THE DREAMING SOURE OF CREATIVITY

This book is not only for puppets, now exclusively for puppeteers; it is referred to all those who wants to explore and enhance their creativity that lis within both, ourselves and our environment. Bu using quantum physics, good humor and, of course, puppets, Amy Mindell guides us through this 'journey' and charts the exciting territory between the mystical parts of life and creativity.

The main aim of the book is to show us how creativity is always here, in everything, waiting for us to notice it at any moment in the 'almost nothing' that catches our attention. In this sense, the point is not to reach perfection while you are creating; sometimes, not even to complete the project. Rather, the focus is on the spontaneous and creative act of following the path of the Intentional Field-the "force that guides and sets our lives into motion and brings the material world to birth" (p.15).

The Intentional Field is just one of the different dimensions of experiences that we will come across in this book, and we will be able to explore through simple exercises and play (or playful exercises). Consensus Reality, Dreamland and Essence are the other realms mentioned on the book and all can be understood as parallel worlds for one another. And although we tend to focus on one realm at any given moment, it is possible to move between these parallel dimensions of experience. Learning to move between these worlds is a point of reference in the book, as well as realising how central this ability is to our sense of wellness and creativity.

Exploring these experiences, even those aspects of oneself, which usually seem difficult and troublesome, can be of great assistance to deal with the blocks and moods we all encounter when trying to be creative. Led by the exercises in the book, we will be shown how to use body symptoms as allies and sources of creativity and we will be given guidance in how to catch the fleeting signals from our dreams which, perhaps, might be a new puppet or a new puppetry play. The only thing that we need to do is to open up and let ourselves 'flirting' with the creative impulses within ourselves and our environment.

Why puppets?

In this book puppets are used as the means to creativity and, at the same time, as the outcome of the creating process. And the main reason for this is that puppets themselves are Bridge Builders: they are capable of straddling worlds and dimensions and crossing the boundaries between reality and dreaming

"We just need to put a puppet on our hand and we gain access to the dream world with its magical times, spaces and stories..."(p.180).

I do believe that this is a very interesting book, may be not in the most conventional way, but definitely intriguing and liberating. You are not going to find hints and tips to make better puppets or theories of aesthetics and new approaches to performance. But you may fid different ways to approach your own, unique creativity or even discover creative 'seeds' in aspects of yourself or every day reality that you haven't even imagined. And in this sense, many amazing characters will come into life.

Article review by Natalia

Mendus, Clive. The art of manipulation.

In: Puppetry into performance - a user's guide.

The article is written by Clive Mendus, who works with the Theatre de Complicite, and has as a main influence his teacher Jacques Lecoq. In the article, the author talks about his experience in learning and making theatre, always referring to his influences and Lecoq’s methods.
I find this article useful for puppeteers because it brings a perspective of a theater actor about puppetry – and not a specific puppeteer about his job – and how it is important for an actor to have the skill of manipulate a puppet. Puppetry and theatre are strongly connected, after all puppeteering is a way of making theatre.
The author says that, as actors and performers, they seek to reconnect with qualities of the child behavior like “openness, responsiveness, playfulness, imagination etc”. He says that a child plays with the facing reality to better understand their own place in life, and that is something to be used in puppetry. He also brings the relationship between masks and puppets. He says that when an actor uses a mask he has to act with much more intensity than when he doesn’t uses. What happens is an extension of the quality of the action combined with an economy of the movement.
So, I believe that the article is useful because it brings up references, experiences and comments about the acting with puppets by actors, how this way of acting pushes the actor to a higher quality of performance, and how the ability of giving life to an object is a high skill for a performer.

The image for this post is from Complicite's recent production of "A Disappearing Number" (it is currently touring in Sydney).

Article Review by Kay

Gordon Craig’s Concept of the Actor:

An article by Charles R. Lyons (1964)

Article Overview
The article gives an overview following Edward Gordon Craig’s changing (and at times polarised) sentiments towards the actor over 3 decades. Craig was an actor, producer, director and drama theorist who became dissatisfied with actors because of their egos (which he believed interfered with the director’s vision), and their undisplined/limited range of movement (which he partially blamed on the spiritual state of all human beings as figures ‘fallen from Grace’ and thus unable to achieve perfection). Out of this frustration, this modernist theatre practitioner called for the actor to be replaced by the ‘uber-marionette’ as the ideal instrument of perfect movement (primarily that of symbolical gesture). On that note, it is understandable why Craig was so influential for the Futurists.

