Date: Wed, 18 Sep 2002 10:46:39 -0400
From: Robert Smythe <robertsmythe-AT-mumpuppet.org>
Subject: Re: PUPT: Monologues


Mary Kowal said
>  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.

and if acting were about speaking, record players would earn Oscars.

One could also extend this windshield wipers. It is the intent, 
whether emotional or intellectual, of the movement that gives the 
puppet life. Symbols, whether pictographs or ideographs, stand for 
something else. Their actual meaning is merely to cause the viewer to 
recall/remember the other thing. The Chinese symbol for puppet does 
mean anything to anyone who doesn't immediately know it an recall an 
image of puppet. To say that the puppet's greatest value is as a 
symbol is to say that it's actual existence is not as important as 
what it represents. I cannot agree with this, and I don't think Mary 
does, either.

It's nice to think about puppets in high falutin' intellectualese, 
but that moves it all up onto a theoretical plane and (I think) 
ignores reality, a reality that is borne out by every performance I 
see or perform.

Your turn.
-- 
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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