Directors and Puppets: Questions To Ask Yourself

Emma Williams – key questions when starting to direct a puppetry project

The Puppet

Why am I using a puppet?  Is it justified?  

If the processes begins with a puppet I start by watching it and ask simply – What does it do well and where are its limits?

If starting with a script I ask – What does the puppet have to do to make the play work?  If the list is too long I go back to the drawing board.  Monster puppets are born out of ridiculous expectations unless budget, time and skill are limitless.

The Puppeteers

Am I asking the audience to ignore the puppeteers or see them? If they are visible what is their relationship to the puppet and how does it change and develop in line with the narrative.

Are the puppeteers in my head when I am planning a scene? How many do I need to make it work? And what will the puppet look like when surrounded by these people?

I work for a number of different companies so I also have to ask- Do I need the puppet to work perfectly here, does the puppeteer have to deliver skill and finesse or do I need it to be scruffy and playful where the puppeteer is committed but irreverent.

Because of a few painful moments in the past I now ask Is there any climbing, walking, eating or crying involved?  What is so simple for an actor is sometimes unfathomably difficult and time consuming for a puppet. On the plus side what is impossible for an actor, for example being ripped apart and your body parts waltzing around the room, is an absolute gift for a well designed puppet. 

You can find out more about Emma and her work here

Emma Williams will lead a Directing Puppetry Workshop and Surgery for Directors on Saturday 10 May in Bristol. To find out more visit our website or call us on 0117 29 3593

How To Hack Your Trash aka Instant Puppets

26 April sees Chris Pirie from Green Ginger present the day long version of his Trash Hack workshop. For those of you scratching your head over the concept of rummaging in the bin to create a puppet, think animated up-cycling. This is what Chris has to say about it:

What is a Trash Hack?

Trash Hack re-purposes domestic and industrial junk to create fantastical instant creatures. We then pull them apart to build another.

Do you have a favourite Trash Hack Creature?

“Not really. I really enjoy the energy and the creativity that is sparked by the fast pace of decision making, the creatures are always surprising. I bring a huge collection of junk that I know really well to the sessions. Every time I think that all the possibilities have been exhausted, someone comes up with something new. A recent discovery was a part of an espresso coffee maker: it usually becomes a head, but someone used it to create the locomotion for their creature, I had never seen that before and it worked really well.”

What if someone can’t make it to the workshop on 26 April – how do they do a trash hack for themselves?

“Grab an object, anything that appeals. Really explore the object, get a sense of its texture, what noises it makes, what movements does it have.

See how the object walks along the floor and gets up onto a tabletop. Grab another object, explore how it works with the first object to make limbs and create a torso.

You can use some instant fixings such as gaffa tape, sellotape, rubber bands etc to join the objects together to create a new creature – anything that you can reverse, deconstruction is as important as construction.

Find out how this creature walks, how it talks to other creatures. Dare to fail, make mistakes, go up blind alleys. You can do it on your own, but it’s definitely more fun with friends. There is no right or wrong, just have a go!”

Trash Hack with Chris Pirie

26 April 10am-5pm  The Elephant Room, Dean Lane Bristol

To book click here or call 0117 929 3593

So How Do You Direct Puppets?

A couple of days ago I caught up with Emma Williams. Emma’s work covers everything from large scale outdoor spectaculars to intimate studio performances. She works both with puppets and actors and has probably seen it all. Puppetry audiences will recognised her name from productions such as Pickled Image’s The Shop of Little Horrors and Wolf Tales, others will know her work from Kid Carpet’s Blast Off and Tobacco Factory Theatres’ productions such as The Lost Present and Super Sam and Mega Max Save Christmas.

 

Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama Performance directed by Emma Williams

And this Saturday (5 April) she is leading our Directing Puppetry Workshop. I started by asking Emma what the differences were in directing puppets and actors.

