Press Release – About Us

A wad of newsprint, a sweat shirt, a character made from PVC pipe tubes…performance alchemist Lunatique Fantastique release the sweet, sad, naive, and emotional beings inside ordinary objects.  In the absence of language, her puppets speak universal truths.

In 1999 Lunatique Fantastique debuted the now award-winning style of live 3D animation using ordinary object puppetry with a collection of vignettes for adults – in “Objects in Predicaments.”  Since 2000, Lunatique Fantastique has created and performed in several acclaimed productions include:  “Reframing the Hourglass,” “Snake in the Basement: The Prosecution of Reverend Bill Pruit,” “The Wrapping Paper Caper,” “Brace Yourself,” “My Dinner with Lunatique Fantastique,” and the award winning “Executive Order 9066.”

In 2009, after a performance of Executive Order 9066 at the Marsh,  Lunatique Fantastique went on sabbatical.  Everything changed in 2017, when Jane Beckwith from The Topaz Museum requested an exclusive performance of “E.O.9066.”  E.O.9066 will be remounted for the Grand Opening in July 2017 of the Topaz Museum, in Delta Utah.  Liebe Wetzel, Object Choreographer, explains “this is a once in a lifetime opportunity for E.O.9066 to once again appear in front of the survivors of the internment. This show is so appropriate given the modern day political climate on top of the 75th Anniversary of when FDR signed this order. So we jumped at the opportunity to come out of retirement for this performance.”

E.O. 9066 – A Timeless Story

Amidst the hysteria of the Second World War after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 on February 19,1942. It authorized 120,000 American citizens of Japanese ancestry to be removed from their homes. They were all relocated to remote internment camps in the western U.S. – 11,000 of them were confined in Topaz.

Using a Japanese tea set, a table cloth, sand, brown paper and an old suitcase, Lunatique Fantastique uses puppetry to create the heart-wrenching story of one family’s forced evacuation from their home in Berkeley to the camp in Utah. This show,  originally written in response to past political climates, resonates just as strongly today with the recent violation of American civil rights.

E.O. 9066 Show Details

Original Music by Shinji Eshima

Original Direction by Christine Young

Object Choreography by Liebe Wetzel

Cast Members for July 2017 Performance: Jen Colasuonno, Susie Danzig, Sheila Devitt, Bill Olson, Slater Penney, Robin Plutchok, and Christina Shonkwiler

*This work is dedicated to the memory of Donna Nomura Dobkin, whose parents were interned at Topaz.

*These performances are dedicated to the memory of Ben Dzuiba a member of the original cast.

The show was created through  interviews of survivors, information from historical texts, and consultation with Jane Beckwith, Director of the Topaz Museum.