Publications
Student Reports - Remo Bufano
Remo Bufano: Our Forgotten Ancestor
by Jared Jenkins
student paper for
Trends in Contemporary American Puppet Theater
University of Connecticut
1997
On first glance, Remo Bufano would not appear to have been a prolific
or influential puppeteer. Most people, if they know of him at
all, recognize his name from his connection with Robert Edmond
Jones’ Oedipus Rex. However, this is only one of his many
accomplishments. Once you look beyond his publicized successes,
you will find that he was not simply a footnote in the history
of American Puppetry. He was a link between the old world style
of puppetry and the experimental revolution that all art was going
through at the beginning of the century.
Remo Bufano was born in 1894 in San Fele, Italy. In 1897, when
Remo was three years old, the Bufano family left Italy for America.
They landed in New York and settled in the heart Greenwich Village.
The family consisted of his mother, Lucrecia, his father, Canio,
and his fourteen brothers and sisters. Amongst these siblings
we see that Remo was not the only Bufano who would become well
know for his artistic endeavors. His brother, Beniamino 'Benny'
would one day a famous sculptor based in San Francisco.
From early on, Remo's love of puppetry can be seen.
When he was seven he was taken to a Sicilian Marionette show and
shown around backstage following the performance. Within a year
he, with the assistance of a friend, would build two dozen marionettes
and be ready to put on a performance of his own. This performance
was comprised of a scriptless play that included "fair ladies,
valiant knights, ferocious serpents and desperate bandits"
(Gore. Pg. 31). The orchestra for this show consisted of another
friend who played the accordion. With this first show he realized
that the theatre was where he wanted to be. The only problem was
that his father was not, to say the least, a fan of the arts.
This is clearly shown in the following story that Benny related
in an interview:
I remember when I was about thirteen. In those days
you had to put a quarter m the meter to get gas for light and
cooking. I wanted to paint but it was nighttime. My father was
not home. I begged my mother to turn on the gas so I could see
to paint. ... I went into the back room to make some sketches
of my mother and Remo. Remo and I were always pretty close. So
while I was sketching in the flickering gas light, the door was
suddenly pushed open and there was my father. ... 'You bum,' said
my father, lunging at me. 'Here I lose my job and you spend all
my money burning up the gas. Where the hell do you think the money
comes from?' ... He took a razor strop he had brought with him
and lashed me across the back. Being a little guy I could hop
back and forth across the room without getting hit too much. ...
This irritated him so much that he looked around the room for
something else to hit me with. Then I could tell by the look in
his eyes that he had found the best weapon. It was my drawings.
He picked up one of them and said, 'Maybe you'll remember this
for the rest of your life.' He held the drawing sidewise, then
placed it over the gas flame till it caught fire. ... Then he
burned all my other sketches and paintings. . . . 'Never let me
catch you wasting your time on art crap again, you understand?’
And with that my father stumbled out the door. (Wilk. Pg. 153-154)
This is just one of the many similar stories that
show the lack of support Remo must have had from his father. Even
though his father disapproved, Remo went ahead with his dream
of working in the theatre.
Bufano tried to work as an actor in his early life.
Throughout his teens, he played minor roles in plays by O'Neill,
Kreymborg, and Millay. Once he left school he tried to get an
acting job, but theatrical managers didn't take to him so he eventually
went back to his puppets (Gore. Pg. 3 1) Even though he made puppetry
his profession, he continued to act throughout his life. Over
the years, he received stage training from the Washington Square
Players, the Provincetown Players, which eventually became the
Provincetown Playhouse, and the Greenwich Village Theatre Group.
He was also associated with a radical 1920s theatre group called
The New Playwrights Theater. It can be conjecture that Bufano
was drawn to the New Playwrights Theater and the Provincetown
Players because of the experimental spirit of these organizations.
While acting with these various companies, he helped to shape
the style of them. For example, the Provincetown Players produced
Vote the New Moon and used puppet-like movements that Bufano had
helped establish. Through these theatrical companies he was able
to eke out a meager living by working as an actor and building
stage props as a sideline.
At some point in the early 1920s Bufano met a young
woman by the name of Florence Kohler. They soon fell in love and
married. She them worked with Bufano as his assistant on his shows.
