Byrne Power, the founder of what is now Geppetto’s Junkard, is moving to Europe next month where he hopes to complete his puppet documentary, ‘Gravity from Above,’ that’s ten years in the making.
Power has lived in Haines for 22 years. He’s worked as the program director for KHNS, tour guide for Rainbow Glacier Adventures and has been pulling puppets’ strings in Haines for nearly as long.
One of Power’s first dives into puppetry was with the creation of the Lilliputian Sideshow-which borrowed a style of puppetry he learned about during a visit to Czech Republic that utilized “a grab bag” of materials to construct sets and puppets. “Their sets looked like somebody pounded them together with loose plywood, like they went through an old thrift store and found stuff,” Power said. “I took a Justin Timberlake action-figure and morphed it into Joseph Stalin.”
Power became more interested in the history of puppetry, also the subject of his documentary, and created Reckoning Motions. He most recently taught a multi-week puppet course that culminated in a production entitled “21st Century Faust”-a modern version of the Germanic tale which brought Faust into the modern world where Harry Potter, smartphones and digital media reign supreme.
In the classic tale of Faust, he trades his soul to the demon Mephistopheles for all the knowledge in the world. In Power’s conception of the story, that knowledge comes to Faust in the form of a smartphone. Power’s fascination and interest in puppetry aims to combat what he describes as our addiction to electronic media by using a challenging medium that is textured and largely unexplored in modern popular culture.
“It’s not this little thing for children, or cute little folk art,” Power said. “Essentially there’s no reason why you can’t say anything with puppetry. I can do deep, dark tragedy. I can do mysterious things. You can take it in all sorts of directions. It strikes me as a good antidote to our digital addictions.”
Power will begin his move to Europe with a month-long residency in France at the International Institute in Puppetry where he will conduct further research for his documentary.
Later he’ll move to Tbilisi, Georgia where he will help create and maintain a puppet museum and theater.
Power said he won’t miss the infighting in Haines, or slipping on ice in the winter, but he will miss a few things. “I’m going to miss the maritime environment; everything related to salmon. I’m going to miss going out mushroom hunting and all the berries we have.”
Around 20 friends wished Power farewell at a potluck Saturday evening at the ANB Hall.
Geppetto’s Junkard member Debi Knight Kennedy attended the potluck. She said before meeting Power she was a “hide-out-in-the-woods-make-art-where-nobody-can-see-me type person,” but now finds puppetry the most satisfying medium. “It’s beyond anything I would have ever dreamed up and it’s so much fun,” Knight Kennedy said. “I am eternally grateful. None of us would have been doing puppets otherwise.”
Power leaves Haines on October 4.