BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS  

Tauber's Puppet Players

1932 - ?

Founded by Harry Tauber

Tauber's Puppet Players was founded in Vancouver in 1932 after the arrival of Harry Tauber. The group put on exhibitions of The Witch Doctor and Petrouchka at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1932. Tauber had arrived in Vancouver to lecture on art and metaphysics at the Vanderpant Galleries on Robson Street. He later became one of the three founding Art Directors of the B.C. College of Art, along with F.H. Varley and J.W.G. Macdonald.

Members of the Puppet Players were listed on a poster:
      Lilias Farley
      Ernva Willard
      Beatrice Lennie
      Ellen Harris
      M.A. Williams
      Jean Brown
      Rudy Engel
      Leslie Planta
      Director Harry Tauber


Performances

DATE VENUE SHOW
1932 VAG The Witch Doctor
1932 VAG Petrouchka

References

VANCOUVER: ART AND ARTISTS 1931 - 1983; various authors
      1983, ISBN 0-920095-00-3, 440 pages; Vancouver Art Gallery
      List of works; artists' biographies; credits; no index (see partial index)
      Poster for Tauber's Puppet Players illustrated with players names listed, page 57.

Clippings

"When we spoke of Tauber's Puppet Players we spoke only of the puppets themselves. But perhaps the real players are behind the scenes. They have worked much longer and much harder than the puppets. Day after day, patiently and understandingly, the puppeteers, unders the guidance of Mr. Tauber, brought life to the things of threads and patches. In centuries past the puppeteers were persons of high and important functions, belonging to a craft mysterious and venerable, and today, if they are not all that, they are at least a study of the past."
      From "Day By Day With the Marionettes Part III The Puppeteers" by J.C. Shaw
      Vancouver Sun, March 2 1932

"Besides his personal assistant, Mr. Les Planta, Mr. Tauber is aided by eight other puppeteers, well-known Vancouver people. There are Miss Jean Brown, Mrs. Ernva Code, Mr. Rudolph Engel, an Austrian; Miss Lilias Farley, Mrs. Ellen Harris, Miss Beatrice Lennie, Miss Margaret Williams, and Miss Isobel Wintemute."
      From "Day By Day With the Marionettes Part III The Puppeteers" by J.C. Shaw
      Vancouver Sun, March 2 1932

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