During this time, Bufano continued to experiment
with all types of puppets. In fact, many of the puppets in his
repertoire of shows were hand puppets not marionettes. Many of
these puppets were used in the shows that he and Florence performed
during the summers. They traveled the rounds of hotels, camps
and summer schools from Maine to Georgia. On these tours, he would
perform Orlando Furioso as well as dramatizing fairy tales. He
also had other shows such as The Giant of the Enchanted Voice,
Schnitsler's The Galliant Cassian, and an enjoyable Japanese fable
called Somebody Nothing. Following are a couple of descriptions
of his performances.
Sergei Obraztsov -
When I arrived for the performance, Bufano was sitting
on a small chair playing the accordion (sic). Two puppets slightly
less than man-size were sitting in front of him on two similar
chairs. By pressing pedals, Bufano caused the puppets to move.
One puppet played a large, drum and the other played a pair of
brass cymbals. The result was a funny, merry orchestra. Then the
performance began: several short plays performed by hand puppets
and marionettes. (Obraz. Pg. 135-136)
Paul McPharlin -
I recall vividly what an expert hand puppet showman
Bufano himself was when he gave a performance of a later version
of his Orlando for a special Theatre Guild matinee about 1923;
the vigor with which the dragon was slain, and the slow death
of that creature to the last convulsion of the tip of its tail,
held the sophisticated audience spellbound. (McPha. Pg. 343)
These descriptions show the kind of impression that
Bufano's performance left on an audience.
Not only did his performance style have an impression
on an audience, it also drew many performers who wanted to learn
from him. For example, Jack Tworkov, one of the partners of Majocat
Spiel, gained his hand puppet skill while working with Bufano.
Also, Ascanio Spolidoro, Bufano's right hand for many years, later
became a partner of the Suzari Marionettes and the director of
puppet shows for the New York City Department of Parks. These
are just a couple of the puppeteers that Bufano helped to train.
Soon after these early shows, we see Bufano arriving
on the Great White Way. His first performance on Broadway was
in the marionette prologue to Fiske's Wake Up Jonathan. After
this, he gave special performances of his own shows for Theatre
Guild subscribers. In 1925 he worked on The Knife in the Wall,
a melodrama that was based around a marionette production. It
was his marionette production for this that the critics raved
about in their reviews of the show. Also, at some point, he worked
on some of the experiments that Reinhardt and Geddes worked with
for The Miracle. It was after these well publicized performances
that the League of Composers approached him.
In 1924 the League of Composers asked him to mount
a production of De Falla's El Retablo de Maese Pedro, a Spanish
opera based on the marionette episode in Don Quixote. For this
show he manufactured three life size marionettes, Don Quixote,
Sancho Panza, and the Marionette Man, as well as some smaller
marionettes that the Marionette Man supposedly controlled. This
production was performed with a live orchestra as well as singers
who were seated in the orchestra pit. This show toured all across
the United States and was performed under the baton of a number
of different conductors. This is considered to be Bufano's first
real success.
Soon after this Bufano received a Guggenheim Fellowship
to write a book on marionettes around Europe. This allowed him
to spend six months of 1929 touring through Europe studying the
its puppetry. It appears that he never completed the book that
he was commissioned to write. I have been unable to find the book
or even a reference to this type of a book.
His next major accomplishment occurred in 1931 when
he built and performed the puppets for Robert Edmond Jones' Oedipus
Rex. This show was, once again, under the aegis of the League
of Composers. This is probably the production that he is most
remembered for. The production was written by Stravinsky and based
on the play of the same name. Robert Edmond Jones designed the
production including the puppets. The puppets were an average
of nine feet tall. They were manipulated from a bridge forty feet
above the stage as well as with rods from below. The puppets acted
out the physical gestures of the characters while the parts were
sung from the orchestra pit. One choice that Bufano made was to
have the puppets present only essential movements and the most
significant gestures. The puppets were designed so that they were
removed from everyday realism. This was definitely accomplished.
The staging was set up so that there was a blue robed chorus downstage
and the puppets just floated upstage. The following are just a
few of the many reviews of this production:
... After the first thrill of the tableau had passed,
the impression persisted that an excellent idea has been broached
without being carried to its logical conclusion... Nine-foot marionettes
appeared and disappeared on a platform level with the highest
tier of the chorus. They were so focused and faded out by spotlights
that the surrounding blackness of the stage was not disturbed,
only their forms being illuminated... that effect was not sustained.