The article also mentions two of Craig’s other significant theories, which he held in constant tension. There was the Durable Theatre, which was a theatre of rigid convention, where the movements and gesture are established, traditional and therefore ‘beyond criticism’ (e.g. Japanese Noh theatre). The concept relates to Da Vinci’s imperative to “Shun those studies in which the result dies with the worker”. The other concept was the Perishable Theatre, where the actor would become the creative force, with spontaneous creation, improvisation of words, movement and possibly music.

How is it useful to puppeteers?
I found this article useful for seeing the context surrounding Craig’s theory of the uber-marionette, though I would look at other sources (including Craig’s essays!) for more details and insight into the theory itself. Although there were some points that I found relevant as a puppeteer, I think this article is primarily written for stage directors and actors.

That said, it is still valuable to reflect on puppets as instruments for movement. Craig himself emphasised that movement is the primary source of expression in art. Puppets indeed can move in ways that even the most athletic performer cannot. In that respect, we must be careful not to let our operating become too naturalistic, but perhaps the opposite – let puppets do what they do best (and not act like people, or else this would lose the point of using puppets in the first place).

Finally, we can take Craig’s exaltation to heart that it is “our supreme honour to be ministers to the supreme force – movement”.

Lyons, C. R. (1964). Gordon Craig’s Concept of the Actor. Educational Theatre Journal, 16(3), 258-269.

Book review by Celia

Name of the book : PUCK (French puppetry magazine) n° 3 “Pro-vocation l’école” / “Pro-vocation the school”.
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.”

kate james-moore book review

Living Dolls- story of Indian Puppets

by Jiwan Pani

This short book is a systematic catalogue of Indian puppets by type and by region. The author has broken down his study into glove, rod, marionette and shadow puppets and within each section explores the origin, the method of making, the types of storeys and the types of music used.
The book over all seems to be about a dying art. It talks about the lengths the author had to go to find practasing puppeteers. Despite the fact that India has such a incredibly long history in puppetry dating back to second century BC and repeatedly being the 1st country to use puppetry this book seems to state people just aren’t able to make a living out of puppetry any more.
I think this book is very useful for any puppeteer who is looking to research into authentic methods of puppet manipulation. The text goes into great detail about all the different aspects that make up a traditional Indian piece of puppet theatre. I believe if you were looking for inspiration it might be an interesting jumping off point, to see how things used to be down and perhaps how you can take it from their. If you wanted to make traditional Indian puppets there are some quite detailed descriptions and the book is crammed full of illustrations (of varying quality).
This book is very informative and full of lovely bits of puppet fact including some wonderful translations for example the puppeteer is called a Sutradhar which literally means holder of strings and puppetry is described in one region by the term Bommalatam that means dance of dolls. Some other interesting facts are that in one type of puppetry the strings of the puppet are tied to the fingers of the puppeteer and with shadow puppets the characters are always kept in separate baskets depending on if they are evil or gods.
Pani believes that we are fascinated by puppet theatre for deep psychological reasons, he explores the different examples of what psychologists call "wish fulfilment" and how it relates to our desire to escape reality.
If I had any criticism of this book it would be that it was slightly repetitive in style but overall I would strongly recommend it.