“Directing puppets presents many of the same challenges and opportunities as directing actors. With both there are core principles of storytelling and the narrative of a scene that you need to consider. However, with puppets there are an additional set of rules and historical contexts that throw up specific questions and answers, puppets also give you different solutions as a director and a performer. The workshop will cover everything I know and have learnt from my mistakes and over time! There are no hard and fast rules, I hope that people will be able to come and then use my experiences for what is relevant to them.”

Given the range of puppetry that you have worked with over the years, is it fair to ask if you have a favourite puppet?

“I do find Pickled Image’s Big Bad Wolf an extraordinary character. He is a huge personality and sometimes it was hard to control that in the rehearsal room! Mother in The Shop of Little Horrors represented a new puppetry technique (ventriloquist dummy) which provided a new set of challenges and solutions. During the rehearsal process her character became critical, both because she is such a big personality in the show and because an important plot point was part of her story arc.”

How would you characterise puppets vs actors?

“Obsessive, very precise, visual and playful. As a director they can give you real clarity about when small moments/things work, sometimes they are more fluid than actors. The technicality of puppetry does set performance parameters, but when done well puppetry transports audiences utterly.”

 

Directing Puppetry

Saturday 5 April 10am-5pm

The Elephant Room, Dean Lane Bristol

£55 / £45 for members Call 0117 929 3593 to book or click here

 

A Considered Performance: A Conversation with Amy Rose

 I recently caught up with Amy about her workshop this Saturday 22 March, Animating The Object. We had a free ranging discussion about the role of puppetry and objects in theatrical storytelling of all types and how these ideas inform her approach to puppetry and object manipulation. 

“Props are often a late element in a rehearsal process and the relationship between an actor and the objects that animate their character’s life can often feel incomplete. In physical and object theatre the relationship between performer and object is key to the dramaturgy. There are tactics and tools to build relationships with objects and therefore to build them into the performance and storytelling. This approach fulfils the spectrum of how stuff on stage can be as expressive of the story and character as a performer.

If, as theatre-makers, we give equal status to the Performer and Object to develop the performance, how does that develop the drama? This necessitates that the design becomes as relevant to the dramaturgy as character and story. This approach is one that is clearly relevant to devised theatre and physical theatre, but is perhaps less obvious with text based and more conventional forms of performance. 

In the workshop I will be exploring this type of approach to give performers and actors a set of tools to develop relationships with objects so that objects on stage become carriers of meaning as much as the performers themselves. This then naturally leads into the area of object manipulation, and the point at which an object becomes a character or puppet. 

By using techniques from physical theatre we become aware that puppetry and object manipulation is not just a question of hand eye co-ordination but is a full sensory exploration. How does the quality, texture, touch of an object create meaning for performer and audience alike?

By the end of the workshop I hope people will feel that they have some tools and ideas about how to consider all the elements of their performance so that every thing works as hard as they do to create meaning on stage.”

Animating The Object with Amy Rose Bocadalupa

10am-5pm Sat 22 March Brewery Studio, Bristol

Click here for further information

 

 

A Blagger’s Guide to Technical Riders or Making Sure Your Wires Don’t Get Crossed.

To be honest, this is a subject close to my heart. As someone who has worked with touring theatre companies and programmes Festivals, the technical rider is one of the first documents I need to help decide how to tour a show across the country or how to programme a show in a Festival. It’s no good having a brilliant piece of theatre or puppetry if it doesn’t fit in the venue. Once negotiated, the technical rider should form part of any contract between a touring company (whether a solo performer or company of 50) and a venue. Touring

Companies may need to provide specialised equipment as part of their touring kit, some venues may be able to support unusual requests but will re-charge costs to the company (this is usually known as a contra). Some technical riders may be so simple and straightforward that all the information can fit on a postage stamp.

However, the more technical information about a show that a company can provide up front, the better the experience will be on the performance day. Now, I am neither a theatre technician or stage manager, so that is about the extent of my knowledge. At this point I’d like to introduce Nic Prior into the conversation. Nic is our Production Manager for Bristol Festival of Puppetry and will be leading this session.