They moved so rarely that they ceased almost to be actors and
the attention of the audience wandered to the chorus. They (the
puppets) were heroic in size only. (Theatre Guild Pg. 40)
While Jones's twelve foot effigies of the Protagonists
were in themselves only partially adequate, the contrasting shapes
and relative positions of the static, blue-robed singers massed
in green darkness at the left of the stage, and of the gaunt,
tall puppets luminous above them to the right of the proscenium,
were well conceived, nightmare-like and imposing. (New Republic
Pg. 30)
Linton Martin, music critic of The Philadelphia
Inquirer, wrote ... as follows: ... Some hypnotic effect was exerted
by the utterly unique method of staging. For, as the various roles
were sung and declaimed... the eyes of all in the house were compellingly
focused upon the huge, inscrutable figures spotlighted above the
stage, exponents of the grim, stark, classic, tale adapted from
the somber(sic) Sophocles drama ... (Mart. Pg. 17)
These three reviews show the differing opinions
as to the effectiveness of the production. From what I have read,
it appears that the puppets were too static to be truly effective,
however, no one could dispute the command that the puppets had
over the stage.
After this success, we see a number of other projects
that Bufano worked on. In 1935 he built a thirty-five foot high
marionette for Billy Rose's production of Jumbo. This marionette
was used at the end of Act one and allowed an elephant to walk
between its legs. It was an impressive puppet but it didn't really
work well, however, it did set a new record for the tallest puppet
beating out John Carted Ford's previous record of thirty-one feet.
He also worked on puppets for the 1939 World's Fair's Hall of
Pharmacy. He built twelve-foot puppets that dramatized medical
history on a thirty foot revolving stage. Also, he built puppets
for Eve Le Gallienne's Alice in Wonderland, which was performed
in 1935 and then remounted in 1946. Later on in his career he
performed in the MGM production of Yolanda and the Thief Also,
just before his death, he began experimenting with the use of
puppets for television shows. These are just a few of the many
diverse projects that the worked on.
From 1934 to 1939 Bufano acted as the director of
the New York Marionette Division of the WPS's Federal Theatre
Project. Under his direction, they put on productions such as
R.U.R, Treasure -Island, Oliver Twist, Sherlock Holmes, Aladdin,
and many more. These performances touched the lives of thousands
of people. They were put on in playgrounds, hospitals, and settlement
houses. In fact, within the first year of it, over one thousand
performances had been given to over 181,000 people. This was,
in my opinion, one of Bufano's greatest achievements. His leadership
helped to employ many puppeteers throughout this period and to
bring entertainment to many, many people.
Bufano wrote four books during his career and numerous
articles. His books are: Be a Puppet Showman, Magic Strings, Showbook
of Remo Bufano, and Remo Bufano's Book of Puppetry. All of these
books were written as instruction manuals and/or compilations
of plays. Be a Puppet Showman was one of the first books on technique.
These books contained, depending on the specific book, plays for
puppets, plays for children or puppets, instructions on how to
build marionettes and other puppets, or a very brief history of
puppets. They were generally written to be used by children to
build their own puppet shows. However, some portions are written
for adults to learn about technique and construction. The books
are indicators of the influence that Bufano has had on puppetry
and through them he has helped to shape the ideas and views that
children and hence the society has had towards puppetry.
Bufano had specific ideas about what puppets and
puppetry should be. He felt that puppets should be kept simple.
In fact, in his books he constantly encouraged the reader to use
the least amount of strings possible to make the marionette work.
This simplicity spills over into the look of his puppets. He was
not one for putting a lot of polish on his work. He made puppets
quickly so that they could be used for their function and then
he could move onto the next puppet and leave the last one behind.
This can be seen in the new puppets that have been uncovered in
Long Island. These puppets definitely exemplify this rough style.
Because of this, the Oedipus Rex puppets can be seen as non-exemplary
works of his. Another idea that he stressed in his own work was
that a puppet's charm and value was in the inhuman aspects of
it. He encouraged within his puppets the expressions that differentiate
them from humans and tried a couple of experiments with non-human
forms. He did a production of Em Jo Basshe's Fantasy in Flutes
using marionettes that represented algebraic symbols as well as
human actors. One of his hopes was to build marionettes that were
not shaped like humans at all, but were instead based on machines
such as telephones and subway trains. He felt that mimicry of
machine life was a dramatic possibility that had scarcely been
touched upon and to which the talents of a puppeteer were adaptable.