kate james-moore book review

Love of Seven Dolls by Paul Gallico

Love of Seven Dolls is a short novel about a young girl, Mouche, who is saved from suicide by seven puppets .These are archetypal puppet characters: a hypocritical fox, an unhappy giant, a sulky golden haired girl, a pompous but friendly penguin ,the’ manager’ Carrot Top ,a gossipy old woman with a heart of gold and a toy mender. She strikes up a lively and loving relationship with them that rescues her from despair.
But, of course, they are all created by the puppeteer ‘Capitaine Coq’. A complex man, whose life has turned him into a cruel abusive man ,he feels affronted by Mouche’s innocence and abuses and bullies her. However, Gallico shows us how he expresses his multi-faceted personality through the puppets and ,by the end, he recognises his love for Mouche –a love he expresses through the puppets, and he is redeemed through this.
Love of Seven Dolls was first published in 1954. Paul Gallico, who was born in New York in 1897, served in both the world wars and lived for a time in England, wrote many memorable stories including the Snow Goose.
The aspects of the story that I think puppeteers would be interested in include the relationship between Capitaine Coq and his puppets and the origins of his puppetry work. He expresses his real self –or his real selves-through his puppets and is able to drop the cynicism and hatred that informs the rest of his life when working with them.’ Often he was amused at the things done and the sentiments expressed by his creations for they were completely foreign to him’
The puppeteer started making the puppets during the war in a prisoner of war camp to distract the other prisoners. Yet his creations ‘take over’ and refused to speak the obsenities demanded by the soldiers.
When Mouche arrives, for a time the story lines become exciting and different. When he turns from her and reinstates the old tired routines, the puppets become ‘Listless’
Gallico is not suggesting some supernatural thing about the seven dolls –although at times they all take on a life of their own. We see that, through them, a damaged man is able to regain both life and love
Thus puppetry is seen as giving the capacity for redemption for both Mouche and Captain Coq.
I would

Article Review by Kay

"Lesson in Writing": An article from "Image Music Text" by Roland Barthes (1977).

Article Overview
This article compares western puppetry (and western culture in general) with Japanese Bunraku theatre (otherwise known as Ningyo Johruri). There is a detailed analysis of Bunraku, with a special focus on the puppeteer. There are also some very thought-provoking observations made by Barthe, which I can only describe as ‘puppet theology’, where he reflects on the puppet, the actor, and the relationship between both. Although this reading is short and almost 3 decades old, it is full of interesting and profound ideas that are still very relevant to the contemporary performer.

How is it useful for puppeteers?
The article makes you think about the importance of discipline as a performer. The main operator’s face is left uncovered and yet remains “smooth, clean, impassive, cold like ‘a white onion freshly washed’.” The two other operators, though covered up, also remain fully visible on stage. Yet all three become almost invisible to the audience as they work together to create “eminently transitive” actions. They become merely the way of passage for the action to travel to the puppet, without drawing any attention back on themselves. Barthe describes this as getting ‘rid’ of the actor, (which parallels Edward Gordon Craig’s theories on the Ubermarionette). What a challenge this is to us as exposed operators – to keep our own bodies still and our faces stoic (or covered up!), as we channel all our energy into the puppet.

This article also made me think of what we have been learning about the stillness of the puppet. Keeping in tradition with the minimalist nature of Japanese art and theatre, it seems that Bunraku finds much of its meaning in stillness and silence – to the point that the sources of Bunraku theatre are exposed in their ‘void’. What’s more, all of the actions of the operator are decisive and precise. This then challenges us to look at our shows and strip them of all unnecessary actions until we are left with the essential gestures (including pauses) to convey our story.

An interesting quote from Barthe
“If the manipulator is not hidden, then why and how turn him into a God? In Bunraku, the puppet is held by no thread; without a thread, there is not longer any metaphor, any Fate; puppet no longer aping creature, man is no longer a puppet in the hands of the deity, the inner no longer controls the outer.”

Barthes, R. (1977). Lesson in Writing. In S. Heath (Ed. and Translator), Image Music Text: Essays Selected and Translated by Stephen Heath (pp. 170-178). Great Britain: Flamingo.

