To: "Puptcrit" <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org>
From: puppetswithpizazz-AT-gmail.com
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 13:09:08 +0000
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] papier mache - bold and visable


Amen, Hobey! I remember a Polish puppeteer I saw once who used two nerf balls, manipulated with no bodies, no sets, no stage nor did the balls have neck stalls, but the story which he acted in pantomime left the audience weeping. Nancy
  
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-----Original Message-----
From: Hobey Ford <hobeyone-AT-gmail.com>
Date: Wed, 4 Nov 2009 07:56:19 
To: <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org>
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] papier mache - bold and visable

Now that Trish has her papier mache under control, lets diverge a bit.
Mark makes an interesting observation which got me thinking.  Putting
aside artistic laziness or short comings, there are times when detail
and actual artistic rendering become irrelevant.
The case that comes to mind was a show by Titeriteros de Binefar that
some may have seen at the Toledo Festival, "La fabula de la Raposa".
In the show the one scene set is taken through the four seasons and it
was by all who saw it a remarkable production.  After the show on
closer examination the set, I saw that alot of it was very roughly
hewn.  Material like burlap for example was used instead of a higher
grade material. Apparently the lighting and the imagination and the
music and the story transformed the rather simply rendered set into
something more.  It gets back to the question of whether great
puppetry is dependant on finely rendered artwork, to which the answer
is no. We can apply fine artistry to our puppets and sets but that
isn't the critical ingredient.  What was so powerful in "La Fabula..."
was that the imagination turned burlap into reality through
imagination.  When a puppet artist can inject soul into a lifeless
object that is more powerful than a complete replica of reality.  Take
for instance Yoda in the early Star wars film vs the CGI version of
the latest installments.  The art of animating the image of Yoda was
light years beyond the earlier version, he could do flips and things a
puppet could never do, yet we have all discussed here the fact that
there was no soul in the CGI version and the old Yoda was hands down
better.
I think it almost takes more artistic skill to pull off a simpler
rendering and make it work.  In art school we were sometimes made to
tape our brushes on the ends of 2 ft dowells so we would back up and
see the big picture.  Fine art has its place in puppetry as long as it
serves  the puppetry which is the essential ingredient. Tanglewood
Marionettes' "Dragon King" is perhaps the finest artistically rendered
show I have ever scene outside of big budget broadway type
productions.  If they had stopped at the rendering of the puppets and
set it wouldn't have been great, but the engineering and articulation
and the puppetry were an equal match to the artwork.
Great puppetry doesn't require fine art, lighting, special effects
etc.  It does require that mysterious ability to make an object have
soul and become animate.  The word animate, thus animation, animal,
etc come from the latin anima which comes from the latin psyche or
soul, the same word for butterfly and also means to breathe life into.




On Wed, Nov 4, 2009 at 6:56 AM, Mark S. Segal <segalpuppets-AT-comcast.net> wrote:
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Mathieu René" <creaturiste-AT-primus.ca>
> To: <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, November 03, 2009 8:20 PM
>> I often feel like people are using the "must be bold and visible from a
>> distance" principle as an excuse to produce results of a lesser quality. I
>> admit to have fallen in that trap more than once.
>> I also admit that Theatre allows for that sort of roughness, and that it
>> has
>> thought me to work boldly.
>> So, it can be a curse or a blessing.
>
> For something to "read" effectively it has to be be done well....
> If what "reads" is something of poor quality then it has failed.....
> If being "bold and visable" is used as an excuse, then it is just that....
> an excuse - not a reality or understanding.
> I for one don't see the possible correlation between the two.
>
> The audience is the final arbitrator of what works....
> The performance is the medium.
>
>
> Good quality is =A0good quality
> Poor quality is poor quality
>
> under any circumstance, would imagine....
>
> Mark
>
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