Date: Wed, 16 May 2007 12:25:48 -0400
From: Andrew <puppetvision-AT-gmail.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org
Subject: [Puptcrit] Where do you draw a line? Can you?


I should say that I have real bias towards very well done technical puppetry
- that is puppetry  where characters move realistically, or at least appear
to governed by some kind of physics (even if it's not the physics of our
world), lip sync and eye focus are correct (if moving mouth puppets are
used), etc. Blame it on the influence of the Muppets and starting my career
in a company where you were judged based on your technical skills, but
that's just what I gravitate towards most of the time.

There is an interesting trend - I've noticed this among several Canadian
puppetry acts I've seen over the past few years, but I'm sure it's appeared
elsewhere - to do object theatre, or what I suppose you could call
"illustrated storytelling" with puppets, dolls or objects that are used to
tell a story, but in the most minimalist way possible. No real manipulation,
objects are just occasionally moved around the stage at appropriate times to
illustrate the narrative of the story. They seem more props than puppets to
me and I get the feeling that the limited manipulation is less about making
a specific artistic choice and more about a real lack of technical
manipulation skills.

These types of shows are often promoted as puppet shows and while I don't
want to say that they are not puppetry, but they do seem to belong to a
different category than say Punch and Judy or Bunraku especially when you
consider the dedicate and work a lot of puppeteers put in to developing
their manipulation skills.

I don't want to sound elitist, but I guess the politically incorrect
question I want to ask is at what point to you just call a spade a spade any
say look, this maybe great theatre and great storytelling, but it's lousy
puppetry?

I don't think puppetry has to be technically perfect, but it should be
entertaining and it's nice to performers putting in an effort. For example,
I blogged about a Japanese video today at
http://puppetvision.blogspot.com/2007/05/bunraku-style-skeleton-puppet-dance.htmlthat
has a lot of technical mistakes in it, but is still a whole lot of fun
and obviously very entertaining for the audience.

- Andrew


-- 
The PuppetVision Blog
"The web's best source for puppet film and video goodness, delivered fresh
to your computer each day."
http://puppetvision.blogspot.com
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