Date: Tue, 17 Sep 2002 22:58:54 -0700
From: Mary Robinette Kowal <maryrk-AT-earthlink.net>
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


  --- Personal replies to: Mary Robinette Kowal <maryrk-AT-earthlink.net>
  --- List replies to:     puptcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
  --- Admin commands to:   majordomo-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
  --- Archives at:         http://lists.village.virginia.edu/~spoons