kate james-moore book review

Dogtroep The art of wild Theatre

A visually stunning comprehensive history of the performing arts company Dogtroep. This beautifully produced programme of the works of the trope explores every facet and mechanism of "the machine" that is Dogtroep taking it cog by cog and laying bare the inner workings of the art of wild theatre.
The book is structured in such a way that is very easy to navigate though there is a very natural progression from orientation to aesthetic and finally practices each individual chapter could be taken as a stand alone piece.
Warner VanWely who was a founding member of the company in 1975 describes the process of working with and leading the company as a voyage of discovery meeting with constant growth and change along the way.
I was very interested by the companies key principles of authenticity, effectiveness and homogeneity it seems to me a lot of faith goes into keeping theses principles working together to create great many sided spectacles.
The range of influences is very intriguing to name just a few. The work that they follow includes Buster Keaton, Pina Bowsh, MadMax and Keith Harring company members also read surrealist and futurist manifestos.
The elements that Dogtroep work is built around are rich and varied
The character of site is key
The metamorphose of concepts vital
The essential naivety of work making a constant appearance
The key emphasis on sculptural quality
The fact that nothing is hidden all elements are part of performance

It is interesting to note that no matter how successful it is they only play a type of performance a limited number times.
The main categories of work are
Open air spectacles small scale projects
Indoor performances concerts
Street theatre performances parades
Festival infiltration’s visual projects
TV projects
Interesting time lines of a year’s work schedule showing just how varied and busy a timetable their have up to 20 events each year. This obviously greatly influences the time they have for rehearsal and that in turn leads to the hasty and improvised feel of the final product.
This is a great book for anyone to read but particully puppeteers, as it is such an amazing melting pot of ideas. It is a really inspiring text that any one thinking of setting up their own company should read.

Kat's Book Review

Burmese Puppets by Noel F. Singer

Overview
This book traces the development of puppetry from the first recorded existence in Burma in 1444 to modern times from a collection of Burmese writers. It also covers the traditions of Burmese puppetry including the vocalist and the puppeteer and how puppetry has influenced dance, crafts and literature in Burma.

Links to the Puppeteer and Puppet
Puppet theatre to the Burmese was very popular because it was an escape from the harshness of their daily lives and also to hear corruption and injustice be criticized as a form of protest, which was denied to even actors and was punishable by death. The Burmese puppet troupes consisted of both the puppeteers and vocalist, however the vocalists were senior to the puppeteers because they thought that no matter what the puppet did, it was the voice that held the audience’s attention. Traditionally, they also thought of the female sex to be unclean so a woman was not permitted on stage, or else the stage would be ‘defiled’ by her. This is interesting to the modern puppeteer because it brings up the question as to whether the puppet and the movement alone are strong enough to hold an audiences attention without adding voice? Does music make the piece stronger? Like some other types of traditional puppetry (ie: Japanese) why are women not allowed to be puppeteers?

Interesting ideas
“The Burmese believed that the human life cycle from birth, childhood to adulthood and old age was represented in the sequence of events enacted by the marionettes. Like the performance itself, one’s life, which is mixed with happiness and sorrow, must one day come to an end.”
There are 28 traditional Burmese Puppets, which represent the 28 attributes that make up the human body in Buddhism.
Live performances could be up to 45 nights long.
Burmese dancers imitate the movements of the traditional puppets by incorporating high jumps and spins.

Singer, N. (1992). Burmese Puppets. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Kat's Book Review

Paul Klee: Figures and Faces by Margaret Plant

Overview

This book looks into the work of the artist Paul Klee. Focusing on his works of the human face and figure throughout his lifetime. How his images can capture human frailty, how masks and puppets are linked to deception and self-deception and how marionette strings symbolise a person’s inability to control his own destiny.

Links to the Puppeteer and Puppet

To further understand the expressiveness of stillness and of that of the human face and figure as a whole, looking at Klee’s body of work and seeing how his depictions of the human form changed through the years and yet they still give the viewer the feeling of expression and movement. And though Klee did not begin to relate his works to puppets until later in his career, his exploration of masks in art and theatre can also hold true to that of the faces and uses of masks in puppet theatre, “Klee was concerned in his art almost exclusively with the human face and figure. Nature was not an important subject. He set himself quite consciously the task of making a satirical and moral comment on human nature.” Klee felt that even though art and masks were made with one expression that they could still show the viewer a whole range of human expressions, “Masks have taught me that a minimum of expression even the suppression of any expression, cannot prevent the mask being expressive with its fascinations, its stereotype, its inner being.”

Interesting ideas from Klee

“His interest in exposing hidden aspects of character was early attested by his exploration of the masked face, one on top of another, posing the question of which is truer.”