“What I’ve noticed with puppetry companies is that, usually, there is often either a small team or just one person doing everything. Often the performers will also be doing the marketing, driving the van, making the puppets and being the main venue contact. People find themselves needing a whole variety of skills to take their show on the road. The technical requirements of a production can often be a key part of the negotiation process, both financially and logistically. Naturally the more complex the technical rider the more negotiation is often needed. Having been on both sides, sending out technical riders and receiving them, there is some information that all riders need to contain and some thinking about show requirements that can help companies get the best out of a venue.

Each show is different and it’s a tough job when you are doing it all, this session is really for those companies and artists (non-puppeteers are welcome!) who find themselves in that position. I’m really happy for people to send in current riders that they are working on so that we can discuss them or come with specific questions. This is an informal round-table discussion. The idea is that by the end everyone feels they have a better understanding of the kind of information to include and how the technical rider forms part of the contract negotiations.”

I would like to add that Nic is very good at making technical theatre speak understandable to the non-technically minded. I know this from personal experience working on the Festival. There have been at least two occasions when he has had to resort to mime to communicate key concepts to me!

Rachel

A Blagger’s Guide to Technical Riders

Wed 19 February 6.39-9.30pm Puppet Place 0117 929 3593

£15 / £10 Members  (please call if you are a member or use the link above)

Stop Motion Weekends – What’s Up Doc?

15/16 February & 22/23 February 10am-4.30pm

Last night I caught up with Mary Murphy, workshop leader and Associate Lecturer at Bristol School of Animation about what she’s planning for these weekends. Stop-motion animation is a painstaking process with 3 seconds of film representing a day’s filming and that’s not counting all the prep and pre-production. Mary’s approach refines the process, making stop motion accessible and affordable.  She describes her approach as “kitchen sink”, all materials are readily available (usually on Amazon or at Maplins).  She has honed the fabrication process into a simple step by step approach that creates a sophisticated and robust puppet. Her mission is to de-mystify the whole process, giving participants the tools and confidence to take them through from concept to a working character.  This is what Mary had to say about the weekends.

“These weekends are for people who are starting out, who want to investigate animation, who have an idea for a character and want to find out how to make the character live and breathe. We will be focussing on the model-making rather than the filming, although that is part of the process. By the end everyone will have realised their character idea as a puppet and had a chance to explore its movement on camera.

Many people have a great idea of the visual look of a character, hair colour, skin tone, but that is the last stage in creating a stop-motion puppet. Unlike a design that is realised in a static 3D form, the character needs to  breathe and move in a realistic way on film, like in live puppetry. It’s important to understand the underlying structure, the armature, the joints etc that are needed to give you control over your creation so that you can bring it to life on camera. The first weekend will give people the chance to create their own puppet character using the “kitchen sink” process. The second weekend will introduce industry standard tools and processes. We will look at the type of joints and armatures used by companies such as Aardman and how they relate to the puppets and characters we have been creating over the two weekends.

I love running these workshops, they are the kind of workshops I wish had existed when I was learning stop-motion! With these puppets people can start telling stories quite quickly and I often find myself learning new things from participants. ”

Stop Motion Weekends

15/16 February

22/23 February

10am-4.30pm

at Puppet Place

£310 / £290 Members (for both weekends all materials provided).

Next Post Interview with Nic Prior: Bristol Festival of Puppetry Production Manager and Facilitator for A Blagger’s Guide to Technical Riders 19 February.

What’s Coming Up Next Week?

It’s Friday, the rain has started and we’re all well wrapped up at PPHQ. Yesterday I had a quick catch up with Chris from Green Ginger (He is in the room next door so it’s quite easy.) about his workshop An Introduction to Puppetry Manipulation. This is what he had to say:

I like to emphasise the fun and risk taking. It’s about daring to fail. The workshop is intended to give people the chance to refresh skills and learn some new ones. It works well for a group with different skills levels, I’ve previously run it with mixed groups of experienced puppeteers and those still quite new to the artform.

