From: "Claudia Clemente" <claudiaclementeartista-AT-gmail.com>
To: <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org>
Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2009 19:34:28 +0100
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] What is a Puppeteer?


Hi my name is Cl=E1udia, I=B4m from Portugal and I=B4m a papier m=E1ch=EA artista as 
well as a childrens=B4entertainer. I make my own puppets and marionettes out 
of papier m=E1ch=EA, I have even made a ventriloquist doll called Sasi. As a 
entertainer I usally make small plays for younger children, the reason being 
is that I don=B4t have any kind of schooling in this area and my young public 
is not that hard to please. I=B4m self-taught, but I really think I need to 
learn alot about acting and every thing envolved with it so that I can some 
day make plays for a more demanding public. My aime is to keep things small 
but big enough to feel the satisfaction of being able to make people like 
what I can do with the puppets and marionettes I make. I=B4m working to find a 
way to get the traing I need here in Sines where I live, because it is not 
easy when your other half isn=B4t into puppeteering as you are. I have to 
thank all of you out there that know alot on the subject and can help me 
succeed in this. I also thank Puptcrit for making the feedback of ideas of 
all these people possible.

Cl=E1udia.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Alan Cook" <alangregorycook-AT-msn.com>
To: <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org>
Sent: Monday, October 05, 2009 8:25 PM
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] What is a Puppeteer?


