From: "Preston Foerder" <preston-AT-pfpuppetry.com>
Subject: Re: PUPT: Monologues
Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 23:23:51 -0400


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Just because "puppetry is about movement" does not imply that the inverse is
true.  An object that is moving is not necessarily puppetry.  Therefore,
under normal circumstances,  a wind-up toy, a kinetic sculpture, or a car
are not puppets.  What makes them puppets is the theatrical or dramatic
intention of the performer, manipulator, puppeteer, etc. in moving them.
(Oooh, a puppet show using actual cars in a big field.  Hey, I thought of it
first, I want credit if you use it.  Ah, somebody else probably did it
already.)  The movement does not have to be expert or skilled to make it
puppetry.  A child moving a puppet for the first time makes it puppetry.  A
monologue behind a non-moving figure is not puppetry, unless it was moving
and then stopped.  If the figure starts moving after the monologue, then it
becomes puppetry, but not before.  However, after it has moved and stopped
it may still be puppetry because it has established itself as a puppet in
the audience's mind.  If I move a figure through a computer, it's a puppet,
but if the computer records my movements and then replays them, it is no
longer a puppet because it now lacks the immediate intention of the
performer, unless it is sometime in the future and artificial intelligence
enables the computer to create an original performance then I'll let the
computer be a puppeteer, but not if it exactly replicates the same
performance later.  ( I think we've been through this discussion before.)

OK, I'm done.  For now.
Preston

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mary Robinette Kowal" <maryrk-AT-earthlink.net>
To: <puptcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, September 18, 2002 1:58 AM
Subject: Re: PUPT: Monologues


> This has wound up causing some very interesting discussion- it's also
> made me clearer in my purpose.  My internal goal seems not worry so much
> about being cast, but to make them think about possibilities.  Which is
> why I was leaning toward an existing play.  I'm a big proponant of let
> actor's do what they do best, and use puppets when you need something
> more.  Which ties into the other discussion about what puppets are
> about.
>
> The thing I appreciate most with puppets, has not been the exquisite
> manipulation (which is not to say that I didn't almost wet myself when
> the Chinese marionettist was performing at the Seattle Festival) or
> craftsmanship (and yes I tend to drool over a nice Fettig control) but
> the thing that really excites me is when the use of puppetry takes a
> show to a different level.  When it functions as metaphor, or provides
> multiple levels of reality.
>
> I think the fact that an audience must invest part of themselves in the
> life of the puppet is what fascinates me.
>
> I actually still don't agree with Robert or Preston that puppetry is
> about movement.  They both had some excellent points- such as the
> difference between puppet and statue but I don't think it's the movement
> that causes the difference.  If that were all, then the wind-up toy
> would exist as puppet.  It's the ability to bend reality.  We look at
> the puppet and know that it's inanimate and yet at the same time we
> believe that it's alive.  This never happens with a windup toy, no
> matter how ingenious.
>
> So why then say that puppetry is about movement?
>
> I've seen some truly excellent puppetry that involved figures with no
> moving parts.  I've seen puppets do extended monologues, standing in one
> place and been moved myself.
>
> Is there perhaps a difference between what makes a good puppet and makes
> good puppetry?
>
> Mary
> --
> Mary Robinette Kowal
> Other Hand Productions
> http://www.otherhandproductions.com
>
>
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