Date: Sat, 14 Sep 2002 00:21:56 -0500
Subject: Re: PUPT: monologues
From: "Karen Larsen" <karenlarsen-AT-earthlink.net>


Interesting topic, Mary.  Too tired at the moment to go into details, but 
four productions come to mind where the puppet work that was included with
the acting led to, for me, definitive versions of classic drama.

Roman Paska's version of Strindberg's The Ghost Sonata (generally an
unproducable play!)

Eric Bass' production of Caucasian Chalk Circle, where the "plays within the
play" were done with puppets

Hystopolis Theatre's version of Elmer Rice's The Adding Machine

and most recently...

Redmoon Theatre's Hunchback.

In each of these plays the use of puppets made the symbolism and meaning of
the plays more vivid.

Paul Vincent Davis has a very eloquent paragraph he uses to describe the
power of the puppet, but the paraphrased and abbreviated version is that
puppetry takes reality, and filters it through fantasy, to make the reality
seem more real.

I would avoid the Shakespeare monologues and such that will point up the
inadequacy of the puppet to convey nuance, and would look instead for plays
where the "otherness" of the puppet makes the play more meaningful.

Was that obtuse enough???  Sorry.  I'm going to sleep now.  Maybe I'll do
better in the morning.

Karen



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