EUGENE–University Theatre will present the award-winning "Cartoon Theatre" by Belgian puppetmaster Gabriel Ponti at 7 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 7, in Robinson Theatre at Villard Hall, 1109 Old Campus Lane on the University of Oregon campus.

General-admission tickets for the special family event will be $5 for everyone. Free parking is available nearby in university lots at East 11th Avenue and Kincaid Street.

Ponti’s work has been described as comic, insolent and smitten with a delicate poetry. It meshes the world of masks, mime and animated films. The inspiration for the short and silent scenes comes from animated films of the 1930s and ‘40s.

"He has a surprising capacity to manipulate and transform everyday objects into a jewel of a show with surrealistic fringes that will delight a general audience," one reviewer noted.

Ponti, who has lived and worked in Belgium since 1981, was born in Walla Walla, Wash., and grew up in Milton-Freewater, Ore. He began his theater studies while in residence at the University of Oregon from 1972—75.

After touring the United States with various theater companies in the late ‘70s, Ponti settled in Eugene and worked at the WOW Hall and with the New Mime Circus from 1978 to 1980. In 1981, he toured England and lived briefly in Paris before settling in Belgium and beginning work with Les Balladins du Mirror, a traveling French company, as maskmaker and puppeteer. It was during this time that he met and began studying with Dutch puppet player Henk Boerwinkel and the German masters Albrecht Roser and Bjorn Fuhler.

From 1981 to 1987, Ponti toured with Les Balladins and began to create his own puppet productions. In 1983, he created the show "Molecule," a science fantasy puppet show in blacklight, which he performed in Sweden, Denmark, London, Paris, Brussels and Stuttgart.

In 1984, Ponti began teaching for the European Council of International Schools throughout 15 western European countries and presented countless seminars for the organization. During this period he created the show "Solo" and performed it at numerous festivals throughout Europe. It was during this time that he created the company "Cartoon Theatre."

In 1990-91, Ponti was an actor and puppeteer with the National Theatre of Belgium and continued teaching and performing in Europe. In 1994, he created the show "Cartoon" and won the Critics Choice award at the Huy Festival in Belgium.

In 1995-96, Ponti performed cultural guest appearances of "Cartoon" in Tunis and Carthage, Tunisia, and later–in 1996 and again in 1997 and 1999–he worked in Egypt with underprivileged children and villages in Luxor and Aswan.

"‘Cartoon’ strikingly proves that the marionette theatre can still surprise and move us..," noted Jean-Marie Wynants in Le Soir, referring to it as "a too short moment of happiness, dreams, humour and poetry. ‘Cartoon’ constantly creates the magic in this fascinating piece that entirely fulfills its role: to give the young a taste for theatre, for dreams and for voyages into the imaginary."

In 1998, Ponti’s work was seen at the Unima International Festival in France, the Micro Theatre Festival in Holland, and the International Festival of Puppetry in Ouzgorod, Ukraine, where "Cartoon Theatre" beat out 22 other companies for the first prize. In 1999, he performed at the Sundance Institute in Utah, as well as on an extended European tour.

His work also has been featured on television and later this year will be the subject of a documentary, "Courants des Arts," on Belgian television. During his current tour of the United States, in addition to performances in Oregon, Ponti will present "Le Cirque Poubelle," a show created in 1997, at the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.

One recent Belgian performance was described in La Meuse in the following way:

"Well... this was an enjoyable moment of good laughter for the adults as well as the children. What a good choice. Yes laughs but not cheap ones!... a subtle creation without words, sometimes with a surrealistic allure of characters the least expected."

Tickets are available now on campus at the Ticket Office in the Erb Memorial Union, 1222 E. 13th Ave., (541) 346-4363. New this year, tickets will be sold only on days of performances at the University Theatre Box Office in Robinson Theatre at Villard Hall, 346-4191.

For more information, browse http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~theatre or call the University Theatre Development Office, (541) 346-4190. A taped message about University Theatre productions and activities also is available 24 hours a day by calling GuardLine from a Touch-Tone phone at 485-2000, ext. 2287.

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