“Awareness of physical expression […] related to the delight in breaking through the borderlines of the body, overcoming the rigidity of the body image, dissolving and weakening its outlines.”

“The puppet could provide not only a visual renewal of the human figure, but a means to comment on it.”

Plant, M. (1978). Paul Klee: Figures and Faces. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd.

Book Review by Celia

Name of the book : PUCK (french puppetry magazine) n°1 “L’avant-garde et la marionnette” / “The puppet and the avant-garde”.
I choosed to review an article called “The Fair Theatre” composed by an extract of Vsevolod Meyerhold’s book On Theatre.

About Vsevolod Meyerhold : he was born on the 28th of January 1874 in Penza, Russia. He started his career as a director and actor before the 1915’s Russian Revolution. He created a new acting training method : the bio-mechanic (focuses purely on a physical approach, inspired by Japanese theatre, dance, commedia dell’ arte and pace ). Instead of following the socialist regime’s directives he created avant-garde shows between constructivism and futurism. He was arrested and tortured in 1939, executed on the 2nd of February 1940.
About the article :
In this extract Vsevolod Meyerhold describes two different puppet theatre : the director of the first one wants his puppet to be similar to humans, be provided with all their daily habits and particularities. His desire to reproduce reality “as it is” makes him constantly perfecting the puppet until the simplest answer to this dilemma does appear : the replacement of the puppet by man. The director of the second theatre notices that what people are most amused by is the movements and the situations the puppets are in. Despite their intention to replicate life on stage they have no resemblance with what the public sees in life.
He wrote that he described both to make the actor think : does he have to replace the puppet and continue its auxiliary role which denies any possible personal creative freedom, or should he establish a similar theatre to the one puppetry had managed to win, by refusing to submit to the will of the director to change its nature ?
How could this be useful for puppeteers ? I think that the question Vsevolod Meyerhold is asking in this text is essential for any puppeteer or anyone who wants to use puppets. What does puppets bring on stage that we, as human being, can’t bring ? A puppet is a tool so I am convinced that you should have proper reason to choose a tool from another in order to create the best work. I’ll end with my favourite puppetry quote, by the French poet and playwriter Paul Claudel : “la marionette est une parole qui agit / the puppet is a word that acts.”

How to reference your book reviews by Caroline Astell-Burt

Chris Abbott sent me this list for my guidance when I wrote a recent article:

APA (American Psychological Association) format preferred – examples below:

Please note the difference between books, edited essays or articles in book form, and articles in journals.

Abbott, C. (2000). ICT: Changing Education. London: RoutledgeFalmer.

Abbott, C. (2006). An East Anglian Odyssey: the story of the DaSilva puppet company. Wisbech: Wisbech & Fenland Museum.

Abbott, C. (2002). Writing the visual: the use of graphic symbols in onscreen texts. In I. Snyder (Ed.), Silicon Literacies: Communication, Innovation and Education in the Electronic Age (pp. 31-46). London: Routledge.

Abbott, C., Lachs, V., & Williams, L. (2001). Fool's Gold or hidden treasure: computers stifling creativity? Journal of Education Policy, 16(5), 479-487.

Book review by Natalia

Name of the book: Making and manipulating marionettes
Author: David Currel

About the book:
This book, as the name says, is a practical manual of making and manipulating marionettes. The author describes a very detailed step-by-step of the process. He begins with a brief introduction of the tradition of marionette theatre and soon goes to the practical part. The principles of marionette design, all the proportions, structures. All the time he gives us described tips about the general making and, at the same time, he always reminds us that puppets can be anything. After the introduction, in which the readers get able to plan the entire marionette, he follows to “Head – Materials and Methods”. Here, he explains several ways of making the head of the puppet with different materials: carving wood, modeling on plasticine, modeling on a polystyrene, paste and paper, wood-form, milliput, Rhenoflex 3000, Varaform, Jesmonite, fiberglass. He also describes how to make castings. After heads, he goes to the eyes – carved/modeled and moving – and moving mouths. Finally, the painting and general finishing. Then, the author goes to the construction part. Here he talks about all the body joints, and its several possibilities and techniques. The book is full of illustrations and pictures, which make the comprehension of the text much easier. He also comments about costumes, selection of fabrics, cutting and sections for costume construction. At this point, all the making is done, so he begins with the manipulation part. Starting with the upright control, the author tells every details about how to build them, what materials, methods. Then, he goes to the proper manipulations methods. First the stringing, then all the basic positions, walking, sitting etc. After this, he dedicates a chapter to animals marionettes, step-by-step about several types of animal. Specializes stringing for additional special effects (eating, raising hands, lifting objects etc) and specifics types of puppets, such as juggling, trapeze artist, unicyclist, weightlifter etc. And finally, specialized designs for specific characters.

