Introduction
PUPPETRY
Puppetry can take on many forms within performance; my aim is to use puppetry to not only evoke emotion within my audience but to have them question the performance itself. What am I watching? What are they trying to say? Why use a puppet? How can an object look so alive?
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This page will show you the process and thought behind the puppets and puppeteers and mainly focusing on the question: How can puppetry be created and manipulated to estrange an audience?
Original Designs
The pictures to the left are from my original scrapbook at the beginning of the process. I began frantically sketching and detailing my ideas for three puppets that could fit into our Theban story line. The Oracle of Delphi that foretold not only the creation of Thebes, but Oedipus's prophecy; a dragon whose teeth are used to sow the seeds of Thebes and the sacred cow, slaughtered to mark the spot where Thebes would be founded and used as a sacrifice to bless the ground it would be built upon. Unfortunately, dramaturgically speaking, the group decided that the oracle would be more effective as a human character than a puppet and that the dragon was simply not in our cut of the story. This is when I began to focus in on the idea of creating a puppet of the sacred cow.
The Cow begins
I first decided that the puppet needed to have visible puppeteers to help estrange our audience by having them see, continuously, that the puppet is an inanimate object being animated by two people. This lead me to design a new concept for the puppet as well as a prototype to test my new concept.
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The design of the cow puppet above was rather intricate with a solid head, torso, udder and rear. There was a joint which pivots at the waist allowing for a more realistic movement when walking. I believed this was especially important as it didn't have legs, meaning that the only indication of it really being alive and walking was the hip movement. It also had a fabric neck with wooden hoops to keep the shape of the neck consistent whilst still being able to move freely and solidly. This would also be the same for the stomach as I wanted it's slaughter to be slightly gruesome and jarring. This would have been achieved with the puppet facing it's stomach towards the audience as various internal organs were ripped out with the wooden hoops acting as it's ribs. This graphic imagery would have helped highlight the bias in the story telling as well as the issues with westernisation as the Theban actors are telling a story that promotes the glory and purity of Thebes and their king but the audience will see the truth of the slaughter of a beautiful creature. The tail and udders were hanging from the torso and rear allowing for them to move independently from the body allowing for a sense of not only realistic movement but gravity and weight to the puppet. I will later detail why weight and gravity are such big factors in having a puppet come to life.
The model was made with thin card from the inside of a toilet roll, hot glue, and elastic. I tried to create the rotatable hip joint but found that the way I had attached the elastic to the outside of the torso restricted the movement and created a resistance. However, the way the neck could be manipulated was exactly how I had imagined it and gave me a great sense of accomplishment. The next stage was to start building the real puppet and bring it to life.
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Making the cow
I knew I would have to use a material that would be strong enough to hold it's shape and not get damaged whilst performing and rehearsing but also be able to be moulded during the construction process, so that I could create the correct curvature for the body and head. After reading How to make puppets and teach puppetry by Margaret Beresford (1966), I found that papier-mâché would be soft enough whilst wet to be manipulated into the correct shape and solid enough once dry to be sanded, painted and hold its shape. For the foundation of the cow, that I would build upon, I chose to use chicken wire, as I had used it for a Halloween project prior and discovered that it's a simple way to create a structure to place the papier-mâché upon and hold it's shape whilst it drys. Otherwise I would have ended up with a big ball of papier-mâché that had collapsed whilst wet.
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As it can be seen in the photos to the left, I stretched the chicken wire around a plastic basket to keep it balanced as I created the shape of the chest piece and began to apply the papier-mâché. This process was rather tedious as I had to wait for each layer to dry before applying another. Overall I applied five layers of the papier-mâché to each component of the puppet to ensure solidity which took around one week of intensive work.
Once all the base layers and foundations were dry, I began piecing it all together and coming up with a colour scheme.
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Piecing the parts together was the hardest part of the whole process. I started by simply placing the torso, rear and udders on their side and finding the correct places for all of them before securing it. It was finally time to figure out the pivot joint. I had managed to acquire two large wooden circular pieces, four small wooden circular pieces and a long wooden rod. With these materials I would create a type of axle that could then be attached to the inside of the torso and rear to connect them and allow for the rear to pivot. The large Circular pieces were placed on either end of the rod with the rod running through them. These pieces were left able to spin with a smaller circular pieces either side glued to the rod to stop the larger pieces sliding off. The outer part of the large pieces were then glued to the torso and rear. This allowed for the torso and rear to pivot on the rod, with fabric stretched over the rod and glued to the torso and rear to keep them steady and add an extra layer of security - this is what allowed me to pick up the cow without the rod snapping.
I chose to replace all pink parts of the cow with lilac. not only is the colour close to the natural pink and so will create a sense of similarity to help the audience interpret the cow as a cow but it is also the least naturally occurring colour making it's connotations mystical and unique. It is also seen in history as a royal colour as it was the most expensive colour to make.
I chose to make all white parts of the cow a light turquoise colour. this colour pairs nicely with the lilac because they are different enough (with lilac containing red and turquoise containing yellow) so that they do not clash but close enough (sharing blue) that they aren't too contrasting and look like they belong to the same colour palette. Turquoise is also known in the bible for being healing and sanctification which helps highlight the sacred aura of the cow.
The black patches of the cow is where I got really creative. I started looking at different Greek inspired patterns and finally settled on a rigid spiral pattern to fill in the spots and decided to take it one step further and make the patches gold. This again represented a royal nature behind the cow and highlighted it's importance.
Once everything had been painted and shaded to add further depth and detail. I attached the udders to the torso with elastic to allow the udders to bounce and swing beneath the cow as it moved to add a sense of realism in it's movement. I also added a piece of purple cardboard to the top of the udders so that they don't appear hollow to the audience.
