NORTHAMPTON — “Literary Monsters” a multimedia show from performance troupe Shadow, Sounds, Spectacle, will make its next stop at new music and performing arts venue Blackbird, located at 27 Pleasant St. in downtown Northampton on Saturday, Oct. 10 at 7:30 p.m.
Part rock concert, part puppet show, and part ghost story, “Literary Monsters” from Shadow, Sound, Spectacle, has been a growing and evolving performance over the last year plus, starting in local libraries and community centers, to fringe festivals on loading docks, to most recently at Easthampton Media Black Box Studio Theater stage in September.
This time around the show will be a special performance celebrating the release of Literary Monsters: The Soundtrack, a collection of original songs created from the trio’s genre-bending production.
The show’s composer and performer Jess Martin told Reminder Publishing the release of the soundtrack marks a new chapter for a project that began at the intersection of music, literature and shadow puppetry. Songs originally written to live alongside handcrafted puppets, projected imagery, video crankies and theatrical storytelling are now stepping out from behind the shadow screen and becoming a record with a life of its own.
“I think the exciting thing is also to see people will say ‘I really want to take the music with me.’ That’s great. For me as an artist and as a musician I see each recording as an opportunity to collaborate and crack open other creative avenues,” Martin said. “It’s also exciting for me to think that the show actually created an album. Where these disparate songs that I had in this pile have now started to gel and they tell a story in their sequence, in sort of old school thinking of what does it mean to make an album. [the show] had sort of synthesized, it converged, it made its own album, and so then it felt like well let’s put this down. So, I’m really excited to put all the pieces and structure it in order, and to just honor our collaboration more.”
The soundtrack will be released on Oct. 10 physically on CD as well as available through online music platform Bandcamp that allows for direct support to artists compared to the mainstream music streaming platforms.
Written and performed by Martin, and drawing on inspiration from the works of Edgar Allen Poe, Mary Shelley, Washington Irving, Emily Dickinson, Bram Stroke and others, Literary Monsters asks: what is a monster? Songs range from eerier and atmospheric to playful, theatrical and unexpectedly danceable, approaching familiar characters and stories from new perspectives.
Unlike a traditional theater production, “Literary Monsters” unfolds through a handcrafted blend of live music, shadow puppetry, overhead projectors, moving panorama, sound effects and video projection. Every visual element is performed live, creating a theatrical experience that feels both intimate and cinematic, Martin said.
The trio is less interested in defeating monsters than in getting to know them. Their interpretations explore identity, belonging, otherness and what happens when someone — or something — falls outside society’s expectations.
“In classic literature, the ‘monster’ is often someone who doesn’t fit the societal mold — someone misunderstood or cast out,” Martin said. “As a queer artist, I found a lot of beauty and strength in these figures. Together we’ve created a performance that celebrates difference and invites audiences to reconsider who the real monsters are.”
Fellow troupe members Amy West, the production’s visual storyteller and lead puppeteer, and Abby Hanna, co-writer and performer, puppeteer and musician, help round out the vision spearheaded by Martin.
“Shadow puppetry lives in the space between what is seen and what is hidden,” West said. “Light and shadow allow stories to transform before the audience’s eyes, making it the perfect medium for exploring monsters, identity and imagination.”
Hanna added, “One of the joys of this show is watching people realize that puppetry and these old stories can be funny, surprising and very much alive. There are lots of ways into Literary Monsters. You might come for the music, the puppets, the books, or just because you like weird things.”
For the Oct. 10 performance, the strange little world of paper, light, literature and sound that is Literary Monsters takes up residence at music and performing arts venue Blackbird just as Halloween season is getting underway. The intimate downtown Northampton venue offers a fitting setting for a show built around the intimacy of live music and the visible, handmade mechanics of puppet theater.
Following the performance at Blackbird, audiences are invited to remain for a behind-the-scenes conversation with the artists, where they can see the puppets up close, learn about the creative process and explore the enduring fascination with monsters in literature and popular culture.
Blackbird opened this summer and owner Lauryn Winiarski told Reminder Publishing that they hope the venue can become a place where people can stop in, enjoy local entertainment and be a part of the downtown live performing arts ecosystem so many crave in the city.
“A lot of people who are my age and older can still remember you park your car somewhere and go out into town and find 10 things to do. I guess this is trying to be a little piece of that, one more of those places where people can go and feel warm, safe and entertained,” Winiarski said. “[Martin] shot me an email with just a short description of, ‘and including our 7-foot-tall skeleton puppet’ and I was sold. That is exactly the weird and wonderful that I put this venue together for. She’s been driving this for sure. I can’t thank her enough for all the work that she’s done to make this happen and am really looking forward to them putting it on.”
Audiences can expect something atmospheric, funny, strange, musical and decidedly low-tech. No previous knowledge of the literary classics is required.
“What I focus on as a performer and storytelling is providing people with an experience so then they feel they have had an experience where they can go home and say, ‘I just saw a rock and roll puppet show’ and their friends will be like, ‘say what?’ like that’s so unusual. It’s a roller coaster for everyone,” Martin added. “It’s wonderful to present something that’s so unexpected because no one has a built in of like, ‘well the last rock and roll puppet show I saw was just like this, and so I expect them to hold up the conventions of the form,’ and it’s like there’s no form and no rules, so that liberates the audiences in fun ways.”
Advance tickets are $20 and available at eventbrite.com/e/shadow-sound-spectaclee-presents-literary-monsters-ep-release-event-tickets-1998493793735. Pay-what-you-wish admission will also be available at the door. Costumes and spooky-season finery are welcome.
To learn more about Shadow, Sound Spectacle, visit linktr.ee/shadowsoundspectacle.
