San Jose artist Dax Tran-Caffee hopes that “The Museum Proper,” his street performance with oversized puppets, will create moments of magic for its viewers when he debuts the work during the SubZERO Festival on Friday, June 4 in downtown San Jose.
Part improvisational and part scripted, “The Museum Proper” aims to be both captivating and humorous. The story focuses on a museum collector trying to capture some mischievous puppet monsters. Three of the beasts—Jubjub Bird, Slithy Tove and Borogove—make their way through the crowd laying eggs, untying shoes and taking keys and wallets from those nearby.
“I expect to walk away a rich man,” Tran-Caffee quips.
The largest puppet, Bandersnatch, requires three puppeteers to steer it as the creature dodges the collector. The Bandersnatch’s appearance also signals the entrance of a seven-member band. Corpus Callosum will accompany the action with songs written specifically for “The Museum Proper.” Tran-Caffee describes the sound as having “an old folk structure with blues and ragtime influences.”
I had the chance to meet Tran-Caffee and Stephanie Bailey, a puppeteer and musician, and try on the body of the Bandersnatch, which Bailey will be sporting for the performance. At 20 to 30 pounds, it is a heavy load, but Stephanie reassured me that puppeteers are in shape for the task.
The project began more than six months ago, but the last eight weeks have been all preparation and little sleep for the puppeteers. They had the chance to display the in-progress puppets at the Maker Faire on May 22–23 in San Mateo. All went well, as the audience happily played along with the puppets. Jubjub Bird was even able to snatch a watch from a more-than-willing victim.
