File puptcrit/puptcrit.0911, message 217


From: Alan Cook <alangregorycook-AT-msn.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 23:13:39 GMT
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Poor Puppeteering?


Ordinarily Roberto Lago (often assisted by Pepe Diaz y Nunez) and puppeteers from Teatro Nahual (Mexico City) performed on hand puppet stages so you did not see the puppeteers.

Among their Acts were puppets dancing to recorded music (even music by LeRoy Anderson whose musical works were used by many puppeteers). One Act was Los Marineros---4 sailors in a boat which sinks-the sailors are rescued by a Whale. Both the Boat and the Whale were flat cutouts with a painted surface viewd by the audience.

Another dance was performed by Hand Puppet Spanish ladies.

They also performed stories for children or for adults, shows for the government on hygiene or literacy.

I don't know what routine(s) you saw in Washington DC My question is, DID THEY HOLD THE PUPPETS HIGH OVERHEAD, which was standard operation fo them? They could have just done a demo in Washington, DC. How many of us have done demos, often on the spur of the moment, to answer people's questions.

In 1961, Roberto & Pepe performed at the National Puppetry Festival in Pacific Grove CA and also conducted a Workshop on hand puppet manipulation. It was also at that Festival that many of us first met Jim & Jane Henson (The Muppets being a two-person company at that time).


-----Original Message-----
From: Linda Elbow
Sent: Monday, November 16, 2009 11:55 AM
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Poor Puppeteering?

I saw Roberto Lago perform with two associates at a huge puppet  
festival in Washington, DC -AT- 1980. In one act Lago and another man  
about his age just stood on the stage without a table, curtain or  
other disguise. They both wore black suits and shirts. Each animated  
a hand puppet - just standing there. They had a younger man with  
them, and  he might have been doing something without a puppet in  
front of them. The act was about 5 minutes long. I was totally  
impressed that a puppet show could be that simple.  I don't have  
Alan's memory, and I don't remember what the show was about. I do  
remember that I was completely captivated and ready to run away with  
them back to Mexico.
Linda Elbow

On Nov 16, 2009, at 5:43 PM, Alan Cook wrote:

> I'd suggest that poor puppeteering is anything that contributes to  
> the unbelievability of the puppet, and good puppeteering is what  
> gives a sense of life to the puppet.
>
> Yet, the late Mr. Fran Dowie of Vancouver, B.C., Canada did a  
> hilarious act as "a bad ventriloquist" in which an arm falls off  
> the dummy during the routine, then the leg, another arm, another  
> leg---finally nothing is left but the head which is STILL talking.  
> Fran made all this believable.
>
> Dr Seuss' GRINCH is now at the Pantages Theater in Hollywood to  
> steal Christmas. There are some poorly animated puppets used  
> incidentally, which if given basic direction by a knowledgeable  
> puppeteer, COULD have been believable.
>
> Frank Paris and Bob Bromley used to appear standing on stage floors  
> with their marionette varieties, operating one marionette or one  
> tandem pair at a time---they did not upstage the marionettes, but  
> their classy presence added something. Many night club puppeteers  
> of the late 1930s emulated this format with success.
>
> It began as a matter of necessity in Frank's case. He did not have  
> funds at age seventeen, to build a stage for an appearance at the  
> Los Angeles Public Library, so performed without one atop a library  
> table. He had borrowed a spotlight from Bob Bromley who was  
> present. About two weeks later, Bob adopted the same  
> simplification. For night clubs, often notorious for limited  
> performance space, working marionettes in the open, made getting a  
> puppet act on or off stage a lot easier.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
> Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit
> Archives: http://www.driftline.org

_______________________________________________
List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit
Archives: http://www.driftline.org



_______________________________________________
List address: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Admin interface: http://lists.puptcrit.org/mailman/listinfo/puptcrit
Archives: http://www.driftline.org

   

Driftline Main Page

 

Display software: ArchTracker © Malgosia Askanas, 2000-2005