COVID-19
COVID-19 came as a shock to everyone worldwide as well as throwing many people into the unknown as workplaces, universities and schools came to a standstill. This included Canterbury Christ Church University and had my company members and I house bound for the foreseeable future. This meant that all progress on my puppetry from this point on wards would have to be done from my home. This lead to many obstacles that I had to find my way around. This included finishing the puppet, sourcing materials and puppeteering workshops.
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This also meant that certain parts of my puppet could not be finished as I could not get my hands on the supplies needed and those I could find would not be delivered in time.
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With this taken into account I continued to press on.
The Sacred cow is slaughtered in the opening movement sequence and it's innards are harvested to sell in the Theban Marketplace, this meant I had to create innards to be ripped from it's torso. I did this by sewing, stuffing and painting fabric. In contrast to the cows absurd colour scheme, I made the innards look as realistic as I could whilst also keeping in the cartoonist style so they still appear to be part of the cow and aren't too different. This was so that the audience could view the act as more gruesome and merciless as such a sacred creature is being torn apart in such a horrific manner.
Unfortunately, the fabric and wooden hoops I was going to use for the stomach and neck were some of the resources I simply couldn't get my hands on due to the corona virus outbreak. This was when I decided the head would be manipulated separately to the body and the neck would be implied in the same way as the legs. I also couldn't get hold of the rope for the tail and so the tail and stomach had to be left unfinished and was the biggest disappointment of the process but I carried on. The only noticeable downside was that I could no longer store the innards inside the cow but if we were to perform once the lock down was lifted, I would have found the supplies needed and properly finished the puppet.
PUPPETEERING
Below are a selection of videos detailing my puppeteering workshops that I would have had my fellow company members take part in. I focus in on four of the eleven principles of puppetry created by Handspring Theatre Company. As well as a short video showing all the elements I experiment with put together and a clip from a rehearsal I had with the puppet head before the lock-down was put in place.
A brief tour of my puppet, describing the material and demonstrating basic movement
A series of mini workshops looking at how to get puppets to breath realistically
A series of mini workshops looking into eye line and how to have a character realistically follow sound
A series of mini workshops learning to move the puppet head and body and then all together
A series of mini workshops looking into eye line and how to have a character realistically follow sound
A series of mini workshops looking into eye line and how to have a character realistically follow sound
my inspiration
Kneehigh Theatre Company have been a great inspiration for me for over 6 years now. I first saw them performing Tristan and Yseult in 2013 and fell in love with their timeless style, music, movement and absurdity. Since then I have seen their performances of Dead Dog in a Suitcase, 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips and The Tin Drum, as well as studied their performance of The Red Shoes.
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All of the performances I have seen them in and know of contain puppetry in some form. Three of those most memorable puppets are: Tips the cat from 946, the babies of Macheath from Dead Dog in a Suitcase, and the giant dog skeleton from Dead Dog in a Suitcase.
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Macheath's Babies
Adolphus Tips
Giant Dog Skeleton
However, surprisingly it is not the puppets that gave me my biggest inspiration for my puppetry but their props. Specifically the way they created a motorbike in 946: The Amazing Story of Adolphus Tips with nothing but handle bars. The actor riding the bike on stage made sound effects them self for the bike and managed to suspend my disbelief and forget it wasn't a real bike. It helped when another character rode with them on the bike and their choreography was so tight and in sync it brought this bike to life. I took this concept and wanted to use it in my piece, which was part of my inspiration to remove the cows limbs. I wanted to use their tight nit group work and lively nature to have the audience suspend their disbelief and see a cow on stage even though they can still see the puppeteers.
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Kneehigh are also greatly inspired by Bertolt Brecht and his Epic Theatre style. So much so that their performance Dead Dog in a Suitcase (and Other Love Songs) was based off of the Threepenny Opera written and composed by Brecht. This style of theatre is crucial to our experimentation, making Kneehigh Theatre Company a perfect reference.
Obviously I couldn't do any puppetry without looking to Handspring Puppet Company. The mechanical structure of the horses in war horse and the agility of those manipulating them are astonishing.
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When looking further into their puppetry I began to realise how effective puppets can be and how emotive they can be. I wanted the audience we performed to, to be as invested in my puppet as they are to Handspring's puppets. I believe a key component of that is being able to have multiple puppeteers controlling a puppet but all looking like one living being. This was why I decided the puppet for the cow had to be a relatively realistic size and controlled by multiple people. To be able to get the magical effect of bringing an inanimate object to life, it had to be manipulated by more than one puppeteer to allow for more detail and a realistic outcome with little mannerisms you wouldn't have the hands for with one.
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I also followed their 11 Principles of Puppetry very closely in order to achieve a realistic and eye catching performance of the puppet. You can view where I put these to practice in my puppetry videos in the above section.
How have i grown as a practitioner?
I began this process wanting to expand my portfolio to hopefully do a theatre design masters in Cardiff. I could never have imagined how much this process would propell me closer to that goal. Not only have a created a fully functioning multi-operated puppet, but I have been able to study a subject I love so dearly and expand my knowledge of it. Practising and experimenting with the 11 Principles of Puppetry from Handspring, I have managed to expand my puppetry knowledge and technique. The creation process of the cow taught me patience and how much time and effort goes into puppetry and any form of theatre design. I've learnt to appreciate the visuals of performance in a whole knew light, knowing not only what it looks like but the work that went into it. I learnt very quickly to adapt to situations such as the lockdown during the pandemic of COVID-19. I was able to change my design to work without the materials I needed which I thought would be impossible before.
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I truly believe I now am on my way to getting that theatre designs masters degree and a hopeful career in theatre design and puppetry.
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I have learnt that puppets can be anything as long as you know how to puppeteer them. All you need is an audience.
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