From: =?iso-8859-1?Q?Mathieu_Ren=E9?= <creaturiste-AT-magma.ca>
To: <puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org>
Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2006 00:29:54 -0500
Subject: [Puptcrit] !Re:  The Two Types of Puppeteers


>> Maybe a balloon is a more apt description?


Nah, unless you are sure that it isn't made of latex. Lots of People develop 
an allergy to it.

Then again, maybe a latex baloon would be the explanation why sometimes we 
can't stand some people and can't find a single rationnal reason behind the 
irritation...

The world is changing as we write it!!!!
HELP!

(I saw a clothes dryer's exhaust tube fly during a puppet improv night 
tonight, and I think it followed me home! ARRGGH, it got my ankle!!!! )


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: "Kismet" <kismet-AT-bigpond.net.au>
To: <puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org>
Sent: Sunday, October 29, 2006 11:23 PM
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] The Two Types of Puppeteers


>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mathieu René" <creaturiste-AT-magma.ca>
> To: <puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org>
> Sent: Monday, October 30, 2006 3:21 PM
> 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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