For me, the basic building blocks of giving a good puppetry performance are making sure that as a performer you are comfortable and well-warmed up: aware of your own body in relation to the puppet, scenic elements and other performers. To breathe life into an inanimate object you need to be aware of your centre of gravity and your own breath. Without this it all starts to fall apart very quickly.

The next level is the fine technical skills of the puppetry performance: the manual dexterity to achieve good lip sync, eye-line and smooth multi-operator performance.

I like breaking rules and I love the fact that puppets are the ultimate rule breakers. They disrespect physical laws. Anything that an actor would struggle with a puppet can do!

I love the challenge of these workshops. After 26 years I still find myself challenged, still learning and constantly reminded that there is no one right way, the possibilities are endless

At this point Chris was looking through the workshop leaflet and he has asked that I add a further explanation to the sentence “Areas covered….transmitting pleasure in performance” (apparently some people have been sniggering).

This is what he said:

It’s about enjoying what you are doing on stage, letting that joy have life in the performance.

(Nuff said).

An Introduction To Puppetry Manipulation Saturday 8 Feb 10am-5pm  The Brewery Studio Bristol £55 / £45 members

Me, Myself and I will be hosting a Puppet Extra on Tour Negotiation on Wednesday 5 February 6.30-9.30pm  Puppet Place £15 / £10 members

In this session we will be looking at the fine art of tour booking with a particular focus on negotiating the contract and financial deal. As the after(current)math of funding cuts and recession continues to be felt, we all need to sharpen up our negotiation skills and become more creative in the way we get our work out into the public realm. At the end of the session you will have some practical tools on how to work out your charges and some tips on negotiation. This is an informal session and I’m really happy for participants to bring specific questions about their own projects along.

Information and booking for all our workshops and seminars can be found here 

Rachel

Next week, we’ll bring you further information on Mary Murphy’s Animation Weekends and Nic Prior’s Blagger’s Guide to Technical Theatre.

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What’s Coming Up This Weekend?

Puppet Place’s Workshop Programme kicks off tonight with Chris Pirie from Green Ginger leading the first Puppet Surgery of the year. This is a chance to talk puppets, drink tea and get some advice and help on all those little problems that crop up in a make. 

Although we generally ask people to book in advance, we’ve had a few spaces crop up last minute so if you’ve hit a wall with your puppet creation bring it along to Puppet Place at 6.30pm tonight (30 January) and we’ll see if we can help. (£15 / £10 members)

Then this Saturday Tobi Poster from Wattle & Daub Figure Theatre will be leading our first one day workshop Introducing The Basics of Puppetry at the Brewery Studio in Bristol

When asked the question, “So what’s it all about then?”, Tobi very graciously did not refer me to the title of the workshop, but sent me this email giving a bit more information about what you can expect and his take on puppetry:

“The session will give participants a grounding in single and multiple operator direct manipulation (bunraku style) puppets, all of which will be constructed in-class from easily available and inexpensive materials.

We’ll also be taking a look at the complicite techniques and body awareness necessary to operate puppets in a group, and exploring fruitful starting points for improvising and devising with puppets. It might sound like a lot in one day on paper, but more than anything it’s a chance to have fun playing with all these elements.

 My puppetry and teaching pedagogy has its roots in clown, so there will be a particular focus on the connection between puppet and audience, and how we can play with that connection in performance. And there will be puppet dancing!

 Every time I run this workshop I’m amazed by what participants come up with, so I’m really looking forward to seeing what comes out of the workshop on Saturday.”

We’ve still got a couple of spaces left for Tobi’s workshop on Saturday so if you are interested call us on 0117 929 3593 or email victoria@puppetplace.org

Our full workshop programme can be found here

Rachel