Up the freeway a few miles from Downtown Los Angeles, the streetlights flicker on as I approach the warm glow of the Bob Baker Marionette Theater. Inside, I meet organist Edward Torres.
What was once a silent movie house, long ago, now buzzes with the sound of children, their parents, and a handful of chatty 20 somethings who are neither.
This is the Bob Baker Marionette Theater, and through the swinging doors from the lobby, a bright red carpet unfurls down a gentle slope, all the way to the bright red stage curtain.
To the left of the stage, still a few minutes from showtime, another red curtain has been pulled to the ceiling, and in a raised alcove, the back of an ornate jacket faces the audience, light glints off the shining sequence.
The person wearing this jacket is almost entirely enveloped by a cockpit of levers, foot pedals, buttons and 4 rows of piano keys. His fingers glide across all of these options with amazing fluidity.
This is Edward Torres, the organist at the puppet theater, and he weaves through a medley of arrangements like a driver dipping seamlessly from lane to lane, each song a passing exit or town.
“At an early age I discovered that I could play my emotions through my fingers... performing on this particular instrument for me, is an extremely personal zen, if you will.” - Edward Torres
Bob Baker Marionette Theater does puppet shows in cabaret style, which means the puppeteers are fully visible during the performance. For most of the shows they wear a striking all-red outfit which blends into the theater’s backdrop but you can see them the whole time on the strings. The stage is lower than the seats, on a gentle slope, and the puppeteers don’t act or provide vocal accompaniment. Instead, a prerecorded track of layered audio plays through the house speakers featuring voice actors, sound effects and vintage show tunes, to which the puppets sing along and perform intricate choreographies. It’s hard to describe the form, but the effect is an arresting cascade of expressive, blinking works of hand-crafted art. The audio tracks are a work of art too, many assembled by Bob Baker himself, splicing together physical tape from a deep archive reaching well into broadway and hollywood history.
“…it’s getting back to basic human interaction. And the overall feeling of being a part of something. Truly. It's beautiful, I think. But anyways, I just play the organ, I don't know!” -Edward Torres
The Bob Baker Marionette Theater was founded in 1963 — Bob Baker had been creating puppets since childhood, and he founded a physical theater on the edge of Downtown los Angeles, which ran shows and enchanted children for 50 years in that location. After Baker’s passing in 2014, the theater fell on tenuous times, and they were pushed out of the building that the organization, and it’s collection of thousands of puppets had called home for decades. The building was slated for redevelopment, but still sits vacant. They were able to find this building, what was once the York Theater, a silent movie house in highland park, and had been a whole string of things including a church in the mean time. It transformed into a dreamy, whimsical space, complete with a theater organ.
The move to this new space was in 2019, and just 4 months after it opened, the pandemic hit, again threatening the theater’s survival. But, they pulled through, and returned post-pandemic with a show called Reopening Revelry.
The Bob Baker Marionette Theater, interior.
An oil derrick and mountain lion puppet hang dormant backstage after the show.
“…in terms of theater organs, I think that they will survive and thrive in the new world setting not just as being a solo instrument, but as being a part of something else. I think that's their best bet to survive in this world.” -Edward Torres
“Audio is not a technology, but a process that employs technology to construct temporary social architecture made of air.” - Micah Silver, Figures in Air
Tags, Topics and Mentions: Edward Torres, Ed Torres, Bob Baker Marionette Theater, Theater Organ, Organist, Puppets, Puppetry, Puppet Theater, Puppet Theater Los Angeles, LA, California, Figures in Air, The Wind, Organ, Silent Movies, Silent Movie Theater LA, Highland Park, York blvd, Freeway, Western Tanager, Mockingbird Car Alarm, Historic Theater, Organs, Historic Organs, Edward Torres Organist