Date: Fri, 13 Sep 2002 18:42:36 -0400
Subject: Re: PUPT: Re: symbolism


Dear Preston and Mary,

I love this conversation. I also like that Preston has said, far 
better than I could, what I would say about movement and puppetry. 
Having said that, let me try to add to it.

I think there is danger in seeing the puppet as a symbol, an 
intellectual concept. Over my lifetime I have never once seen a 
puppet fail to capture an audience's emotions. Even when the show is 
bad, the manipulation poor and the performance non-existent, we all 
react to that puppet's life. It gets us in the gut. That's why 
puppetry appeals to me: it goes straight through my eyes to my gut. 
Maybe, afterward, I can appreciate the different levels that the 
performance achieved, but that's only after I try to keep up with the 
intellectuals, and start quoting Kafke, et al.

  I like Preston's idea of metaphor, which of all the literary 
comparisons is, to me, the most satisfying. It's the one that leads 
us into poetry, into lyricism. Symbolism (and allegory, and other 
such devices) are somewhat didactic. They tell us. I prefer to be 
led, or to meander on my own path.

Now that I think of it, just about anytime an obvious SYMBOL crops 
up, I find myself rejecting it. Yet, in puppet performance where 
there is a puppet as symbol, I find myself separating the life of the 
puppet from what it is meant to represent.

By the way: I don't think that because puppets are "harder to move," 
that the idea that puppets are about movement is "fundamentally 
wrong." We could extraplolate out from that and determine that ballet 
is more wrong than jazz dance, and that sleep is the most correct 
form of existence.

I think that what puppets do best is imitate life through movement. 
Parrots and records can talk, and a lip-synching puppet is not 
inherently more interesting than a puppet that is mute, regardless of 
any symbolism in that convention. Actually, I'm not sure what you 
meant by that, Mary.
-- 
Robert Smythe
Artistic Director
Mum Puppettheatre
115 Arch Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106-2000

robertsmythe-AT-mumpuppet.org
http://www.mumpuppet.org


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