Since its inception, the Mettawee River Theatre Company has thrived under the direction of Ralph Lee, a renowned creator of masks and puppets.  For close to 30 years, the company has beguiled audiences in upstate New York and nearby Vermont and Massachusetts with original theater productions that incorporate masks, giant figures, puppets and other visual elements with live music, movement and text, drawing on myths, legends and folklore of the world’s many cultures for its material.

The exhibit, with exuberant appeal for the smallest of children, will comprise more than fifty masks and puppets from past Mettawee productions, ranging in scale from the 8-foot giant figure of War from the company's 1976 adaptation of Aristophanes' Peace to the diminutive hand-carved wooden puppets of The Woman Who Fell from the Sky, Mettawee's 1997-1998 treatment of the Iroquois creation tale.  One nook of the gallery will be occupied by the philosopher-poet cockroach Archy and his urban cronies from the 2001 production Communications from a Cockroach. The Chinese trickster hero Monkey, his fellow pilgrims, demons and deities from Stone Monkey Banished (2002) will share space with a few illustrious immortals from Mettawee's 1978 Monkey, taken from an earlier episode of the ancient epic adventure The Journey to the West. These creatures will be joined by numerous others: scurvy lowlifes, comical characters, and fantastical beasts.

“This exhibit is the culmination of a rewarding, 25-year relationship with Ralph and Mettawee,” said LARAC President Pat Joyce. “For all these many years, we have appreciated the joy Ralph brings to the regional community through his art—and this is our way of saying thanks.”  Simultaneous with the LARAC exhibit, the nearby Crandall Public Library will present a selection of photographs of Lee’s work and theatrical productions.

Among his many tributes, in 2003 Lee received a Guggenheim Fellowship. One of the nation’s most prestigious honors, Fellowships are awarded to men and women who have already demonstrated exceptional creative ability in the scientific research, scholarship and the creative arts.  In his design and direction, Lee seeks to create vivid theatrical moments with economy and elegance. This search for an evocative simplicity of image and Mettawee’s commitment to making theater accessible to the widest possible audience through its free outdoor performances give this theater company its particular character.

Ralph Lee graduated from Amherst College and studied dance and theater in Europe for two years on a Fulbright Scholarship.  Upon returning to the United States, Lee acted on Broadway, off-Broadway, in regional theaters and with the Open Theatre.  During that period he started creating masks, unusual props, puppets and larger-than-life figures for theater and dance companies, including the New York Shakespeare Festival, Lincoln Center Repertory Theatre, the Living Theatre, the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, Shari Lewis and Saturday Night Live (he created the Land Shark).  In 1974, while teaching at Bennington College, Lee staged his first outdoor production, which took place all over the college campus, and featured giant puppets and masked creatures.  That same year he organized the first Greenwich Village Halloween Parade, which he directed through 1985.  For his work on the parade Lee received a 1975 Village Voice OBIE Award, a 1985 Citation from the Municipal Arts Society, and in 1993 he was inducted into the CityLore People's Hall of Fame.  Two of Lee's Mettawee productions have been honored with American Theatre Wing Design Awards: The Popol Vuh in 1995 and Wichikapache Goes Walking in 1992.  Under Lee's direction, Mettawee has also received a 1991 Village Voice OBIE Award and two Citations for Excellence from UNIMA, the international puppetry organization.  Additional awards to Lee include a 1996 Dance Theatre Workshop Bessie Award for “sustained achievement as a mask maker and theatre designer without equal,” and a 1996 New York State Governor's Arts Award in recognition of his many contributions to the artistic and cultural life of New York State.  He is currently on the faculty of New York University.