Hand, Shadow, Rod. The Story of Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre | Monica Leo | Isbn 9781948509466 | 244 pages | $21.95 | Order early for a signed copy | Release Date: October 1, 2023
Since 1974, Eulenspiegel has toured in thirty-one states and four countries around the world. All along establishing and maintaining an internationally known puppetry center in West Liberty, Iowa. Hand. Shadow, Rod traces the theatre’s history and explores the relationship between work and play, between loss and recovery, and between puppets and puppeteers. It also reflects, first hand, on life and culture between the late 1970s and the present day.
Monica Leo is a first-generation American, born to German refugees in the waning days of World War Two. After the war, her parents ordered a set of Kasperle hand puppets from a German craftswoman, and Monica was hooked. Since 1975, she has been creating and performing as founder and principal puppeteer of Eulenspiegel Puppet Theatre, which has been a featured performer at numerous national and regional Puppeteers of America festivals, as well as national and international festivals in Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Japan. Eulenspiegel’s home is Owl Glass Puppetry Center, a tiny center in the small town of West Liberty, Iowa. Monica also creates block prints and writes the “Scene Between” column for The Puppetry Journal. She lives in a log cabin in the woods in rural Iowa City, built by her late carpenter husband, John Jenks.