by Maxx Fidalgo
NEW BEDFORD, MA - Vaulted ceilings. A tiered, raised stage. Stained glass windows from the 19th century. These are all common sights in downtown New Bedford, where buildings from the 1800s still stand proudly today. It’s what’s under those ceilings on that stage backed by those three, arched windows that’s less of a common sight. Or rather who.
At 12:30PM on the cloudy, frigid Sunday of February 3, 2025 - technically the start of the Gaelic season of Imbolc - located in the Try Works Auditorium of the First Unitarian Church in downtown New Bedford, the Wicked Queer Puppet Theater (WQPT) gave their last run of “Dreamworld.” “Dreamworld” is a theatre menagerie that pieces together live music and large, paper-mâché puppets built by-hand by the act’s performers. Their de-facto front-liner, J Terry of Westport performing as Hooly J Chan, played music from their newest album, A Worm’s Wings, released on July 8 in 2024. The production is layered with darkness, hope, and more than a little commentary on the current sociopolitical climate, phrased by Chan as "a very dark time in this country & our humanity."
Chan says they chose to make worms the center of this album and show because the worm has much to teach: in Chan's words, the "Earthworm thrives inside the dark. The worm is constantly regenerating its surroundings to create a home where growth is possible. So today we will look to our worm friends to teach us how to move through darkness, how to hold each other inside the unknown, and how to use our collective imagination to create a world that is rooted in love. Because with real love there is room to change and expand. In the dreamworld, we all have the ability to grow wings."
"...So today we will look to our worm friends to teach us how to move through darkness, how to hold each other inside the unknown, and how to use our collective imagination to create a world that is rooted in love."
The show gets its name in reference to – and expression of – the theme of darkness and sleep of the winter seasons, pulling from both magic and myth. In Gaelic tradition and many pagan beliefs, from the ancient Celts to modern-day Wiccans, the season of Samhain – pronounced sah-win - marks the start of the darkness of winter, when nature lays itself down to sleep awaiting the spring - Imbolc. But with sleep comes dreaming, and in dreams the deepest parts of the human heart and psyche express wishes and desires not always safely or bravely expressed in the light of wakefulness. These themes are also explored alongside and enmeshed in the show.
For the past three winters, Chan has put on this Dreamworld show and claims that each year is a bit different, with this year including music from their newest album and incorporating the journey of The Worm, rejecting the societal rules of men (ex. capitalism, gender binary) leaving the harsh city to rediscover itself in nature as it goes into the darkness of the winter. Chan has an indie/folk sound with a hint of funk and some unbridled, unembarrassed, and joyful edge that’s all their own and cuts to the heart with the brutal honesty of their lyrics (see: the heart-wrenching line, "I died once, and things only got better." Can we say ouch?). The show added a dash of surreal jazz with the addition of a saxophone and clarinet, lending it an atmosphere one could liken to the hazy Black Lodge soundtrack in David Lynch’s critically acclaimed television show Twin Peaks.
Those same hands crafting large versions of the sun, moon, nature spirits, and The Mugwort Queen ... were the same hands lifting those puppets up and acting out the scenes of The Worm finding its way back to nature.
The theatrical production that played out as Chan performed the musical bits on stage and narrated reflected the story of a worm rejecting social pressures of society and traveling back to nature, discovering itself in the darkness of winter, engaging with the beasts and spirits around it, and in the end, coming to a greater understanding of itself. Community members that helped Chan build large, paper-mâché, acrylic-painted puppets brought them to life for the performance as well. Those same hands crafting large versions of the sun, moon, nature spirits, and The Mugwort Queen – a figure featured in Chan’s other productions and music – were the same hands lifting those puppets up and acting out the scenes of The Worm once more interacting with the natural world.
WQPT often utilizes materials that would otherwise go into the trash or recycling bin. It's wonderful to see this upcycled props being put to such artistic use. City buildings held by actors were represented by painted cardboard boxes with twinkle lights in the drawn-on windows. Repurposed buckets held loose bricks that supported discarded pipe poles with the paper-mâché sun and moon mounted on them. Actors dressed as forest spirits donned hand-made wings that Chan spent hours sewing themselves; were in thrifted or gifted cloaks; or sheets they had painted designs on as they traipsed around on stilts Chan also hand made. The Worm, played by local Dartmouth farmer, Maddie Kay, was dressed in a highlighter-pink morph suit with only her face exposed.
