From: HobgoblinH-AT-aol.com
Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 05:54:09 EDT
Subject: Re: PUPT: Writing for puppets


Sorry about the accidental SEND: my computer has a hair trigger. When writing 
for puppets, I have to remember not to have it too talky, which is why some 
Shakespeare such as Hamlet is difficult to translate into puppetry. My 
partner points out that puppetry is a visual and a physical medium, and very 
few puppets can just stand and talk-- or perhaps the word is philosophize-- 
for extended periods. Our Faust demonstrates this. Since Faust talks to 
himself (soliloquizes) for long periods, we find ourselves getting twitchy at 
times, although for some reason, the audience doesn't seem to mind.  
I know I'm rambling-- it's 4:30 AM and I wouldn't be replying at all, but I'm 
waiting out a stomach cramp. 
We do have characters elsewhere who seem to contradict this whole concept, 
who talk much too much and get away with it, but they are improv types who 
are yacky characters such as Ida Mae, who is naturally garrulous like some 
older women who are a little deaf and apprehensive that if someone else 
starts talking, she won't hear what they say.  Another is our braggadocious 
Big Bad Wolf, who is always doomed to get in trouble, but being perceived as 
a comic type, he gets away with it most of the time. Then there is the 
Russian grandmother who won't shut up because she is hypercritical of the 
failings of others. In improv, of course, you have the control of tuning in 
on audience reaction and cutting it off when the audience shows resistance. 
Well, my stomach ache is over, so I can go to sleep. I see most of this is 
pretty self-contradictory, so refute any parts of it you care to. 

G'nite,
Alice


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