I choosed to review an article by Joan Baixas called “The puppet’s breath”.
About Joan Baixas : painter and scene director, born in Barcelona on a family of artists and travellers, he is known for his production of visual theatre, his work is based on combination of painting with puppets, masks and projection of images.
He directed the company Teatre de la Claca (1967-1988) where, while travelling around the world on a van, he collaborated with worldwide artists like Joan Miró, Antonio Saura, , Joglars, Circus Oz and others.
He shows his work in all kind of spaces, from the street and community centres to emblematic places such as the Guggenheim Museum, le Centre Pompidou, the Tate Modern, the Sydney Opera House, Hongkong Arts Festival, etc..
He develops a pedagogic task at the Institut of Theatre of Barcelona and other international art centres.
About the article :
He wrote this article towards several questions about the stage practice of puppets as which difficulties the director, the actor, can go through? , which kind of relationship establishes between the actor and the character? , to what extend the puppeteer brings himself in his character?..
He describes then two close and complementary theatre types : the traditional art of puppetry and what he calls the art of moving images, the kinetic or visual theatre. From the first type’s view the puppet refuses to disappear : it’s an non-actual and unnecessary art but impregnable. From the second type’s view the art of moving images is an hybrid kind, meeting point between technologic show and crafts. This specific distinction supports his main point : puppets are living beings while moving images develop in virtuality . So the art of moving images needs manipulators when the art of puppetry needs actors.
So the actor identifies to his character by breathing. The breath of the puppet is the breath of the actor, who manifests in voices and silences.
How could this be useful for puppeteers : Puppetry is about transmission principally, so if you don’t breath with and in the puppet the magic cannot happen. Breath means life so the puppet needs it to be completely alive, that’s why i think this article could be very useful for puppeteers because Joan Baixas based his directing and teaching on this truth. Which make his speech clear in plus of his direct exemples. The puppeteer breath in his puppet as an opera singer breath in his spine. I’ll end with one of the author’s quote : “ silence and interspersed respiration is the magic of puppetry, its ability to spell.”
Yes, interesting about the breath an early lesson I learnt from Ronnie Le Drew was to breath into the puppet. Hand Spring also start their work with puppets with teaching them to breath.
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