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Compulsion and the doodling puppeteer

posted by Chad Jones on Fri, Sep 3, 2010
in At the theatre

Eric Wright (at right), one of the fabulous puppeteers working on Rinne Groff's Compulsion, is a man of many talents. He has worked with Mabou Mines and the Metropolitan Opera, among many other collaborators, and he co-founded, along with Emily DeCola (also a puppeteer in Compulsion) and Michael Schupbach, The Puppet Kitchen, a puppet studio in New York's East Village.

Some scenes in Compulsion do not require the marionettes, so the puppeteers can take a short breather. But Eric is the kind of artist whose hands are always busy. He tends to doodle -- sometimes about what's happening on stage, sometimes about what's happening in his imagination.

Eric graciously allowed us to share some of his rehearsal hall creations.

This is Mandy Patinkin as writer Sid Silver pounding out a letter to Walter Winchell.

Click below to see more drawings.

Here are images from the life of Anne Frank (played in Compulsion by a marionette)

And this, Eric informs us, is a reptile. "Every show could improved by the presence of a dinosaur," Eric says. Hard to argue with that.

Thank you for sharing, Eric!