~ by Lee Edgren
Enchantment is afoot in Nashville, right downtown, on Van Buren Street in a sequestered, sycamoreshaded, 60-seat open air theater that houses the Melchior Marionettes for four months of the year. Finding it is just the beginning of the magic.
Their 34 th year in Nashville begins on May 28, with the 20-minute“ Comedy Cabaret on Strings,” which is billed as“ a show for all ages.” The show features half-life-size puppets designed and built by Peggy Melchior Pearson, the Artistic Director of the Melchior Marionettes, who handles these large, colorful puppets in full view of the audience.
It is as fascinating to see her dexterous manipulation of the strings as it is to see the resulting movements of the puppets— including the jungle bird who drinks a drink, the opera singer whose bosom heaves, while taking in the joy of the children in the audience.
One visitor wrote:“ I am an actor by trade, and not inclined to applaud a sock, but that is not what this is. Peggy Melchior’ s theater seems straight out of a fairytale. The space is painted with colorful old-world designs, detailing the history of puppetry and crafted with meticulous detail. I found it all fascinating from a technical aspect, but once the show started— it’ s pure art.”
Peggy has an obvious love of all that being a truly professional puppeteer involves. She loves the art of storytelling, the cultural universality of telling stories with puppets, making marionettes, painting sets, and connecting with those who become enchanted with her performances.
The pace of the show is quick and, while the script is completely suitable for children, there are arch remarks that
Peggy Melchior Pearson with Checkers. courtesy photo
also keep it entertaining for adults. Peggy notes that the audiences are often largely adult these days and that many people come back season after season.“ IU students who started coming when they were five come back with their parents, and in the fall, ladies come decked-out for Halloween.”
The Melchior Marionettes sprang to life in the early 1950s when Peggy Melchior’ s mother, Erica, a German immigrant and art student, designed and built her own puppets and wrote her own puppet shows.
Peggy began doing her own puppet shows in the Indianapolis area in 1972,“ almost as soon as I could drive.” Like her mother, she went to art school. She is a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art, with a major in graphic design.
Melchior Marionettes expanded in the 1990s with the addition of Debbi White, who is now the Executive Director of Peewinkle’ s Puppet Studio in downtown Indianapolis. White“ manages most everything associated with numbers,” as well as writing scripts for some of the 13 show that have been created for the Melchior Marionettes’ other venue, which opened in 1997.
The captivating art of puppetry and her own joy in performing, creating, and teaching also led to the involvement of Peggy’ s daughter Heidi. You may not be surprised to learn that Heidi was also an art major, with a major in painting, who also started doing shows in Nashville as soon as she could drive. Now Heidi manages the technology associated with the productions. She is also the fiber arts teacher at Center Grove High School. During her fall break
50 Our Brown County May / June 2016