Paul Vincent Davis 1935-2025
Way back in 1992, when I was 15 years old, my father and I traveled to our first Puppeteers of America Festival in Charleston, SC. We had only just learned of the organization through a puppet educator in Pensacola named Barb "Yostie" Ashley.
Growing up in rural south Alabama, the Muppets were my only exposure to any puppetry save a couple of live shows that came through my elementary school. By 13, I was chomping at the bit to create my own characters and do some exploring of my own in regards to Muppet-style puppetry. Discovering an organization for puppetry and a membership of people who were passionate about the form seemed like a no-brainer. Then we found out about an upcoming Southeast Regional Festival where there would be shows and workshops and professional puppeteers and we packed our bags.
I think I was most excited to learn that Terry Snyder was going to be on the roster of performers. My parents and I had seen his “Velveteen Rabbit” at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta the year before and we all were moved to tears by it. I had found my mentor. I just needed to meet him. We did meet at that Charleston festival and it forged a 20 year friendship that I still miss very much.
The other festival performer who made a lasting impact on me that year was Paul Vincent Davis. What a large figure he cut both as a person and as a performer. He offered his glorious “Rumpelstiltskin” for the audience at Charleston and I can't think of a better introduction to Paul's work. It was a mesmerizing masterclass in both traditional glove puppetry and puppetry for the solo performer. His characters were dynamic, his puppets were works of art, his staging and attention to production details were always on point.
I will always remember how he punctuated Rumpelstiltskin's bow before the king: Rumpelstiltskin had a very long stocking cap that came to a point. As he bowed deeply before his royal highness, the tip of that cap would rise and fall over, in front of his head onto the play board, perfectly timed, like a period after a sentence: “YOUR MAJESTY (boop).” Years later, I realized I had incorporated a similar bit of costume punctuation in my show “Billy Goats Gruff and Other Stuff.” When Little Red Riding Hood (Julie) is parting company with the Big Bad Wolf on their first encounter, she whips her red cape around, right into his face at the end of her line: “So I'll bid you good day, MISTER WOLF (BOP)!” Never fails to get a laugh just as we all laughed with Rumpelstiltskin's hat.
Everybody steals, someone told me, so steal from the best.
I would come to learn that Paul was THE contemporary expert on glove puppet performance. He wrote the book, in fact. Well, it was Carol Fijan's book, “Making Puppets Come Alive,” but it was really Paul's skill that was on display in those pages. He brought his knowledge and his passionate ideas about glove puppetry to the University of Connecticut as a guest lecturer while I was a grad student in 1999. Per his method, each student made two felt featureless, “blank” glove puppets and explored the movement and gestures that were possible just using simple figures combined with hand and arm movements to convey emotion and tell a story.
In the early 2000's after I'd graduated UConn with my Masters and set out on my own in a determined fashion, I started making trips up to The Puppet Showplace Theater in Brookline, MA, where Paul was the Artist in Residence. Guest performers were housed in Paul's apartment, which was just upstairs from the Theater, which was a compact store-front space that allowed for marvelous intimate experiences of puppetry. I remember being intimidated by this austere figure who went by three names: Paul Vincent Davis. But that was a completely unfounded fear. Paul was jovial, warm, hilarious and incredibly insightful. He also loved company...and the Chinese restaurant just down the street, where Paul would invariably take all guest artists.
Over the years I got to share some special moments with Paul and would always be amazed that while his physical condition deteriorated, his mind was constantly at work, trying to figure out ways to create and perform, despite his limitations. Puppetry was a fire in him that would not, nor could not be extinguished. It meant a great deal to me that he liked my work for I so highly respected his.
For those curious about Paul and his ideas, you can learn more about his work in Kathryn Lasky's “Puppeteer,” which traces Paul's method of creating a puppet show and Paul's own book, “Exploring the Art of Puppet Theater.”