> To Bil Baird's definition of "puppeteer", I'd add that being a puppeteer 
> requires a certain state of mind, too. You have to think like a puppeteer.
>
> A painting instructor in my college said "Art is the embodiment of an 
> idea."
>
> So is a puppet the embodiment of an idea. The puppet (or the play, opera, 
> sculpture, music or painting, etc.) is a means of communicating an idea to 
> others. If it s communicated well, then it is ART.
>
> Good puppet construction, good manipulation, good acting with the puppet 
> or through the puppet increases the communication.
>
> Poor manipulation destroys the illusion of life.
>
> But some puppeteers have stronger innate gifts than others, and do not 
> require classes in puppet construction or manipulation to succeed---for 
> them it is innate or intuitive. The rest of us can learn from them.
>
> I marvel at academia---how your degree makes you learned, yet the artists 
> they study did not usually have a degree, and everything the professional 
> teacher knows was ultimately learnt from an artist without a degree.
>
> I don't recall Picasso having a PhD.
>
> Van Gogh did not have a B.A.
>
> Neither did Mourget have a degree in puppetry when he created Guignol. Nor 
> did the commedia street performers who developed Pulcinella.
>
> Formal schooling can be great, but it also needs a bit of humility.
>
> Some self-taught geniuses need more credit.
>
> Roger Hayward and W. A Dwiggins, both with origins in Massachusetts in the 
> late 1920s/early 1930s, developed marionettes on their own. The two worked 
> very similarly, on a similarly small scale, but I don't think they ever 
> met. But they were similarly gifted with inventive minds, they both were 
> natural born engineers in terms of marionette construction. They wanted to 
> make unique (as in "one of a kind") creations---tall, thin, fat, short 
> characters---not all out of the same mold. And then they just figured but 
> how to accomplish that. Others may need to take a class or apprentice 
> themselves to get started, and then hopefully will find their own approach 
> or improve the existing one (as seen in folk traditions).
>
> Necessity is the Mother of Invention---one of the appeals of puppetry to 
> many, is that it needs solutions to problems---and all those "how can I ?" 
> questions on puptcrit just confirms this.
>
> Even determining WHAT is needed can be a challenge.
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Christopher Hudert
> Sent: Monday, October 5, 2009 11:36 AM
> To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
> Subject: [Puptcrit] What is a Puppeteer?
>
> thread was:  Nightingale in Toronto: Lepage and Curry
> On Oct 4, 2009, at 4:39 PM, Preston Foerder wrote:
>
>> I think the problem here is the attitude that anyone can pick up a
>> puppet and be a puppeteer with little or no training.  Conrad
>> expressed nicely the difficulties that actors have in converting their
>> art to puppetry.  No one doubts that actors, singers, dancers, mimes,
>> etc. all need to be trained in their professions. But somehow it is
>> assumed that because they are trained in their own fields, any one of
>> them can pick up a puppet and be a great puppeteer without training in
>> our field. Or they'll just pick up what they need to know in
>> rehearsals. Somehow because everyone has puppets when they're kids,
>> the assumption is we all have the prerequisites to be a puppeteer. I
>> have a degree in theater. Took acting, mime, dance, voice, and even
>> singing classes (though out of good will, I spare the world my singing
>> voice, and for that matter my dancing, unless I've had a few drinks).
>> But to be a puppeteer, it's also necessary to get extensive training
>> in puppetry whether in classes, workshops, or from other
>> professionals.  Why should that seem so odd? I'm also a big fan of
>> crude puppetry, but like Picasso, who said it took him his whole life
>> to learn to paint like a child, it is necessary to learn the skills
>> before you can throw them away.
>>
>> Preston
>
> Ah, Preston, this is indeed a two edged sword.
>
>   As I've said before, I believe that Puppetry is a Hobby Profession.
> By its simplest definition, anyone CAN pick up a puppet and be a
> puppeteer with little or no training. Not necessarily a good puppeteer,
> but a puppeteer none the less. The biggest problem, for me, comes when
> that 'anyone' who is now a puppeteer thinks that they have no
> obligation to be trained in the performing aspects beyond manipulation.
> The false assumption that, as a puppeteer I only need to learn to
> manipulate objects well, I don't need the other prerequisites of
> performance. The classes, workshops or training from other
> professionals need (IMO) to include many of the things you mentioned:
> singing, dancing, mime, voice, etc. and not just more manipulation or
> more building.
>
>  I come first from the acting etc schools, then to puppetry. I am very
> lucky (blessed?) that puppetry came easily to me, probably because of a
> varied performance background (combined with the blessing that I'm too
> stupid to know how hard it really is, even today). So, for many years I
> thought "Shoot, I can do this, so anybody can do this." Yep, that
> anybody can pick up a puppet and do it, especially if they've had
> training and/or a lot of experience in other performance arts.  I never
> knew how lucky I was until I tried to teach some actors and jugglers,
> who were not cross trained or experienced, to work some puppets. It was
> not pretty, nor was it easy. It was a real wake up call for me. I now
> know that not every actor (or whatever) can be a good puppeteer, nor
> can every puppeteer be a good singer, dancer, actor, etc.. Cuts both
> ways. But that is no excuse for not getting the training so we can
> become better at those things, nor a reason to think that a singer,
> dancer, actor, etc. can not become a decent or even a good puppeteer.
> For me, I would rather be really good at a lot of things (and passible
> at a few things that I'm likely to never be really good at) than great
> at only one or two. I'm okay at not being "The Best" at anything, and
> just being damn good at a lot of things. I choose versatility over
> virtuosity.
>
>   So, what IS a puppeteer? In workshops to puppeteers that I give, I
> sometimes bring this up. Who's definition do we use, and by what
> standard do we measure? Is it enough to extend Baird's definition and
> say "Someone who moves an object, before an audience, in order to
> convey a thought, emotion, and/or story."? Would not then the humans
> hired by Curry, Taymor and others be puppeteers? Because the puppets
> are deliberately limited in their range and the manipulators do not
> come from a puppetry background (as if we knew in every case) does this
> make them less a puppet or the manipulators less a puppeteer? In many
> of his shows David Simpich's puppets barely move. They are exquisite
> and his story and voicing exemplary. If movement is the main standard,
> he is a lousy puppeteer, yet he is outstanding and recognized as such
> by many people in and out of puppetry. (I wish I could be even half as
> lousy!) Joe Cashore has very little or no dialogue in his shows, but
> his puppets and the story they tell are expressive and his manipulation
> unworldly. Yet by dramatic dialogue standards of puppetry, Joe would be
> a lousy puppeteer. (Again, I'd love to be even as lousy as Joe.) In
> most of the shows I have seen by The Puppetmongers, the puppets are
> elementary with minimal movement. Yet they create true theater. Are
> they lousy puppeteers? (Oh, to be as lousy as they are!) These are only
> a few examples. My point is, I can find no single standard or
> definition of either puppets or puppeteers. Yet in most of the
> exemplary examples I can think of, the puppeteers bring much more than
> the object or its manipulation to the stage. The education, training,
> and experience they bring to bare is way beyond how to make or move a
> puppet in a more effective manner, but those things are not neglected
> either. In talking with each of these artist, as well as others, there
> is a synthesis of elements and a deliberate choice of puppet style,
> design, and movement.
>
> Christopher
>
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