Smythe building is down the block and that obviously I'm some kind of wealthy nut who runs a theater as a hobby. Not true.

With the closing of Mum, where do you see the place of puppetry in Philadelphia?
I spent half my life as Mum Puppettheatre. It is really hard, with that kind of limited perspective, to know really what puppetry in Philadelphia will be like as, for so long and for so many, it had simply been defined as Mum. One thing I know for sure and I think people should understand, is that Mum Puppettheatre was the producing organization that enabled me and other artists to create the work we did. Many people have equated my name and the company as one: the major comment I've heard is that people aren't surprised the company is closing [after my resignation], because the two of us are synonymous. If people do think that, then why assume puppetry will change that much? I'm not going anywhere, and I don't intend to stop creating work. I just intend to stop writing grant proposals so [our] landlord can drive around in Mercedes SUV wearing a full-length chinchilla coat.

Let's look at this: four years ago, Lantern produced Foocy Janny and was nominated for five Barrymore awards, including best overall production. If that isn't a significant accomplishment for puppetry moving into the mainstream, I don't know what is. Wait, I know: the Arden's A Prayer for Owen Meany used a puppet and no one even commented on it.

I think puppetry in Philadelphia will be the result of whatever energy people want to bring to it. The first recorded puppet show in the colonies took place in Philadelphia. For twenty-three years, I put it in front of people. Unfortunately, while people were enthusiastic and supportive, that support and enthusiasm didn't translate into leadership and donations. If people want to see more puppetry, they'll have to pay for it, and join boards, and lobby politicians, and demand their city do more. Otherwise, when whatever artist is making the work happen gets tired, it'll stop.

One last story: a brilliant puppeteer named Bruce Schwartz was one of the first people to ever get a so-called MacArthur genius grant. By the time he received it, after he had had a full-length PBS special about him produced by Jim Henson, he had already quit puppetry and was selling ties in San Francisco. Once he got the genius grant he disappeared and no one has ever heard of him since.

You want puppets? Pay the puppeteer.

We don't usually do this, but this interview deserves a footnote. Mum's closing should serve as a reminder to us all that local arts need our support. Touring productions of Wicked are great and all, but small, independent companies producing their own work are vital for a healthy arts community. Although there aren't typically many theatrical productions held during the summertime, we urge you to patronize local theatre companies when productions pick up again in the fall.

Mum Puppettheatre's Going Out of Business Sale
The soon-to-be-former Mum Puppettheatre (Arch Street between Front and Second)
Sunday June 29, 2008, 9:30AM-5:30PM
Free admission; items priced $10–300

Photo of Robert Smythe during one of the aforementioned Master and Margarita rehearsals by the author.