How is it useful for a puppeteer?
The book describes in a very rich way the main points of making and manipulating marionettes. The comments about different materials, possibilities (ways of making), techniques and how to extend actions, movements and characteristics of puppets are easily able to put on practice. For beginners, like me, it’s very useful because if you read it you’ll understand clearly how a marionette works. Naturally, the practice of making and manipulating are always different from the theory, but as manual the book is really explicative. And for those who are initiated in the marionette universe, I also believe that is a good book to turn to, because it can help you with punctual technical steps and methods.
The author is specialized in puppets and education, which indicates a didactic way of writing and explaining things. He has an extent research work in the subject and his first book about puppetry was published in 1969.

Book review by Celia

First book review for puppeteers

My first book review is about an article by Philippe Genty (french director and puppeteer, founder of the theatre company Philippe Genty Cie) called "The imagination door" in the french puppetry magazine PUCK n°4 which title is "Des corps dans l'espace" / "Bodies in space".

In this article Philippe Genty exposes one of his work focus which is the relationship between inert and living.
He starts by explaining that when facing the inert living suddenly becomes much more alive, the movement of the inert communicate itself to the body which send back a real momentum.
That’s also why the stronger moments in theatre are when the inert starts to move and give more value to the living. When it seems that the living by itself got something missing.

Then his topic moves to the interesting choice between sobriety and over-acting. His point is that choosing over-acting for inert characters doesn’t work because it makes them look too artificial. As same as if animated characters start to interpret, to play as an actor : they’re too weak compare to living comedians so they need a sober and more natural acting. He then makes the link with the object theatre saying that over-acting works perfectly for it, probably because the convention in it is very different.
So more the theatre form is abstract more it gets away from realism and more the characters in it can and should over-act. Vice more a universe is realistic less it supports over-acting.
Objects and puppet theatre are fund on a relation mode which could remind how children play with objects : we choose what is who and what is it and we add fuel to feed the illusion.

Why do I recommend this article to other puppeteers?
I think that this article is extremely interesting for puppeteers because the basic topic is one of the essential question in puppetry : does the immobility or the inert is dead?
I believe that Philippe Genty’s view about it is very well explained and got very good exemples to support it. I mean that reading this article really helped me to understand more and clearly why an inert object could be even more alive than a living figure.
This question has a very strong influence on any kind of puppetry or object theatre work for me, and I do think that we have to ask ourselves everytime . First about why we choosed inerts or dead object or puppets and second how the fact that they seem inerts or dead could make it work in our direction, in our meaning.
I'll use a quote from Matisse (the painter) that Caroline gave us last week to end :
" Immobility isn't an obstacle to the feeling of mouvement."

Book Review by Kay: The Marionette Actor

As part of the assignments for our marionette module, we are reviewing books that would be useful for marionette students. Here is my first review:

Name of Book: “The Marionette Actor” (1987)
Author: Ralph Chessé

The book in a nutshell: A memoir of a puppeteer in America (mostly anecdotal). Good for seeing someone’s artistic process in detail (making and operating). Has some reflections on the theory of the marionette, linking in influences from Gordon Craig. Short and easy to read.

What is it about?
This book is a memoir of Chessé’s work as a marionettist, spanning almost 60 years. It is a sort of anecdotal process diary, with detailed descriptions of his productions. The main production he focuses on is Hamlet, where he describes how he made the puppets, tips and tricks for the stage and setting, as well as a general reflection on his artistic processes.

