Puppeteers dance with puppets on stage during Fiestas De Marionetas, a marionette show, Oct. 16 at the State Fair of Texas in Fair Park in Dallas. The show is at the McDonald’s Amphitheater on First Avenue.
DALLAS – The last remnants of sunlight hit a prop bell tower in the background of a small amphitheater stage at the State Fair of Texas. A man holding a classical guitar in a charro suit gives an introduction to the crowd.
The man sings and plays music to an audience of children and adults alike, and then he leaves. The prop bell sounds, signaling the start of the next part of the show.
At the McDonald’s Amphitheater on First Avenue at the fair, a full crowd gathered at 5 p.m. Friday for the “Fiestas De Marionetas,” a marionette show.
Marionettes are wooden puppets, often handmade, animated by strings that a puppeteer manipulates. The marionettes in the show took around nine months to create, puppeteer Briee Daniels said.
A puppet made to represent Tejano singer Selena Quintanilla performs on stage during Fiestas De Marionetas, a marionette show, Oct. 16 at the State Fair of Texas in Fair Park in Dallas. There are more than 85 marionettes used in the show.
The show is a mixture of vignettes celebrating Mexican and Latin American culture as a whole, featuring segments of marionettes in colorful dresses doing folklórico dances, ones in skull facepaint celebrating Día De Los Muertos and even Mayan marionettes.
“The entire show is requested by the state fair to represent Mexican and Hispanic heritage in Texas,” lead puppeteer John Tillman said. “Everything from the set to all of the puppets that are chosen, the costumes and the scenes and everything is chosen to try to represent as much of that as possible in the amount of time that we thought we could get away with attention-wise.”
Four puppeteers went on and off the stage throughout the show, hands moving from marionette string to marionette string; chilis, flowers, luchadores, a cactus and more graced the stage as characters in the show.
Puppeteers dance with kids in front of the stage during Fiestas De Marionetas, a marionette show, Oct. 16 at the State Fair of Texas in Fair Park in Dallas. The show consists of four, daily shows, and an additional show on Friday and Saturday.
Lead puppeteer Tomas Moquete said it is like a variety show, that the puppeteers get to play a multitude of characters. According to the fair’s website, there are more than 85 marionettes used in the production.
As the marionettes danced, dresses twirling and wooden limbs moving, the puppeteers’ eyes held a deep concentration but each still had smiles on their faces. Their fingers were in constant movement to create the spell-binding joy beheld by the audience
Moquete said a show begins with the concept of the characters.
“You never make one puppet, you make a whole show,” he said.
The marionettes begin as a design that a team spends months creating. They start with the foundation, building the base of the puppet with wood. Joints are formed using leather or little hinges, Tillman said.
Puppeteers recreate a bullfight using the puppets on stage during Fiestas De Marionetas, a marionette show, Oct. 16 at the State Fair of Texas in Fair Park in Dallas. The show took around nine months to design and create.
Vinyl molds are used for certain parts like faces, hands and sometimes boots or feet. Once it is all sanded down and put together, they start the process of making them look like the marionettes seen on stage.
A costume designer affixes the marionettes with outfits and accessories. Strings are also added. Finally, a makeup artist brings the puppet to life, adding color to cheeks, rouge to lips and hair to scalps.
After the puppets are finished, it’s time for the puppeteers to learn the ins and out of making their show seamless.
In the show, the marionettes fought, performed stunts and had comedic moments, like when a clown puppet’s suspenders failed and its pants fell down.
While the show might be designed for the kids watching to be entertained, Moquete said it’s always fun to see the adults crack up too.
Puppets dance on stage during Fiestas De Marionetas, a marionette show, Oct. 16 at the State Fair of Texas in Fair Park in Dallas. The puppets are handmade out of wood.
Garland, Texas, resident Johnnathan Melendez, 32, said he discovered the show when he walked past the small shacks and saw the amphitheatre already filled with people. He said the show was just starting and when he saw the puppets, he wanted to bring his daughter to see it.
“I thought it’d be good and thought my daughter would love to see it,” Melendez said.
He said he thought the show was fantastic too. Melendez said the showmanship was great and that the puppets were very animated.
A puppet carries yellow flowers during Fiestas De Marionetas, a marionette show, Oct. 16 at the State Fair of Texas in Fair Park in Dallas. This show was created to represent Mexican and Latin American heritage in Texas.
After the show ended, parents and their children sat up from their gravel seats, cold from a day of nonstop wind. There were smiles everywhere.
Behind the little village backdrop of the stage, the puppeteers rested. Some ran to grab food or a drink while the others sat in their chairs with the marionettes hanging on the walls beside them.
In a plot of grass, the man in the charro suit plucked notes on his acoustic guitar. His jacket next to him on a rack. In 20 minutes he’d be back on the stage, giving the next wave of attendees an introduction to the show to come.
After his set, the bell would strike, quieting the crowd. It would be time for the marionettes to take center stage once again.
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