(Gorel. Pg. 32)
Remo Bufano was tragically killed on June 17, 1948
in a plane crash. He was on his way back from California when
the plane he was on crashed in Pennsylvania. He was only 54 years
old. You have to wonder what more he would have accomplished had
he lived longer.
Throughout Bufano's life, he experimented with ways
to advance the art form of puppetry. It is through this experimentation
that we find his greatest influence. He is often considered to
be a bridge between the old style of puppetry, the vaudeville
and street performer, and the more theatrical puppetry that was
emerging. This is evident in his varied accomplishments. He also
influenced puppetry through his books that left an indelible mark
on the young puppeteers of the day.
Even though he is not widely remembered, he devoted
his entire life to pushing the limits of puppetry and achieving
new goals. It was this life long influence and devotion that has
marked Remo Bufano as one of the progenitors of modern puppetry
in America.
Bibliography
Baird, Bil. "The Art of the Puppet." New
York: Macmillan Company, 1965.
Bell, John. E-mail received on February 10, 1997.
Bilal, Doris J. "Puppet Masters of America: A Grant Application
to National Endowment for the Humanities." Fort Washington--
Puppetry Research Guild, June 29, 1995: 8-1 1.
Bufano, Remo. "Magic Strings." New York: Macmillan Company,
1939.
Bufano, Remo. "Marionettes Make a Now Entrance." Puppetry
Yearbook 1931: 22-24.
Bufano, Remo. "Remo Bufano's Book of Puppetry." New
York: Macmillan Company, 1967.
Bufano, Remo. "The Show Book of Remo Bufano." New York:
Macmillan Company, 1929.
Flanagan, Hallie. "Arena." New York: Limelight, 1985.
Gorelik, Mordecai. "Young American-Remo Bufano." The
Arts 1926: 29-32.
L.P. "Oedipus Rex." Theatre Guild 8:40 (June 1931):
40.
Martin, Linton. New York Times April 11, 1931: 17:1.
McPharlin, Paul. "The Puppet Theatre 'm America." Boston:
Plays, Inc., 1969.
Obraztsov, Sergei. "My Profession." Moscow: Raduga,
1981.
Philpatt, A.R. "Dictionary of Puppetry." Boston: Plays,
Inc., 1969.
Rosenfeld, Paul. New Republic May 13, 1931: 30.
Sarlos, Robert. "Jig Cook and the Provincetown Players."
University of Massachusetts Press, 1982.
Widerman, Steve. Interview on February 11, 1997.
Wilkening, H. "Bufano: An Intimate Biography." Berkeley:
Howell-North Books, 1972.
Young, Rod. Interview on February 11, 1997.
Remo Bufano Chronology
1894- Born in San Fele, Italy 1895- 1896- Bufano
family immigrates to America and settles in New York City
1909 through 1914- Bufano spent his teens acting in a number of
theatrical productions
1919- He joined the Provincetown Players
1920s- He worked with the New Playwrights Theatre
Early 1920s- Met and married Florence Kohler
1924- Commissioned to mount a production of De Falla's El Retablo
de Maese Pedro, this is considered to be his first real success
1925- Worked on The Knife in the Wall, a Broadway show based around
a marionette show
1929- He received a Guggenheim Fellowship to write a book on marionettes
around Europe. This allowed him to spend six months of 1929 touring
through Europe studying its puppetry. His book, "The Show
Book of Remo Bufano" was published
1931- He built and performed the puppets for Robert Edmond Jones'
Oedipus Rex
1934 through 1939- Bufano acted as the director of the New York
Marionette Division of the WPS's Federal Theatre Project
1935- He built a thirty-five foot high marionette for Billy Rose's
production of Jumbo and built puppets for Eve Le Gallienne's Alice
in Wonderland
1939- Built puppets for the World's Fair's Hall of Pharmacy His
book, "Magic Strings" was published
1945- He worked on the MGM film Yolanda and the Thief
1948- At the age of 54, Bufano was killed on June 17 in a plane
crash
1950- His book, "Remo Bufano's Book of Puppetry" was
published
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