DISARMAMENT (NO NUKES)

Another of the puppet shows was about disarmament.  One puppet popped up on the left first carrying a toy cowboy gun, then a knife, then a rifle and  a black leather jacket, then a rifle and leather jacket wearing a helmet (which looked like a flak jacket police and army used to wear), and there was a quick evolution into an army uniform and a plastic rocket while wearing a helmet.  And the puppet on the right would try to sooth the other puppet and calm him, by stroking his little cowboy hat with a gentle indian feather while wearing a headband like an indian, tickling him and making him laugh, although the little puppet would handle the hair of the cowboy puppet and stare out at the audience like (I'm thinking about scalping him) but they tried to work it out and the indian headband puppet gave him a little massage and calmed himself after knocking the cowboy hat off, and a kiss like mama would give a good boy:

and with the knife he was wearing a samurai headband, and the other puppet pulled off the headband slowly while talking to him and and pleading with him, and he pulled off the samurai band and wrapped it around samurai puppet's neck while wiping tears away from the samurai puppets eyes and pulled the samurai to him and gave him a kiss and a embrace.  With the rifle and leather jacket the other puppet shivered in fear when that one popped up and I forget what that puppet did, but had the peace sign and now that puppet on the right was wearing a headband, and they battled a bit, the puppet on the left would threaten the little puppet on the right, pointing his rifle straight at the puppet on the right's belly (which he protected with the peace sign) and then the puppet on the left would stare out at the audience like he was growing in power and soon he moved his rifle up as if counting the buttons on the jacket of the puppet on the right one two three, giving a mean little nudge and push with each one, which the frightened the puppet on the right until he got to the top button, and then leather jacket turned and stared malevolently at the audience (HA HA HA!  I can blow this puppet's brains straight out if I want to) and suddenly brought his rifle up and aimed STRAIGHT BETWEEN THE EYES OF THE puppet with headband on right (Oh no!  You can't do that!  That's WRONG!  That might hurt that little creature!) and the puppet on the right, shot up the peace sign he was carrying to protect his head and turned his head and shivered in fear, but then fought back hitting the rifle with the peace sign, and again the little puppets tried to work it out .... BUT COULDN'T ... they just couldn't do it, even though the puppet on the right threw away his peace sign back of him and then spun and held his shaking hands like a magician and actually levitated the little soldier puppet a bit (and when the little soldier puppet started rising into the air, he looked confused, frightened, and SCARED and shook from the vibrations of being levitated), BUT HE COULDN'T DO IT, (THEY COULDN'T DO IT AND THEY COULDN'T LEVITATE THE LITTLE SOLDIER PUPPET NOT EVEN WHEN THEY REALLY TRIED and that puppet dropped suddenly down and disappeared down behind the stage, slightly twisting and turning as he did, and the other peace sign puppet did, too, although he was dropping from magyk exhaustion. When suddenly and frighteningly the puppet on the left appeared with the PLASTIC  ROCKET and burst up holding the big rocket between his legs, it was so large, and even threatened the audience with it!  And the puppet on the right still in a rainbow headband and holding the peace sign (now different now, an inverted peace sign to betoken the original origins of the peace sign, which was the old lymie anarchist sign meaning "No Nukes") and they battled furiously.  The puppet on the left was mad and would coil himself up and spew out nasty laughter shakes as he sprayed over the heads of the audience with his nuke rocket like it was a little machine gun (and it was over the heads of the audience, because NO!  That's WRONG! to shoot off rockets and really spray people with nuclear crap) and the puppet on th right would work furiously frightened though he was (because the nuclear soldier puppet had a little star on his shoulder now and would sometimes turn and pull back and point the rocket VERY THREATENINGLY at the little peace puppet on the right and it was like the puppet on the left would just grow in power and lapse into complete maddened lunacy and shake and laugh like I'M CRAZY, I'LL BLOW YOU ALL UP IF I HAVE TO!  And they struggled, and struggled mightily, a parry, a thrust, peace sign against the nuclear rocket, and eventually the peace sign knocked off both the rocket and the ... the rocket flew away harmless now, and the star flew backwards like a star shooting back into space (Couldn't be nuclear holocaust) and the puppet on the right had ducked down and retrieved the star and stood shaking with it, and turned to look at the audience for encouragement, then patted the star with his sweet puppet hands and swam it so gently over to the crazed puppet on the left like it was a fluttering starfish, and first tried to stick it on the crazed puppet's shoulder, but then tried to attach it to his chest (No, that's not right, no one should have THAT kind of authority over others), and then rubbed the head of the nuclear soldier puppet with the star like he was saying "Good boy!" and then just gently handed it to the soldier puppet (who was just like the other puppet now, without his scary nuclear rocket) and handed it to him like it was a precious present, a star from the heavens, a starfish from the sea, and the soldier puppet began to melt into agreement.  And they embraced at the end when we in the audience knew we were saved from nuclear holocaust, and everyone in the audience cheered!  And the puppets came out for their stage call at the end, holding hands up high (we all would be victorious!) and kept bowing and turning to each other, holding hands, and gave a big stage bow.  And show was over and audience applauded!

The puppets could emote so beautifully through body language .... they were volcanic!  their small  movements were as fluid as if they'd trained as dancers!  they were emotional! as if all the pourous physicality of the actors handling the puppets streamed through their hands like a directed electric charge and stream straight into the puppets and on out into the audience.  Their hands captured and showed the shifting emotions of the puppets playing out their parts on the little stage, the entire spectrum of emotionality.  They were amazing! And people in the audience drawn into the performance would respond to the emotion on stage, too, with body movements and slight hand movements in response.  And the audience would make sweet cooing sounds, say "AWWW" softly, and laugh in glee when the puppets kissed or hugged.

and when they bumped each other sometimes to drive the other off the stage, it was funny!

(CENSORSHIP)
Sometimes, they'd bump, then bump some more, then give a little simultaneous laugh, and stand folded over, stuck butt to butt frozen in pose.  Real old commedia del arte movements that shocked the hell out of the bougeoisie of th old days and offended them mightily.  But the people then would laugh, and we laughed now, too.
And other times, the puppets would do little dances and spin and do commedia del arte stuff, naughty mounting like doing the dirty little dog (that was the CENSORSHIP show). 

There were backstory scripts for the puppet shows, too, to allow the puppeteer to better tell the story through the hands of each puppet handler.

Sometimes, I would get heavy into writing these out as I moved into the emotions and scenes, and the overall scene of the time just as it was then (and as it is now) and I would say "OH!" and jump back from the keyboard.  And one time Peter Cohon was in the living room talking with someone else while I was writing up one these parts, and Peter just turned and gave me a straight-lipped look like he felt it, too, and it was like telepathy straight across the room.  I wrote some of those in my living room office in a cottage in Richmond.  And music would be playing as always from the underground radio station straight through the small macintosh receiver.  I felt powered by sound, sometimes, and I loved music.