Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2009 07:25:32 -0400
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Nightingale in Toronto: Lepage and Curry


I think attitudes are shaped by expectation.  Once you have seen even
a hard working thirteen year old gifted violinist, you wouldn't
consider picking up a violin and hitting the national stage with it.
And yet the thirteen year old then goes to Juiliard and their talent
and hard work take them further and yet the bar is so high that we
will only come to recognize a few of them on the national stage.  It
is quite similar with dance and perhaps theater as well.  You can
certainly walk into a film star career with little or no training if
you happen to get lucky, so there is an exception.  We are in one of
those arts where the expectation for many is very very low.  But it is
one of the charms of our artform, that our tools have as there
starting point the fact that they are also toys.  They are very good
toys and and like a kazooo anyone can pick one up and produce a bit of
music.  So theoretically a very good director can guide an already
sensitive artist and get a compelling result.   When you see fine
puppetry then you know there is a higher bar.  We are many things:
folk artists, highly professional companies, librarian story hour
performers and rank amatures.  I like that I "home-schooled" my craft
and mentored under a master and didn't go to a college.  I like that
there aren't Universities all over the country pumping out puppeteers
like they do Theater, art and music majors.  In fact that was one of
my criteria in picking this almost obscure career.  But while I did
take some dance and have studied and practiced theater
unprofessionally along the way, I am a home spun artist.  Part of that
leads to uniqueness but also it means that I don't have the years of
training many Russian puppeteers for instance received.  Part of not
being a mainstream artform is that we aren't rigorously trained as a
rule.  If we pumped out a steady stream of firstclass nationally
recognized artists then the perception would change.  I really don't
care that much if Michael Curry hires non puppeteers.  I do care about
raising the bar for myself and our artform so that in the future
someone considering using puppets would clearly see the difference
between novice and master and hire the master.
_______________________________________________
List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit
Archives: http://www.driftline.org