As part of my continued research stateside, I’ve come into
contact with a surprising number of amazing scholars, students, enthusiasts and
cheerleaders for the work – egging me on and keeping me going.
A few days after I landed back on US soil this past December,
I was gifted a present in my inbox.
One Grant Hayter-Menzies, a biographer living in the west of Canada, had
found me through my blog and asked if we could chat as he was in the midst of
finishing a biography about Pauline Benton. Pauline Benton, hmmm.
My mind ticked back through my dusty Rolodex of names – and - oh
Yes. I knew about her Chinese
shadow puppet collection – now housed with the Chinese Theatre Works company in
New York - and a few tidbits about her life, but the details were fuzzy.
We started a correspondence, Grant and I, and after an
interview, chats via phone and email, I was gifted the opportunity to read his
manuscript before it’s officially published next year through McGill-Queens
University Press. I can’t tell you
what a dream it was to read, both for content and also for its writing.
Pauline Benton was an American Woman from Kansas, born just
before the turn of last century.
She fell in love with puppetry in 1923 when she encountered her first
shadow puppet performance in the courtyard of her Aunt Emma, who was then teaching
in Beijing. From there, she
dedicated her life to become its lone steward in the states – the first female
puppet master in the west and a collector, collaborator and creator of shadow puppet
shows in her own right. Her company,
The Red Gate Shadow Players, were ambassadors for both the Chinese people and
their incredible folk artistry during an ever-changing relationship to the
states.
Instead of giving you more of a summary, I’ll simply
encourage you to buy the book. I’m
just so sorry you have to wait.
What Grant does so well with all his beautifully researched
facts is make it, her and shadow puppetry, come to life. He places her amazing story within such
a rich context that you can’t help but be transported. He takes you to Beijing in the 1920s, with all its chaos and
tumult. You also get to travel to New
York in the early part of the century and around the country as a fledgling
Chinese shadow puppet troupe tries to make a name for themselves despite the
obvious obstacles. Between
performances at the White House for the Roosevelts and the seedy streets of San
Francisco’s Chinatown, you can feel the determination and dedication of Pauline
and her troupe mates.
Of all the historical books I’ve read on shadow puppetry,
this is the one I will reread over and over again – if not for pleasure, then
for encouragement. To know of a
woman doing much the same work nearly 80 years earlier makes me feel comforted,
supported. I’ve got company on the
puppet trail. Somehow, without even knowing much about
her, I seemed to have traced much the same path and even drawn many of the same
conclusions on my own. We seem to
be kindred spirits, only separated by time. Now, I simply
have to live up to the rest of the trail she blazed for a Shadow Woman.
The story is echoing a theme in my recent musings of the
past year, driving home the fact and fear of knowing that the stories we carry
die with us if we don’t share them.
Whose responsibility is it to share these? The teller or the listener? As I finished the Epilogue, I had a moment of panic followed
quickly by gratitude. I can
already tell this story, this work, will continue to impact me for many years
to come – and to think it could have so easily remained buried and eventually
lost forever but for another story hunter who saw its quiet potential.
This is a book for anyone who recognizes the inherent curse
and blessing in a passion you can’t ignore.
I will certainly post the book’s release on the blog!
Shadow Woman, The
Extraodinary Career of Pauline Benton by Grant Hayter-Menzies. Due out in early 2013 from McGill-Queens
University Press, Montreal.
