From: "Mary Robinette Kowal" <maryrk-AT-earthlink.net>
Subject: RE: PUPT: Re: Thoughts on Avenue Q
Date: Sat, 31 Jan 2004 10:57:54 -0800


Rebecca McNulty wrote:
> Acting and puppeteering are not entirely separate skill sets--so I'm not
> sure why you would assume that an actor can't learn a new set of skills.
> Especially with Rick Lyon doing what you described as "intensive
training."

Actually, I think puppetry is a style of acting, just like there are
musical theater actors, Shakespearean actors or comic actors.  They all use
the same basic skill set, but there are some areas of specialty.  There are
people who are brilliant physical actors, but can't handle text well.  I
see puppetry as a similar thing.  

I also think some people are "movement deaf" just like some people are
"tone deaf".  Yes.  Everyone can pick up a puppet.  Anyone who wants to
should be encouraged to do so.  The fact that it accessible is one of the
glorious things about it.  Certainly, there are people who know what to do
with a puppet without training.  Absolutely, puppeteers would benefit from
taking the acting portion of the craft as seriously as the movement
portion.  If you will read back over my initial email, you'll see that I
went from being upset to grudging acceptance.  

But let me ask you this.  If the character had been an opera singer, in a
musical theater production, do you honestly think they would have hired
someone who had never sung but showed promise?  Especially knowing that
they had two weeks to train him before the lead went on vacation?  I do
know some of the male puppet actors that auditioned and they are shit-hot. 
The other male understudy on Avenue Q knew the part already, but they
didn't have him do the role.  Why?  Acting?  I've seen him.  He's good. 
Singing?  He's been singing since he was five.  How about his look?  Maybe
some other factor, but what all of this means, to me, is that the directors
took the puppetry less seriously.  I've talked with someone who saw the new
understudy and he said that the manipulation troubles were very disturbing.


My distress isn't about elitism.  It's not about taking puppetry away from
the masses.  It's not about saying that puppetry isn't acting.  It's a
desperate wish that the skill in manipulation was as important as the other
skills required for stage.  It was also about my realization that if I want
to actually get the job at the next round of auditions I need to be a
singer AND a puppeteer.  Not just a puppeteer who can sing.

Mary

-----

Mary Robinette Kowal
Other Hand Productions
http://www.otherhandproductions.com


> [Original Message]
> From: Rebecca McNulty <orrenflam-AT-rcn.com>
> To: <puptcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
> Date: 1/31/04 6:35:03 AM
> Subject: PUPT: Re: Thoughts on Avenue Q
>

>
> Puppetry is full of performers who began in acting and discovered the joys
> of puppetry at a later time. Someone mentioned having talked with Jen
> Barnhart at the Avenue Q production--Jen started as an acting major at
UConn
> and her acting skills in creating a dynamic character enhanced her ability
> to perform as a puppeteer. The puppetry program would have lost one
powerful
> performer, had Bart decided to divide things along the lines you're
> suggesting.
>
> On the contrary, we puppeteers spent much time trying to convince the
acting
> program that we needed their performance classes as much as we needed our
> puppetry classes. In my experience, puppeteers and actors have much to
share
> with one another. Puppetry has enough trouble being accepted without
> becoming elitist in its definitions of who can and can't become a
puppeteer.
>
> While it would be great if a puppeteer had been cast--we have no idea what
> the skills of the auditioners were. There may have been no puppeteers at
the
> auditions, or the puppeteers who came may not have had the best skills in
> performance or character creation. Or they may have not have had some
quirky
> "it" quality that a casting director finds hard to define. The two actors
> had some quality that the casting director thought matched the character
> best--and the fact that they brought Rick for a final evaluation shows
that
> they did take the puppetry seriously. I for one would trust his expertise
on
> the ability of an actor to learn the skills needed for the character.
>
> As to the skills it takes to be a puppeteer--the list is long and a
lifetime
> is hardly enough to learn it all. I agree with you--that we have to keep
> honing our skills and building new ones. If we take our art form
seriously,
> the theater world will learn from our work.
>
> --Rebecca
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mary Robinette Kowal" <maryrk-AT-earthlink.net>
> To: "Puptcrit" <puptcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
> Sent: Thursday, January 29, 2004 8:13 PM
> Subject: PUPT: Thoughts on Avenue Q
>
>
> > I had a recent string of thoughts that I'd like to share with you all.
> One
> > of the understudies for "Avenue Q" left the production (to do a show for
> > Nickelodeon) and the producers replaced him with an actor with no
puppetry
> > experience.  They narrowed it down to two potentials and ran both of
them
> > past Rick Lyon who said that one was trainable.
> >
> > My immediate reaction to this was one of disappointment and anger. 
After
> > all, if they decide that puppetry is an easily acquired skill then they
> > will be less likely to hire one of us.  I would have been less upset if
> the
> > role was for a character who was playing a puppeteer, but it's not.  The
> > character is a puppet with an actor attached.  I thought "Would they do
> > this if the role was a dancer?  Hire someone who could sing and act but
> had
> > never danced?"
> >
> > Then I realized that they probably would make that choice with a dancer
> > but- there is a greater pool of dancers who take acting seriously, and a
> > greater pool of actors who take dancing seriously than of puppeteers who
> > have put the same amount of effort into learning to sing and act at
> > "Broadway" standards.
> >
> > I've taken voice for nine years, but have always said that I'm not a
> > singer, though I sing.  So I'm left with the conclusion that rather than
> > being a puppeteer who can sing, I need to become a singer.  I need to
take
> > this craft and art as seriously as I take my own.
> >
> > All of this leaves me with this question as well- The new understudy
went
> > through intensive puppetry training to be ready to go on.  At what point
> > does someone who learns puppetry for a role become a puppeteer?
> >
> > I think my answer is the same as it would be for singers; one is a
> > puppeteer when it becomes natural; when it ceases to be a tool that
needs
> > to be thought about to be used.  Puppetry needs to be as natural as
> > breathing, just like a song.
> >
> > Yours,
> > Mary Robinette
> >
> > -----
> >
> > Mary Robinette Kowal
> > Other Hand Productions
> > http://www.otherhandproductions.com
> >
> >
> >
> >
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> >
>
>
>
>
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