File puptcrit/puptcrit.0506, message 146


From: WIPuppets-AT-aol.com
Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2005 12:40:21 EDT
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] The beginnings and the endings of Puppetry
To: puptcrit-driftline.org-AT-lists.driftline.org


 
What you may be asking is about the intention- Could Bil have been saying  
that it is merely a toy if we are simply amusing ourselves? That it is just an  
idea, a drawing or an object in a future production until all three elements  
come together?
 
Is a canvas with paint on it a painting? When does it become one? When the  
artist declares it (debatable, but my prefered theory). Similarly, any  object 
can be a puppet, but not every object is a puppet. It is puppet when the  
puppeteer says it is. (there's your deep philosophical discussion for you) Too  
simple? 
 
I like to tell children that they are all puppeteers because they are  
experts at animating inanimate objects. Their dolls, stuffed animals, trucks and  
cars- yet their intention is to amuse themselves, excercise their imagination.  
If they were performing for their friends, their intention has changed- the 
toy  bacame a puppet.

Quoting  from Baird's The Art of the Puppet:   "A puppet is  an  inanimate
figure that is made to move by human effort before an   audience."


So, if I'm just playing around with one of my puppets  for my own amusement, 
is it not a puppet?  Or can I be both audience and  manipulator?  What about 
when I'm rehearsing a show, or just trying to  figure out what a new puppet can 
do?

Don't you all just love these  deep, philosophical discussions?

Brid in  Toledo




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