How is it useful for puppeteers?
This book would be useful for puppeteers interested in seeing an in-depth look of an artist’s practice. You can see how Chessé develops a show, and more importantly, the reasons behind why he makes/operates puppets a certain way. You can also see his research process and how he integrates dramatic theories as well as his own philosophy. The book also includes some photographs of his marionettes as well as sketches of the basic structural form used for all Chessé marionettes.

About Chessé
Chessé was very much influenced by the work of the English modernist theatre practitioner, Gordon Craig. Craig intended to make an instrument of theatre, a surrogate which would serve the puppeteer’s purpose as an actor. As the title infers, Chessé believes that to be a good puppeteer, one must also be a good actor (and vice versa).

Some interesting ideas
* Quote from Alexander Hevesi: “The Marionette is more than natural; it has a style – that is to say, unity of expression. Therefore, the marionette theatre is the true theatre.”
* The importance of the audience: A lot of what makes a character come alive is in the audience’s imagination
* Avoid the naturalistic – the artist/puppeteer must choose something that will ‘fire’ the audience’s imagination

So that's my review. Just as an extra bit of interest, here is an extended quote from the last pages of the book, with Chessé’s final reflection on the marionette:

“It seems…that the marionette, born into a human world of chaos, struggle and conflict, a world inflicted with a flesh and blood supreme superiority that breeds intolerance and hatred, and battles vainly against a mortality as inevitable as the rising and setting of the sun, continues to emerge serene and unperturbed by all that transpires around him. He is Man’s soul and Man’s conscience. He proclaims Man’s virtues and attacks Man’s vices yet remains free from contamination. He plays at war without spilling a drop of blood; he beheads his enemies without causing them discomfort; he preaches and moralises in a transgressive world and suffers little more than the penalty of being silenced for his crime.

If he is cast out of the theatre, he takes up his stand on the nearest street corner. If the law forces him to move on, he takes to the open road. If he loses prestige, he manages to retain that which is more important: his freedom and in the face of the most harrowing experiences, he always retains his sense of humour. He is endowed with Man’s immortal soul – a free, uncompromising, self-justifying, imperishable soul embodied in a block of wood, moved by strings, and set in motion by the will of Man.”

Kat's Book Review

Pinocchio's Progeny: Puppets, Marionettes, Automatons and Robots in Modernist and Avant-Garde Drama by Harold B. Segel

Overview
A look at how modernist movement created new artistic interest in the use of puppets with human likenesses. An exploration of the metaphors of puppets and the use of puppets in modernist and Avant-Garde theatre from around the world from 1890 through 1935.

Links to the Puppeteer and Puppet (esp. Futurism)

"What simultaneity meant to Futurist practice was the occurrence of different events at the same time, action onstage, for example, taking place simultaneously in different locations. Although this was in part an attempt by Futurists to parallel the cinematographer's ability to move instantaneously from one locale to another, it was also reflective of their sense of the rapidity with which change was occurring in their own time. Certainly one way of rendering the fast pace of modernist times was to move back and forth between several unrelated, or apparently unrelated, events, collapsing in the process both time and space."

This holds true also to the Russian Futurist obsession with the idea of film and moving pictures. Futurists believed that "the human actor and dancer should be no longer tolerated" and should be replaced by puppets, mechanistic puppets and finally by "electric currents and diffusing luminous colourations."

Futurists seemed to love using puppets in Futurist Theatre (in fact Marinetti created two Futurist plays using marionettes: Le Roi Bombance (Bombance the King) and the better known Electric Puppets which was later shortened to only the second act and was thus renamed to Sexual Electricity.

In conjunction with the idea of replacing the live actor, Futurists seemed to love the use of puppets for this main reason: "shadows and marionettes co-ordinate their various movements with the humans' speech and actions [...] both shadows and marionettes mock their (human) alter egos. The apparitions (puppets) that mimic their (human) actions in fact mock their (human) marionette-like behaviour in life.

Segel, H. (1995). Pinocchio's Progeny: Puppets, Marionettes, Automatons and Robots in Modernist and Avant-Garde Drama. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press.