The Empath
A day in the life of a puppeteer, Studs Terkel style
By Hanna Park
Sam Jay Gold is a California-bred and New York-based 30-year-old puppeteer, actor, and arts educator. He created his own puppet show, “All Vows,” for the St. Ann’s Warehouse in Dumbo, an acclaimed venue that served as a stage for David Bowie, et al. As Mr. Gold spoke with staccato-like inflections about the craft behind building his puppets and shows, his round, olive-green eyes mirrored the glossy eyes of the puppets strewn around his house.
“Puppetry — you wind up using muscles in weird ways. You’re going to be here. (Jumps to a karate pose, fingers outstretched). Or here. (Mimics moving tabletop puppets). Yoga is one of the things I do to be ready as a performer. I get up early. I go to yoga. Five days a week if I can.
The metaphor of puppet governments… where there’s someone with strings manipulating you. (He mimes pulling a marionette.) I’d love to meet a puppet that easy to manipulate. (Chuckles).
As a builder… there’s a lot of mechanical geekery you need to learn. Tools. Material work. How to cut. How to sculpt. Technical drawings. You need to learn… body physiology, kind of. The knee joints on puppets are like our knee joints. The arm joints, like our arm joints. So you need to learn this internal mechanism. After that, it’s just patience, precision and… (Hesitates). Trust.
Do I really have time to try again if I make a mistake? The answer is always yes. It’s always okay. (He smiles softly.)
We’re of Russian Jewish heritage. So my grandfather carried a diaspora experience. He fled Russia for Hebei China during the Japanese occupation and came to America after WWII. On a puppet version of him — maps would be creeping out — almost like a new layer of flesh on top of the wood. One thing I like about puppets is how you can make literal symbols because [they are] not human. It’s theatrical in that way immediately.
I was a theater major in college. As an actor, I had a lot of questions about empathy. As a human, I was very concerned I was not able to think about others the way I wanted to. I thought studying puppets — creations that are not alive — would be eye-opening, at least for me to better understand how we relate to each other. How much of my understanding of you is coming from you and how much of it is coming from me projecting onto you?
Why do I do this? I’m still trying to figure that out. I think on some level, the work I do is to investigate why I keep wanting to do the work. (His nose scrunches into a ball as he laughs.) I love how it allows me to be serious and precise about my work. But you can’t take yourself too seriously when you’re giving sounds to your hand. So I like the balance it brings to my daily demeanor. And I really love the… (Pauses) Magic. People have chosen to spend time and trust in you to take them somewhere else — to invest in a life that is not theirs. There’s something really exhilarating… really challenging about that. That’s the drug of it. (Looking up, he beams.)”
