File puptcrit/puptcrit.0903, message 263


Date: Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:36:06 -0700 (PDT)
From: Jim Gamble <jimsan777-AT-yahoo.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Puppetry-a dying art?



If Puppetry is a Dying art, guess Lion King and Ave. Q, and TV Muppet show, and Alf
and my international tours are invisible! 

Still, I draw crowds wherever I go, and I get paid!!    Mystery to me,
too.  Jim Gamble




----- Original Message ----
From: Hobey Ford <hobeyone-AT-gmail.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Sent: Friday, March 13, 2009 6:47:28 AM
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Puppetry-a dying art?

Anyone who proclaims puppetry a "dying art" is just looking for
something dramatic to talk about.  I don't think they are guilty of
anything but indifference.  So much of TV and print news is about
selling soap and filling time.  It must be terribly mind numbing to
have to go out for the umpteenth time to cover stuff you obviously
have no interest in and come back with "Breaking News!!!!"   People I
talk to seem to appreciate that puppetry is a living growing artform.
I also recognize that some have a very low expectation of our
artform.  That low expectation has to do with the fact that they have
witnessed very bad puppetry.  Turn on the food channel and witness
Alton Brown mangling the idea of puppetry with bad sock puppets.  It
is not that he doesn't know better.  He is exploiting it knowingly
because he knows that the watcher will instantly connect to the idea
of "bad puppetry."  It exists, like bad clown or mime cliche's.  It
has become part of the collective conciousness.  It sits on a shelf
ready to go right next to the phrases like  "Life of a string!"

<WE have heard stock phrases, but for many, it is the first time so
for THEM it sounds new.>

We participate in an artform that has sprung out of a hobby and
plaything.  It is just the way things are.   It is just so easy and
innocent to take the next step and become a "professional" or "Master
Puppeteer!"  You don't have to go out and get a licence.   Bad
puppetry can work to your advantage and it won't go away.  There will
always be really bad puppetry.  I have personally become a dillitant
of bad puppetry.  There are shades of it and then there is pure
undulterated bad puppetry. Sublimely bad puppetry.  I also take issue
with the critisms of cliche  press release on puppetry.   A really bad
one can reach an asthetic purity that is  so aweful that it becomes
beautiful.  For better or worse its just they way things are.    Just
be glad you aren't a mime.

;-)



On Fri, Mar 13, 2009 at 4:13 AM, Alan Cook <alangregorycook-AT-msn.com> wrote:
> For people who have not been to a puppet show lately or never, Puppetry IS a dying Art. That is something all of us are trying to change one way or another, or we wouldn't be on puptcrit or belong to puppetry organizations.
>
> As for press cliches, how many on puptcrit have had publicity in print that used the very cliches Robert Rogers quotes with disdain. I think it was Humphrey Bogart who said any publicity is good, just so they spell your name right. (Whoever said it was probably being a bit sarcastic), but without publicity, Puppetry could very well die. And like many others, my name has been misspelled in press reports, and many performers don't get mentioned by name at all---just the name of the puppet show, such as "Three Bears", or (cliche alert) "Stars on Strings".  WE have heard stock phrases, but for many, it is the first time so for THEM it sounds new.
>
> These days with fewer newspapers, we are lucky to get whatever print publicity we can, alas, alas.
>
> In exchange we may have to endure all those cliches in order to feed ourselves.
>
> Alan Cook
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Robert Rogers
> Sent: Thursday, March 12, 2009 5:06 PM
> To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
> Subject: [Puptcrit] Bob Baker video
>
> Alan,
>
> I logged onto the USC site regarding the video which you mentioned.  The
> descriptive paragraph began, "Puppetry may be a dying art, but it is very
> much alive at the Bob Baker Marionette Theater."
>
> I am sick and tired of people referring to puppetry as a "dying" art.  The
> host Christina Wu should be repremanded for not only being uninformed but
> insulting.
>
> I'm also irked by all those news reporters (notice I didn't call them
> journalists) who use the phrase "no strings attached," or "he's pulling all
> the strings," like they're the first one's to have used it.
>
> I'm also tired of all the people who ask me, "How's your neighborhood?"
> because my last name is Rogers.
>
> Robert
>
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