“Humans can still make things with our hands.”
Community members from all walks of life contributed to the showing; in fact, all were members of the Wicked Queer Puppet Theatre, described by Chan as “local community theatre [that] makes art to play and wonder and to explore.” But, Chan qualified the statement with another: that what WQPT does is also "a protest art," referencing their themes and mediums.
"Humans can still make things with our hands," Chan said with a large smile that lit up their face. And they're right; we can. In a world of booming artificial technology that Big Tech advertises can draw, write, paint, and otherwise create in place of humans, that fact is sometimes, tragically, hard to remember.
The group has an ever-changing cast of members and allows people to choose the level of involvement they’d like to contribute. Whether that’s helping during one session of puppet making at WQPT’s studio at The Heron in Fall River where they are an artist in residence, or participating in every act the group has to offer is up to the individual. Among members for this particular production were siblings Abi and Hannah Schwarzhans of Dartmouth and Westport, respectively; Sri Lakshmi Gandham of Hyderabad, India – a local activist, socialist, volunteer, and graduate student in Technology Management at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth; Tonianne Wong of New Bedford, rocking a bumping bass with a gorgeous sound; Kwang Arnzen of New Bedford; and Rhode Island native, Maddie Cardoza, on the clarinet and saxophone of band Field of Embers, who recently played at Mythicon in Gettysburg, PA the weekend of February 9, 2025.
Chan says the church is “a safe space, welcoming, and [that] you can be you...”
For Reverend Karen LeBlanc, the Universal Unitarian church leader, the Try Works Auditorium on the second floor of the church’s building was the perfect place to have The Wicked Queer Puppet Theatre perform. The First Unitarian Church looks like some castle out of the medieval era, with its solid, stone blocks and sweeping stained-glass windows - and the very gorgeous theatre auditorium on its second floor. The church is very social-justice and community focused, two attributes that align with WQPT’s mission. LeBlanc herself said she had been interested in seeing the traveling show and had disappointingly missed the ‘last’ performance. But when the group had inquired about using the space for their encore show, the reverend said she was thrilled to agree. During the performance, she stood at the back of the crowd of over 50 members of the Greater New Bedford community that came to watch, grinning and swaying along to the musical performance, encouraging folks to come in and take a seat, watch, and enjoy. Sodas and water, as well as popcorn for snacking, were graciously provided as well. The space’s setup was as generous as the organization setting it up.
For Chan, the Universal Unitarian church was a good place to give their last hurrah because several current WQPT members are also church members. In addition, Chan says the church is “a safe space, welcoming, and [that] you can be you” when there. For a group that calls themselves the Wicked Queer Puppet Theatre, and in a time where protections for LGBTQ+ individuals are threatened on a national, political level, those are all important values in a potential venue, host, or community partner.
There was a gorgeous moment of that welcoming community at the end of the production. A large, two-person puppet phoenix (reminiscent of a Chinese lion dance costume) had risen from a rippling fire of fabric fanned by performers, something that could have easily just been made of cardboard as well, but which WQPT opted for more member involvement in and thus used the fabric fanned out by performers. Everyone was a part of that ‘rebirth’ in the end, and the invitation to be part of it opened up to the audience as well! Chan invited anyone who was willing to dance with the performers as the show closed – something I gladly participated in once I was finished taking my notes! Everyone watching clapped in support as folks of all ages, from the very young to even the generally older, joyfully spun in circles among the performers and the puppets. Everyone was welcome and given a chance to express themselves as they wished. That final act encompassed the true theme of Chan’s work.
While “Dreamworld” has wound to a close, Chan has been in chats with other community members and members of WQPT gauging interest in continuing the show’s narrative, as well as building out some past projects into bigger productions, such as Chan’s marine-activism show, “Beauty Below.” Chan also has plans to work on a new album, an ambitious feat coming on the heels of their most recent accomplishment from the previous year. You can find Hooly J Chan’s music on AppleMusic and Spotify, as well as YouTube. You can find the Wicked Queer Puppet Theater on Instagram at @wickedqueerpuppets.
I, for one, can't wait to see what they all get up to next!
Note: A previous version of this story had an incorrect lyric line and incorrectly stated that the studio in Fall River was Hooly J Chan's. The lyric has been corrected and the studio properly attributed.
Bình luận