“Puppets! Vaudeville! Marriage! A cat playing water glasses!”
August 13 kicks off Edmonton’s famous Fringe theatre festival — and the debut of a fabulous vaudeville play called Come and Go. My friend Sophia Burak is an Edmonton-based artist, and she teamed with Ianna Ings to create an original puppet show geared for an adult audience. Set in 1927, the play puts on a vintage vaudeville show while also telling the story of two married performers wondering if there’s life after vaudeville. You can expect an entertaining and impressively accurate taste of vaudeville as it was performed in the 20s, down to the music, comedy routines, and acts. Sophia and Ianna run a company called PuppetCast, and make their own puppets and props in addition to writing original scripts and content.
I had the fun job of making the promotional poster for this show! After learning about the play, I went with a vintage look that reflected the designs and visuals of the 1920s. It was common to show portraits of the performers on vaudeville posters; I figured that having the photos of puppets instead of humans would be an unexpected contrast that people would find fun and compelling.
If you’re Fringing this year, absolutely check out this play! Visit the Come and Go website for location and showtimes. You can also like the PuppetCast Facebook page to keep up with very cool projects involving puppets.
Gig posters are a regular project for me — if you have a something to advertise or show off, I can help with that.