ART : ‘For Mollie’ Airport Exhibit Is Memorial to Puppeteer

Say the word puppet and Punch and Judy or Howdy Doody probably come to mind.

But “Puppets for Mollie,” an exhibit in the Thomas F. Riley Terminal of John Wayne Airport through Dec. 4, takes puppetry beyond Pinocchio and introduces it as an ancient art that crosses cultures and centuries.

Puppet theater is “a universal art form,” according to Maudette Ball, spokeswoman for the airport arts program. “It represents the marriage in performance of the visual, literary and performing arts.”

“Puppets for Mollie” is a tribute to the late Mollie Falkenstein of Laguna Beach, a puppeteer who founded the American branch of the United Union International Marionette Assn. as well as the first puppetry guild in Orange County. The exhibit’s 163 marionettes, shadow figures and hand and rod puppets were selected from the 3,000-piece collection of guest curator and puppet historian Alan G. Cook. He says his collection is the largest of its kind held by any individual in the country.

The exhibit’s characters hail from 20 countries, range from a one-inch high crow to a six-foot mustachioed skeleton and include figures used by the nation’s foremost puppeteers.

Familiar icons such as Charlie McCarthy and commercial figures such as the Poppin Fresh Dough Boy share the show with an international array of folk art including the stunning “Ten-Headed King of Ceylon,” a five-foot shadow figure intricately carved of goat skin from India.

Because puppets are usually constructed of wood, cloth, leather and other fragile materials, the true history and tradition of puppetry is difficult to trace, Cook said. But some form of puppet was used by the Greeks, Romans and Egyptians as early as the 14th Century.

Despite this distinguished history, puppetry has “long been the orphan child of theater,” according to Cook. “We’re constantly overcoming what you’d call the prejudice of the uninformed.”

That includes those who believe that puppets are just for kids.

Indeed, in some cultures the local puppeteer was given the respect of a shaman or holy man, Cook said. During the Middle Ages, puppets were used by the church to teach religious tenets to an illiterate population.

And today the influence of puppet theater can be seen in the evolution of film and television, Cook said. After all, early movies, like any rough shadow puppet, were simply “the attempt to animate a picture.”

Whether it’s an old sock pulled over a hand or an elaborate, lavishly costumed marionette, puppets fascinate all ages for one basic reason.

“It’s the illusion of life,” Cook said. “That’s the magic of it.”

What: “Puppets for Mollie” puppetry exhibit.

When: 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, through Dec. 4.

Where: John Wayne Airport, Thomas F. Riley Terminal, opposite departure gates 1-4 and 11-14.

Whereabouts: Take the San Diego (I-405) Freeway to the MacArthur Boulevard exit. Follow signs to the airport.

Wherewithal: Free.

Where to call: (714) 252-5219.

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