Date: Sun, 04 Oct 2009 13:26:46 -0400
To: puptcrit puptcrit <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org>
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Nightingale in Toronto: Lepage and Curry


> I've been trying to resist getting drawn into this thread, and I don't
> want to take sides, especially the "other" side BUT...
> 
> Though I don't fully agree with the reluctance to hire puppeteers, I do
> understand it to a large degree.


Dear Christopher,

Thanks for jumping in.  Though the issue of hiring puppeteers is what
sparked the conversation, it pulls other conversations to the forefront.

I continue to experience a large disconnect between the puppetry world here
in the United States and the theater world. Just as a comparison, my
experiences in Russia startled me when we had great theater directors coming
and seeing our work. The Russian company that we collaborated with had at
least 16 performers and they were equally trained both as actors and
puppeteers. 

I come to this work with an interest in theater, public ritual, ethnology,
art and community.  Whether doing a full stage opera, street theater, or
small intimate children's productions, I use a range of tools including
masks, puppets, music, light, words,  movement etc.  I do have an interest
in puppets as objects in the same way as I have a real interest in
sculpture.  But I am much more interested in what we do with it in a
context.  And so I am much more interested in bringing a story (or
experience) to life than brining an object to life.  When what moves the
story forward best is the spectacular articulation of the object to life,
than a great puppeteer can't be beat. But there is terrific theater and
puppetry that is not based on this.

To me puppetry is the process of creating a rich and full symbolic
"language" utilizing objects ... symbolically imbedding those objects with
life, and fully exploring that language in a theatrical form to further
articulate the story, mystery, pain, and wonder of our human experiences.

I think Bread and Puppet is a great example of some truly remarkable work
with a great deal of attention to the objects, images, cohesive symbolic
language, and theater staging... minimal interest in articulation artistry
to give the illusion of life to the object. (Though Linda Elbow or John Bell
could more legitimately voice their thoughts on that experience from the
inside.) 

Indeed there are times where the amazing articulation of a puppet has moved
me to see and experience the life around me with a new and heightened
richness.

For me the relationship between the story, performers, the object, the
setting and the audience, with what ever symbolic language we have imbued
each of these with, is interesting and continues to be a place of riches to
excavate for inspiration.  When these relationships are part of the
story,then dancers, puppeteers, members of the public, musicians can all
bring unique and wonderful dynamics to the work, depending on the intent and
execution of the work.

(As a generalization I do also find it easier to bring dancers into puppetry
than actors)

On a side note, given that most of us (puppeteers) have often not hired
musicians to play live but instead hired tape decks, overly depend on
prerecorded music and sometimes canned voices for the puppets, I find it a
bit awkward to have puppeteers reacting on principal to not being hired for
an opera and questioning the validity of a singer manipulating a puppet.

I love to see puppetry become more a part of the public civic and theater
conversation and am encouraged when I see it happening.

Geoffrey Navias
Open Hand Theater

 


On 10/3/09 12:55 PM, "Christopher Hudert" <heyhoot-AT-mindspring.com> wrote:

>> I'd be curious to read some of Taymor and Curry's thoughts on not using
>> puppeteers, if anyone knows where I might find them. I do remember
>> reading
>> that Taymor first trained in mime under Lecoq, and so perhaps comes to
>> puppetry seeing it as a means to experiment with human movement and
>> body,
>> rather than focusing on the puppet itself.
> 
> I've been trying to resist getting drawn into this thread, and I don't
> want to take sides, especially the "other" side BUT...
> 
> Though I don't fully agree with the reluctance to hire puppeteers, I do
> understand it to a large degree.
> 
> The thought does occur to me that part of this reluctance for Taymor
> and Curry may be more in the lack of diverse performing training that
> we puppeteers have (particularly in America). Too often we come to the
> table from the angle of the object/puppet with little training or
> experience in the many other disciplines of performance. How many of us
> have taken the time to study dance, movement, mime, magic, acting,
> voice, singing, etc., etc., etc. in order to be a better puppeteer?
> Many actors, on the other hand, continue taking classes to increase
> their craft. We puppeteers (and I am including myself in this) often
> trend towards the classes in the creation of the tool (puppet). Even if
> you review the archives of this list I believe you will see the bulk of
> the conversation is toward materials, methods of building, and
> performance review and few (if any) mentions of what great acting class
> or instructor someone has discovered.
> 
> But even if Taymor, Curry, and others hire non-puppeteers and teach
> them to manipulate puppets, aren't they training them to be puppeteers?
> Aren't they then increasing our ranks, and infusing it with a new
> bloodline? A bit of bio-diversity is not a bad thing, me thinks.
> Perhaps some of the protests (though unspoken) are more that they
> didn't hire "us/me" and that "I" didn't get a shot at this juicy plum
> than it is the lack of hiring puppeteers. I understand the argument
> that perhaps if they hired a puppeteer the manipulation of the puppet
> would be better, but that is coming from students of the object/puppet.
> If you look at it from the school of performance/theater (where
> Taymore, Curry, and some others are probably coming from) it is more
> important that the acting/story be the stronger element. And I don't
> otherwise hear a chorus of complaint when new puppeteers join our
> ranks. Why is that?
> 
> There is also the aspect of the difficulty of training out bad (or at
> least bad for what is desired) puppeteer habits in order to train in
> the desired ones. It's often easier to start with a clean slate than to
> try to wipe an old slate clean. Or at least in my experience.
> 
> I find I would probably side with Taymore, Curry, and others 6 or 7 out
> of 10 times. But then I come to puppetry from "the other side"
> (acting/story) so maybe that has something to do with it.
> 
> 
> 
> I suspect I just hit the hornet's nest with a rock. I better run and
> jump in the lake. I'm sure people are going to tell me to do that (or
> worse) anyway.
> 
> Christopher
> 
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