In celebrating the uncertainty that envelopes our everyday lives, Professor Craig Quintero of the Theatre Department is working with students and a Taiwanese puppeteer for the grand performance of “Naked” this weekend. Shih Pei-yu, a puppeteer from the Flying Groups Theatre in Taiwan has been here at Grinnell for the past five weeks that the group has been rehearsing.

The 55 minute-long play will boast an eclectic collection of puppetry, singing, monologue and other movement based sections.

“That’s more like life. Life doesn’t have a simple narrative. [Reality] is not that clear, it’s not that easy,” Quintero said.

In order to incorporate the uncertainty of life into the play, and to experiment with a different genre altogether, Quintero, who had worked with Pei-yu in Taiwan before, decided to bring her to Grinnell and provide the students with the opportunity to experiment with another form of theatre.

“[We are] trying to experiment with the way we construct theatre. It’s trying to encourage a dialogue between different forms of theatrical expression,” Quintero said.

Pei-yu said, with Quintero as a translator, that it was an exciting opportunity to work for five weeks with the students and provide them with the experience.

“To start from pieces of wood and Styrofoam to a puppet and to be part of the experiment, not just as performers but as builders, was a great opportunity to experience,” Pei-yu said.

Lexi Leuszler ’12, a theatre major and one of the cast members, said she is very excited about the prospect of working with Quintero and puppets, her area of interest.

“I really wanted to work with Craig. He is an interesting director and he demands a lot of his actors and I wanted that kind of intensity and immersion,” Leuszler said.

Although Leuszler has been involved in a number of theatre performances at Grinnell, such as The Neverland Players and The Bread & Puppet Show, she said that this was different.

“This was a new breed where we really from the bones built the skeleton, then the flesh and the costume of the puppets,” Leuszler said. “We’ve been living and breathing with the puppets.”

Leuszler, who was very keen on working with an international performer, said Quintero is fun to work with as he welcomes suggestions and collaboration.

“And [then] it’s really how you work it into your puppet. It breathes life into the puppet. And that’s the beautiful part of it,” she said.

Quintero said that this is a big experiment and he is excited to see how the different forms come together.

“With this production of having a mash up of different forms that normally don’t speak to or with each other,” he said. “We’re trying to rethink a way of expression which is more contemporary.”

The performance will take place throughout the weekend, from Thursday until Sunday. On Thursday, Friday and Saturday, it will be at 7:30 p.m. and on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. All of the performances will take place in the Flangan Theatre, where an excited cast of seven and an intriguing setup await a curious audience.

“This space was empty five weeks ago,” Quintero said, regarding the setup, “but now we have this beautiful world here which was created with artistic designers [and] students. We strongly encourage students across campus to come and work with us. This is our creation.”