San Diego Puppet Insurgency takes on plastic

Puppet Gyre: The Puppet Insurgency's "Heal the Gyre" started with a 21-foot cloth spray painted like the ocean. (Photo by Bob Davis)

Read related: ‘Shocking’ amount of plastic pollutes oceans

Hundreds of miles of open ocean separate the San Diego Puppet Insurgency from what’s come to be called the Eastern Garbage Patch in the Pacific - a flotilla of plastic rubbish estimated to be larger than the landmass of the United States. Yet, these puppeteers, activists, actors, and artists sew and stitch stuffed sea lions and stingrays on a circular cloth sprayed with hues of blue and green.

The soon-to-be replica (they use the word loosely, being an insurgency and all) of the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre is an outlet for their caring, frustration and tears.

“I was horrified,” said Antonia Davis of the Puppet Insurgency. “In fact, I’m sure I was in tears, at my computer just sitting there by myself. Shocked about another disaster, really, on earth.”

So Davis and a band of volunteers committed to social change through street theater took on the Gyre in their own unique way. They had already tackled terrorism, factory farming, and all those anti-war acts during the Bush years. Now the Puppet Insurgency, along with AWAKE Community, is presenting “Heal the Gyre” for Earth Fair 2009.

It will be a living, breathing entity - its foundation made of a 21-foot-diameter cloth, fastened with miniature sea toys and plastic junk rescued from local beaches. Larger pieces of garbage will be strung from bungee cords and carried by people rotating around the fringes. At the center, a consumer, of course.

“So they’re going to have shopping bags, fast food containers and every kind of thing to eat, toss it over, have their latte, toss that one and make a humorous but dramatic statement about what we commonly do,” said Davis, in her blue overalls and peace sign earrings.

There will be stilt walkers - a white crane and an albatross. And meditators will nobly encircle the Gyre in silence. Although the Puppeteers will make plenty of sound, singing “Heal the Gyre” to the tune of “Oh! Susanna.”

The Insurgency registered for the Children’s Parade this year, breaking with its usual tradition of showing up unannounced, as its name would suggest. The activists hope to spread a message of conservation. They believe laughter and little efforts can make a collective sea change.

“If we can get people to pledge not to use plastic bags and not to use water bottles, those two really simple things that every single person can do - there’s no one who can’t do that - that is significant,” said Davis. “It’s enormous, and it’s so easy.”

They’ll have a 21-foot cardboard mink whale on hand to document the pledges, mind you. Volunteers will also circulate a formal petition to ban plastic bags in San Diego.

You can see the Puppet Insurgency’s “Heal the Gyre” performance in the Children’s Parade at Earth Fair 2009 this Sunday, April 19 at 10:30 a.m. in Balboa Park. After the parade, the Gyre will be stationed south of the organ pavilion parking lot on President’s Way. For more information, visit www.earthparade.org.

Tags: SDNN

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 4:12 pm and is filed under Arts & Entertainment, Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.