DULUTH — It was a scene straight out of a fantasy movie. As darkness fell over a thick patch of forest on private land just outside city limits, a warmly glowing moose stepped out from among the trees. As haunting music filled the air, the life-size puppet wandered through the woods and slowly made his way to a hushed cluster of onlookers.
He peered from person to person, and when one viewer raised a hand to touch the moose's nose, the animal gently nodded and lowered his head. Scientists use the term "charismatic megafauna" to describe the kind of big animals that humans love to look at, and in that spirit, you could say the moose is Duluth's newest charismatic mega-puppet. You can expect to see it join "Max Skeleton" at this year's All Souls Night event Nov.
2. Mary Plaster, the artist who founded Duluth's All Souls Night, brought master puppeteer Andrew Kim to Duluth to create the moose in collaboration with Minneapolis puppet pros and Northland youth. Plaster's inspiration, she said, came when she participated in a workshop with the England-based Kim.
"We built a unicorn and a dragon, and as we built the unicorn, I just kept seeing a moose," said Plaster, waiting for the newly built creature to make its grand appearance before a small invited audience June 26. "I caught (Kim) while he was at the National Puppetry Conference in Connecticut and convinced him to take a plane here." ADVERTISEMENT "It's been a really great group of artists," said Kim.
"Usually, when I teach .
