L'Italo-Americano

THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2019 www.italoamericano.org 26 L'Italo-Americano T h e w o r l d o n a s t r i n g : p u p p e t e e r Aurora Valentinetti A urora Valentinetti always had an inte- rest in the perfor- ming arts but the world of puppetry, steeped in centuries of culture and tradition, took hold of her in the 1940s and never let go. For nearly 50 years, Valenti- netti taught students at the Uni- versity of Washington's School of Drama, beginning as a lecturer and ending with her retirement in 1992 as an associate professor. Her love of teaching and her passion for puppetry inspired generations of students to appreciate and embrace this centuries-old art. She did not confine her talents only to the UW campus, though. She brought the magical art of puppetry to adults and children alike through numerous presenta- tions at local theaters, churches, arts festivals, community fairs, de- partment stores, even a broadcast puppet show that she wrote and produced for public television. Now 98 years old, Valentinetti was given the University of Wa- shington's 2019 Distinguished Teaching Legacy Award this spring to acknowledge her many years as an outstanding puppeteer, performer and professor. The be- loved teacher received a standing ovation as she walked across the stage at Meany Hall to accept her award. In addition to her many other honors, she received a certi- ficate of appreciation from the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, D.C., in 1980. Valentinetti was born in West Seattle in 1921, the oldest of three daughters whose parents had emi- grated from Italy. She attended the University of Washington, earning a bachelor of arts degree from the School of Drama in 1943. The Drama School had a well-known puppetry program founded in 1930, and it was there she became enthralled with the world of pup- pets. When a male classmate quit school to enter military service du- ring World War II, she was asked to take his place in a puppet show called "The King of the Golden River." As she recalled years later in an article in Columns Maga- zine, "too stunned to protest, I took the rather ugly marionette that was handed me, climbed the bridge and began to move the con- trol….I gave him a terrifying death scene with a final spine-chil- ling cry." The audience was en- tranced, and Valentinetti was hooked. She started reading everything she could about puppetry, and just a week after graduating with her master's degree from the UW – where her graduate thesis was on the topic of puppet plays -- she taught her first puppetry class. In 1949, she created her own puppets to star in a production of the clas- sic tale of Pinocchio. She wrote the script and hand-sewed all the costumes herself. A decade later, she founded the Valentinetti Pup- peteers. Puppets became her life. She created productions for the Show- boat Theatre, Bumbershoot and the Fremont Fair. During the ho- liday season, she turned the large display windows at the now-de- funct Frederick & Nelson depart- ment store into a magical realm inhabited by puppets. Valentinetti never married or drove a car; she preferred to ride a bike when she needed to get around. For most of her adult life, she lived near the university but in 2016 she moved to Wenatchee, Wash., to be closer to a niece. One of Valentinetti's most unusual ventures was to create a public television show called Pup- pet Playhouse Workshop. The program, which aired in the mid- 1960s, was a pioneer in the use of puppets on television. It aired on KCTS-TV. Valentinetti found that puppe- try sparked the imagination in children of all ages, although she admitted in a 1993 interview that she preferred to work with chil- dren: "They're still in touch with fantasy and magic," she said. She would devote as many as 200 hours to create one puppet and found the mechanics of working a marionette to be challenging. "People don't realize what a dif- ficult art form it is," she said. "When we prepared for a produc- tion at the University of Washing- ton, we would rehearse for one entire year." Italy has one of the richest puppetry traditions in the world. Traveling puppet shows have been a form of entertainment in Sicily for centuries, and the fa- mous Sicilian Opera dei Pupi is beloved throughout the world. The smaller, more traditional ma- rionettes, which inspired Col- lodi's tale of Pinocchio, are also enchanting. Multi-episode pro- ductions of heroic stories are po- pular in Italian puppet theatre. These shows are partially impro- vised and always accompanied by music. The stories are long and complicated, taking many months to perform. In the 1990s, one of Valenti- netti's students, Marshall Camp- bell, asked his former teacher if she would donate a portion of her collection to the Evergreen Chil- dren's Theatre. Campbell hoped that, when the time was right, her collection would form the basis of a Northwest puppet museum. She agreed and in 1999, the Au- rora Valentinetti Puppet Museum opened. It is currently located at 280 4th Street in Bremerton, Wash. From Valentinetti's initial do- nation of about 1,700 items, the museum's collection now num- bers nearly 2,000 puppets, stage props, hangings and accessories from all over the world. About 100 items are on display at any one time. Museum curator Stanley Hess once took a puppet-making class from Valentinetti in the 1960s, and stayed in touch with his tea- cher. After working as a fine arts librarian, Hess took over the helm at the Valentinetti Museum two decades ago. Under his direction, the museum will celebrate its 20th anniversary this fall with an exhi- bit of puppets created in 1936 by the UW School of Drama. Valentinetti has touched many lives over the years and her legacy continues to live on, whether part of a kindergarten story time, on stage at a children's theater, or in the exhibits and displays at the Valentinetti Puppet Museum in Bremerton. Aurora Valentinetti, shown here in the 1950s with seven of her marionettes, has make puppets her life for 75 years (Aurora Valentinetti collection). This spring, professor emerita and puppeteer Aurora Valentinetti received the University of Washington's 2019 Distinguished Teaching Legacy Award (Clay Eals) for her distinguished career and student mentorship. RITA CIPALLA SEATTLE ITALIAN COMMUNITY

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