File puptcrit/puptcrit.0803, message 75


From: Ed Atkeson <edatkeson-AT-earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 3 Mar 2008 15:50:36 -0500
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Making powerful stories


Michael >>>  Please don't take from my earlier post that I am anti- 
comedy or anything like that. Rather I simply want to see if I can  
learn to craft stronger work in general by not depending on it, for  
its inherent audience appeal. Diversify my palate of content.
----------------------------------
Do you remember that youtube clip of a street puppeteer who had a  
single puppet on a small table just silently dying? It was a  
marionette, and the puppet was crawling, clearly at the edge of his  
life, crawling across the table. I think that was all there was to  
it. I'll never forget it. No comedy in that one. No talking either  
but there was excellent... what? choreography? Acting?


 >>>  Having said this, I've been thinking much lately about what  
role it should or should not play in this piece I'm working on about  
the Civil Rights struggle here in Mississippi. As I've written before  
about this project, it looks at some pretty grim events that took  
place in the American south..... with the amazing, startlingly brave  
responses of Black Americans to respond to them mostly with quiet  
courage and non-violence.  A heroic tale, but one woven with tragedy.
   I see that, for example, in MACBETH, that WS felt it was a  
cathartic necessity to include a drunken porter as comic relief.  I  
see where in most of his works, Bertholdt Brecht also felt that  
comedy should run simultaneously through his stories that are hardly  
"funny ".  So I'm pondering the psycological dynamic here....  
wondering how I could/should include it in my own play. Wondering  
what the "rules "  of comic relief might be, for effective  
manipulation of the audience in being able to deliver a work that is  
troubling. ... yet not burn them out to the degree they can't receive  
it.
---------------------------------
Michael, I think it's best to follow your personal inclinations. I  
think it's possible to make a fully formed powerful piece without any  
comic element, but don't listen to me. :)


 >>>  The wayang format I work in is probably one of the most  
language-based of the puppet formats, since the puppets have the  
least amount of movement potential. In this work, I'm aiming for a  
combination of terse, potent dialogue and a n amount of visual  
richness  to convey the story,  in addition to those kinetic  
contributions that puppet movement can offer in this case.  I like  
your idea of writing a movement plan as a component of the  
script....especially if the movements are specific to conveying a  
certain intention.
----------------------------------
As I see it, the design of puppet action usually takes the form of  
simply knowing what to do with the puppet. It's not actually written  
down anywhere. You tell your puppeteer what the puppet has to do, or  
if you're doing it yourself the movement is obvious. But you are  
"writing" it in effect, like a dance piece.

I'm trying to go in the direction of more motion, less talking. Not a  
puppet dumbshow exactly, just more balance. I have a friend who  
pushes me in this direction and I think he's right. "Too many words!  
Let the puppet make his magic little world."
best,
Ed

I'm rewriting a script with about 30 characters, but a max of 5 or 6  
per scene. It's a scream. Vvedenski's "Christmas at the Ivanovs" 1928.
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