A RAFTER OF CRANKIES

November 27th & 28th, 2026

At Green Mountain Orchards, 130 W Hill Rd, Putney, VT

Sandglass Theater's A Rafter of Crankies returns to Green Mountain Orchards for the 12th consecutive year! Performances will take place on Friday, November 27, at 5 PM and 7:30 PM, and on Saturday, November 28, at 5 PM and 7:30 PM. This event will be part of the Putney Craft Tour over Thanksgiving Weekend.

Crankies are panoramic scrolls that are “cranked” through a box, creating an experience reminiscent of an analog movie or a comic strip paired with a song or story. Together, they produce performances that are charming, often wildly funny, or strikingly haunting. While traditionally associated with Appalachian folk culture, today’s crankies embrace cultural, musical, and artistic expressions that are contemporary and as unpredictable as the weather!

Heating will run before and between shows; the temperature in the building should be somewhere between outdoors and cozy. Bring layers! Cider and baked snacks will be available by donation.

And why a Rafter of Crankies? Rafter is the group name for turkeys (just as fish group in schools or geese in gaggles). Just look at the ceiling of Green Mountain Orchards and you’ll see why the name fits for a group of crankies as well.  And on Thanksgiving weekend, what better way to tie the rafter together than with the traditional meal and a crankie performance!

PURCHASE TICKETS

On Another’s Sorrow

Experience intricate cut-paper art and spellbinding visual performances. Erik’s two short works are inspired by poems by William Blake and Takaaki Yoshimoto.

  • Erik Ruin is a Michigan-raised, Philadelphia-based printmaker, shadow puppeteer, paper-cut artist, etc., who has been lauded by the New York Times for his "spell-binding cut-paper animations." His work oscillates between the poles of apocalyptic anxieties and utopian yearnings, with an emphasis on empathy, transcendence and obsessive detail. He frequently works collaboratively with musicians, theater performers, other artists and activist campaigns. He is a founding member of the international Justseeds Artists' Cooperative, and co-author of the book Paths Toward Utopia: Graphic Explorations of Everyday Anarchism (w/ Cindy Milstein, PM Press, 2012). Current projects include the Ominous Cloud Ensemble, an ever-evolving, collectively-improvising large ensemble for projections and music.

Discover a Brand New Work which responds to current events with Clare’s trademark combination of humor and wry critique.

  • Clare Dolan is a ICU Nurse & Puppeteer whose early interest in object collection and experience as a company member of the Bread and Puppet Theater informs both the ever-expanding activity of the Museum of Everyday Life and her devotion to the cantastoria and cranky performance forms. She was the Co-Founder and Co-Director of Banners & Cranks, the country's first festival devoted entirely to cranky and cantastoria performance which was produced in cities in the continental U.S. and Puerto Rico from 2010-2019.

Lady Franklin’s Lament

Join the 1845 expedition of Sir John Franklin, searching for a northwest passage across Canada to the Pacific, alongside Lady Jane Franklin’s attempts to raise funds to search for her husband.

  • Ines and Eric, the founders and curators of Sandglass’ A Rafter of Crankies, are well known to crankie audiences locally and in the wider region, from Baltimore to Western Pennsylvania. They have been making and performing these scrolling panorama songs and stories since 2014, inspired by the works of Katherine Fahey, Elizabeth LaPrelle and Anna Roberts-Gevalt.

    Ines and Eric will be reprising their double crankie, first performed in 2017. Lord Franklin -or - Lady Franklin’s Lament depicts the events of the 1845 expedition of two British ships searching for a northwest passage across Canada to the Pacific. The expedition was led by Sir John Franklin, a naval officer who, by many accounts, was past the age and fitness to lead such a demanding voyage. Both of his ships were lost in the Canadian Arctic. His wife, Lady Jane Franklin, spent the next decade lobbying the Admiralty to send search and rescue expeditions to find the lost ships and discover the fate of her husband. 

    The Franklin crankies are performed on two crankie boxes, one depicting Sir John’s voyage and one depicting Lady Jane’s attempts to raise funds for several search expeditions, all of which failed to find the lost ships or discover what had happened to Sir John Franklin and his crew.

    Ines and Eric will be joined in performing this double crankie by Anna Patton and Peter Siegel.

What Really Makes it Fly?

From the collaborative minds of Fynn Crooks and Anna Patton comes a new bicycle themed crankie that asks us to explore what brings about joy. If we break it down, is it in the infinitesimal pieces, the innumerable bits, the multitudinous bobs; or is the whole experience greater than the sum of its parts?

  • Fynn Crooks is a coach, an advocate, a teacher, and a storyteller who saw her first crankie at a little music festival in the mountains of Western North Carolina and has been captivated by the artform ever since. When she’s not wielding an acrylic marker, she’s usually donning a bike helmet and a moderate amount of spandex as she blasts around Brattleboro area bike trails. 

    Anna Patton arrived at crankie-making through the love of combining music with visual storytelling. She has toured internationally as a clarinetist/singer and is known locally as a collaborating musician, composer/arranger, and songleader. She directs the choruses Brattleboro Harmonia and The Soubrettes and loves to bike at a toodling pace on a nice flat bike path.

Somewhere in the World

This first collaborative crankie between Jana and Shoshana is inspired by the 1930s song “Irgendwo auf der Welt” (Somewhere in the World) popularized by the Comedian Harmonists. An ode to the pursuit of happiness, we look for the small places we can find hope and soulfulness.

  • Shoshana Bass: Sandglass Artistic Director

    Shoshana Bass is the second generation Artistic Director of Sandglass Theater. She grew up touring internationally with the theater founded by her parents and now performs their legacy work as well as her own devised work. Her training consists of a range of physical performance disciplines spanning across theater, dance, puppetry and circus. She works as a performer, teacher, producer, director and choreographer around the world. Her solo puppet theater piece, When I Put On Your Glove has and continues to tour in North America, Asia, and Europe. She has been a primary force in Sandglass’ work on Babylon: journeys of refugees, a production about that has garnered support from the National Theater Project and the Doris Duke Islamic Art Foundation’s Building Bridges Program. Her newest project titled Feral, received support from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Henson Foundation and numerous commissioners from around the country.

    Jana Zeller: Sandglass Youth Program Coordinator

    Jana grew up in the Sandglass family, painting sets and puppets, and building for Sandglass productions. She trained as a puppeteer in the Sandglass Intensives, created her own shows for adults and children, and has toured her work nationally and internationally. Additionally she trained with Sandglass co-founder Ines Zeller Bass in children's puppetry and workshops. She has taught countless workshops, residencies and camps, inspiring hundreds of children and adults to invent, design, build and perform puppets. Jana has been touring Sandglass children’s shows for the past 13 years, and has lately been performing her piece Puppet Crimes for adult audiences with great success. She officially joined the Sandglass staff in 2025 as Youth Program Coordinator. Although her passion is the European hand puppet style, she is thrilled to join the Crankie world for this festival.

Thanks To Our Supporters

A Rafter of Crankies is presented in Collaboration with Green Mountain Orchards, with support of the Center for Cultural Vibrancy.