Duo debuts new puppet show aimed at adult audience

Risque puppets and R-rated humor are on display in Jabberbox Puppet Theater’s new, original production — “Unleashed!”

The theater will be performing its new show at The Carrboro ArtsCenter Friday and Saturday.

Marianne Gingher, a UNC English professor who runs Jabberbox Puppet Theater along with her friend, UNC-Greensboro professor Deborah Seabrooke, said the show is a series of 11 short scenes.

Each scene is focused around the theme of cats and dogs and the people who love them, Gingher said.

Jabberbox Puppet Theater is a collaborative effort between Gingher and Seabrooke. The idea came to them on the plane ride back from an eye-opening trip to Africa, Gingher said.

They spent the flight creating and acting out how made-up characters would react to the recent trip.

“I’m sure the other passengers thought we were delusional,” Gingher said.

Later, the pair decided to turn the characters into puppets and venture into the world of puppet theater.

Fast forward five years and the duo is in their fourth season of putting on original plays with handmade puppets.

The process of creating this year’s “Unleashed!” took about a year, Gingher said. Unlike their other productions, Gingher and Seabrooke decided to stray away from doing full plays and opted for what they call a cabaret of small scenes relating to one theme.

The two women split the task of writing the material last September and hand-making each puppet, prop and set piece in January, Gingher said.

One of the scenes is an adaptation of the short story “My Shit Job,” written by Daniel Wallace, director of UNC’s creative writing program and longtime fan of the show.

Wallace said the piece detailed his first job working at a veterinarian’s office, where he was in charge of cleaning out the animal cages. Gingher and Seabrooke read the piece and decided to use it in their show, even creating a puppet version of Wallace.

“I would support anything that Marianne Gingher did — she is a brilliant teacher and writer,” Wallace said.

The professors-turned-puppeteers enjoy different aspects of staging these adult plays. Gingher prefers the artistic aspect, writing and creating the puppets, while Seabrooke enjoys performing.

“My favorite part actually is the applause. I love it when people laugh,” Seabrooke said.

In the future, the professors hope to use Jabberbox Puppet Theater as a way to foster and support young and emerging puppeteers, Gingher said.

“We would like to segue into artistic Nazis. No — artistic directors!” Gingher joked.

She hopes to one day be able to teach a course on writing for and staging puppet theater at UNC.

For now, Seabrooke said the pair is looking forward to the audience’s reaction to “Unleashed!” — a play that is a mix of absurdity, silliness and adult humor.

“(There is) some very raunchy puppet stuff going on,” Wallace said.

arts@dailytarheel.com