String and Shadow puppets head to space in new play -- then take the play on West Coast tour

String and Shadow Puppet Theater’s fifth annual al fresco show, “Or So It Would Seam,” boldly goes where the Olympia troupe has never gone before: to outer space, following the voyage of a starship captain traveling through dimensions.

The 75-minute all-ages show, opening Friday, June 28, at Olympia’s Decatur Woods Park, incorporates large puppets with masks, clowning, live music and theater. There’s audience participation, too.

Among the puppet phenomena audiences will encounter are talking asteroids, a transforming city, giants who weave the fabric of spacetime, and a black hole.

“The black hole grows throughout the show,” said Emily McHugh, who directs String and Shadow with Donald Palardy III. “It comes on in different sizes. At its largest, it takes five puppeteers.”

McHugh and company learned a lot of physics while writing and designing the show, she said. But black holes and dark matter — matter that exerts gravitational pull but can’t be seen — were just a jumping-off point for the story, inspired as much by folktales as science fiction.

“We thought it was a really interesting idea that there’s all this matter in the universe that is invisible to the human eye, so we wrote a story to explore what that matter could be.”

“Science fiction is great because you can go anywhere and do anything,” Palardy said. “You can go into another dimension, and maybe there are some puppets there from last year’s show.”

In fact, the show visits two dimensions — one in which space explorer Captain Z visits a small moon, and another, more like ours, that’s home to the planet Gorganza.

Gorganza, it turns out, is ruled by a tyrant, played by the multi-talented Elizabeth Lord, a String and Shadow regular.

“I portray the ridiculous Chief Imperial Emperor the Great, whose ego and fear of the unknown create the central conflict of the story,” Lord said, adding that it’s one of her favorite roles to date.

She also narrates the show, voices an asteroid and reads the “Star Trek”-style captain’s logs of the masked Captain Z.

The science fiction elements of the show also have inspired a change to the soundtrack, played by a three-piece band.

“We’ve finally broken our golden rule of acoustic only,” Palardy said. “There will be some light synthesizer in this year’s show. If you’re going to another dimension, you need some science in the band to get that sci-fi sound.”

The musicians — Harrison Hannon, Eva Leach and Stella R.S. — will still play mostly acoustic music, including old-time and klezmer tunes, an Indian marching band-style piece and “In Memoriam,” a funeral dirge by John Philip Sousa.

“We’re really excited to feature this song,” Palardy said. “It was written for President Garfield’s funeral. It’s a very intense song. It’s almost like, ‘Oh, my God, was Garfield a great emperor or something?’ It’s quite lofty.”

McHugh expects the music to sound better than ever this year, thanks to new speakers made possible by a grant from Inspire Olympia, which is supporting the show.

The sightlines will be better, too, she said, because the company has chosen to produce the show in Decatur Woods Park, 1015 Decatur St. SW, Olympia, instead of its previous summer home at Calliope Farm.

“In the back half of the park, there’s a sloping hillside and a grove of trees,” she said. “It makes this beautiful natural amphitheater. … We loved Calliope, but there’s something exciting about popping up in a different spot.”

‘Or So It Would Seam’

• What: String and Shadow’s fifth annual all-ages summer show journeys to other dimensions with giant puppets, humor and live music.

• When: 6:30 p.m. Friday through Sunday, June 28-30, and July 5-7, 12-14, 20 and 21, with matinees at 2:30 p.m. July 14 and 21

• Where: Decatur Woods Park, 1015 Decatur St. SW, Olympia

• Tickets: $20 suggested donation, with cash, PayPal and Venmo accepted. No one will be turned away for lack of funds.

• More information: https://www.stringandshadow.com/

• Tour: After the Olympia run ends, “Seam” will take the show on the road in Washington, Oregon, California and Montana.