File puptcrit/puptcrit.0610, message 225


From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Mathieu_Ren=E9?= <creaturiste-AT-magma.ca>
To: <puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org>
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 00:21:54 -0500
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] The Two Types of Puppeteers


Concerning putting people in categories (or boxes), I half agree with Karen.
I do believe it is not such a good idea to categorize too much, but 
sometimes the box fits.
Boxes are reassuring, boxes are helpful when you need to understand 
something or someone. As long as you are keeping an eye out for evolution of 
such a box.
"Oh, I see, you are like this, therefore in order to reach you better, I can 
use that approach."

Of course, the toughest part is to see the box for what it really is, from 
person to person. I'm starting to think that boxes, however apparently 
perfectly defined in our minds as decribing a person, are prone to various 
degrees of stretch. They have a possibility to contract or expand. As long 
as the person is willing to do that to the box. Sometimes a small box is 
cozy enough. Sometimes the warehouse-size box is taking the space of its 
neighbors.

My box is made of weird matter. I can't define it very well. Whenever I 
think i've got it, it grows a tentacule-shaped extra room, or a wart-size 
cupboard.







Mathieu René Créaturiste
Marionnettes, Masques, Etcetera...
Puppets, Masks, Etcetera...
www.creaturiste.blogspot.com
www.maskmaking.blogspot.com
creaturiste-AT-magma.ca
(514) 274-8027
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Finn Campman" <finnhell-AT-sover.net>
To: <puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 9:31 PM
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] The Two Types of Puppeteers


> Funny. I have always found actors the most difficult people to train
> to use puppets and objects. For so many on them it is impossible to
> let go of the need to find the light, so hard for them to let go of
> their facial expressions, impossible to let the object speak for
> them. This, of course is not always true, but I have always preferred
> the incurably shy with the irrepressible need to be heard. What does
> seem to work is using actors as puppets; you don't have to tell them
> provided your direction is really clear. Hmmmmm
>
> Finn
> On Oct 29, 2006, at 12:08 PM, Bruce Chesse wrote:
>
>>> From my point of view there are far more types of
>> puppeteers than two. Puppetry from my point of
>> view is theater and the same applies to
>> puppeteers as actors. How do you teach acting?
>> For those of you who have been directors in
>> either field, one should be quick to realize that
>> actor/puppeteers comes into your studio with lots
>> of baggage.
>>
>> There are those of us who seek release through
>> the puppet, hide behind it, make it a platform
>> for showcasing ourselves by imposing our
>> personalities into the performance and in essence
>> competing with the puppet. One of the reasons I
>> found Wyland Flowers so fantastic was the fact
>> you could never concentrate on "his" performance
>> because the puppet in its reality didn't allow
>> you to. Alan Cook and I went to see Wayland one
>> time and sat directly in front of him expecting
>> to focus only on his manipulation. Needless to
>> say it was impossible.
>>
>> Good actors and puppeteers have to find that
>> technique that works for them and gives them the
>> most comfort allowing for the truth to come out.
>> It is what you end up with that counts.
>>
>> My father was an exponent of  Gorden Craig the
>> great stage designer and who created the theory
>> of the uber  marionette. Craig was the son of
>> Ellen Terry and Edward William Godwin. He  an
>> actor and leading man in Henry Irving's
>> LycieumTheater in London in the early 20th
>> Century. He went on to become one of the greatest
>> influences on theater design in the that Century
>> working with everyone from Max Reinhart to the
>> Moscow Art Theater and Mayakovsky. He saw actors
>> as puppets and puppets as pure objects that could
>> free themselves from the actor who imposes many
>> parts of himself upon the character. He also
>> believed that the Diretor should be the sole
>> determinant factor in a production.. "Craig
>> sought a theatrical art form fully unified and
>> wholly created under one artist's supervision. "
>>
>> When my father produced and starred in his
>> marionette production of Hamlet in 1928 this is
>> exactly what he did.....everything including
>> playing Hamlet, Ploniuis and the 1st gravedigger
>> in that one production. At the same time he was
>> physically a small man who could not aspire to
>> being given the opportunity to pay Hamlet on
>> stage. Yes,  he was a control freak and that was
>> what worked for him.
>>
>> I believe that every puppeteer should be an actor
>> first and then a puppeteer. Manipulating is a
>> skill easily learned. Acting has to be discovered
>> by trial and error as does puppeteering live.
>> Combining the two is where the difficulty lies.
>> There are many techniques for learning lines one
>> must find the one that works specifically for
>> you. The same applies to what kind of puppeteer
>> you want to be. An effective shadow puppeteer is
>> not necessarily a cabaret puppeteer, a
>> "muppeteer" is not a live stage puppeteer and a
>> marionettist too stands alone. Each requires its
>> own technique but more then that if you are
>> manipulating and saying lines at the same time
>> you have to have to act with your voice as well
>> as your hands and the truth will out. However,
>> the thing we must all have is the ultimate
>> passion for whatever we do.My father always
>> talked about seeing Remo Bufano perform in New
>> York in the twenties (Remo was his 2nd greatest
>> artistic influence). The  puppets, he said were
>> rather bland until Remo put voice to them and
>> with that he overwhelmed you.
>>
>> Bruce Chessé
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>> I posted this on my blog earlier today at
>>> http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/blogspot/XVGw/~3/42779718/two-types-
>>> of-puppeteers.htmland
>>> though it's not a new or completely original idea, I'm curious to
>>> hear
>>> what others on the list think about it:
>>>
>>> For a long time I've thought that there are two types of puppeteers.
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