A stage set with a lifeboat and a half-empty glass atop a lighthouse can be interpreted in a number of ways.
"What a Choice," a reoccurring object-theater play by the Loren Kahn Puppet Theater and Object Theatre, allows the audience to decide what various props and absurd contraptions symbolize.
"We share an art form that stimulates dialogue, discussion, imagination and diversity because it's really a kind of theater that's open to interpretation," Loren Kahn said. "It asks the audience to bring its imagination to the theater."
Object theater is a genre that began in Europe in the 1980s. It centers around using objects as metaphors on stage.
Kahn began her career as an anthropologist but started traveling across the country as a street puppeteer and never looked back. She created her own puppet company in Albuquerque 25 years ago. She was later introduced to object theater.
"I got interested in object theater in Europe, attending puppet festivals and seeing all the different kinds of object theater that was going on in different countries and seeing how it related to puppetry," Kahn said.
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While in Europe, Kahn met Isabelle Kessler, an object-theater creator and director from France. The two joined forces and created five shows together. They take their shows on tour across the country and Canada, and they perform at various festivals in Europe.
Loren Kahn's company also offers workshops and performs at a variety of venues such as libraries, hospitals or schools, according to her Web site.
"The very first object theater play we did was called 'Put a Light On,'" Kahn said.
They performed it at high schools to a positive response, she said.
"They really liked the symbolism and using their imaginations," Kahn said.
Kahn and Kessler also have a show for toddlers and an abstract, puppet-show version of "The Frog Prince."
"It's really something different from traditional theater," Kessler said. "We don't speak to the children in the same way that we speak to the adults."
"What a Choice" is aimed at older teens and adults. Kessler plays B.B., a whacked-out, spunky traveler in the one-woman show. B.B. contemplates whether she really exists because she is a character and not mortal.
Because there are no other characters on stage, B.B. communicates with the audience and even some of the objects in the play.
"It's a wonderful way to speak to people," Kessler said. "I really speak to them. I don't fake that I am alone. And that is one of the things I like about this piece is that I never fake that I am alone."
COMING ATTRACTION
"What a Choice"
South Broadway Cultural Center, 1025 Broadway SE.
Saturday at 8:00 p.m.
For more information on the Loren Kahn Puppet and Object Theatre, go to
www.lorenkahnpuppets.com.
