From: Crabgrass Puppet Theatre <crabgras-AT-earthlink.net>
Date: Mon, 16 Nov 2009 19:13:25 -0500
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Poor Puppeteering?


I did tech for that Roberto Lago show in DC in '80, but I have no  
memory of what he did. Does anyone else remember? Michael Cotter was  
house manager.

Jamie
Crabgrass Puppet Theatre
www.crabgrasspuppets.com



On Nov 16, 2009, at 11:13 PM, Alan Cook wrote:

> 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.
>>
>>
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