6/10/2018 - PUPPET THEATRE VISIT

After working through the initial possibilities for puppet formation in plastecine, tinfoil and fabric, as we live in Norwich we decided the next logical step was to go for a look around the Norwich Puppet Theater. The only Puppet Theatre in the UK, and one of just three operational facilities around the entirety of Europe! We were so well placed with this rare institution, so we knew we had to make a point of going along!

Initially when we arrived it seemed as if nobody was home, and we were then picking up a leaflet and turning to leave when a man appeared and offered to give us a tour.

We explained to him about our plans for the project and he seemed very enthusiastic. We discussed a bit about puppetry in modern times, and how peoples perception of puppetry has developed over time, from a greatly celebrated historical artform, until the last decade puppetry decreased in popularity and was mainly relegated to seafront Punch and Judy and the occasional niche aspect of theatre. However currently there is a new focus on puppetry in modern media such as festival and carnival as well as for special effects, for example in the new Star Wars franchise where CGI was mainly forsaken in favour of physical puppetry and makeup techniques (to a much more convincing end).

Around the room was a massive display of hung puppets, which were already inspiring new thoughts for our own efforts, such as a pair of ostrich puppets above the door which had a control bar that split into two sections to allow the body & head to be operated seperately to the legs, thus allowing the head to look of it's own accord, and the legs act more convincingly.

 Our guide was visibly excited by our enthusiasm for the topic, and after giving us a brief tour of the venue, he then introduced us Zara Goodfellow, the creative outreach coordinator for the theatre. With this our visual tour became a lot more hands on as she began to take puppets of interest down from the walls around of us and allow us to have a go and fully explore their operation.

First we were introduced to a small human puppet which was interesting because of the different possibilities of movement. A central axel ran up the middle of the body which allowed the head and body to rotate seperately, allowing the neck to turn without an actual seperation between the two parts. As well as this the legs and arms were double hinged with structured slots which operated differently to my string hinges in allowing movement to only occur across a particular arch of mobility, as opposed to my dinosaurs where their string joints allowed the legs to swing and flex in almost any direction. These limitations on movement gave this puppet a better sense of realism and weight, and is something that would be interesting to explore in my own prototypes.

The next puppet we had a go with was a very minimalistic but incredibly effective wolf puppet. It was so interesting to see the different methods used to achieve a variety of effects for different characters. This wolf had no legs and consisted mainly of only three parts, the head, chest and back/tail, however was still very convincing and lifelike. In doing this it was easy to suppose that someone had observed the wolf, and through a process of reduction, distilled it to its most essential forms whilst still maintaining believability. And it was certainly highly believable.

As well as moving along it's central body, the wolf mouth was also controllable which heightened it's relatablity, allowing it to emote to a watcher more easily. As well as this, the body really interested me, as it was actually a hollow wire form threaded through all over with rag fabrics to give it the appearence of being solid. This greatly decreased the overall weight, and also produced a soft surface finish like Molly explored in her rainbow bird. This puppet was on sticks instead of strings, which also allowed for much more concise and purposeful movements.  I think for our intentions, sticks would also be much hardier when transported and used at festivals, and prevent tangling and breakage.

Finally we were allowed to try the beautiful, antique and incredibly crafted horse puppet from a glass display cabinet in the workshop room. This piece was amazingly functional, utilizing both strings and sticks for a broad spectrum of movement, as well as a detatching head pole to allow the horse to look independently of it's body, with a magnet set into it's mouth to allow it to pick up and hold objects such as it's very own rose.

The way this puppet used legs was also of great interest, it's feet were well weighted which meant you could very easily feel when they were properly connecting with the floor, which helped in operation. Even though it was much more complicated than any of the other puppets we had tried, due to it's craftsmanship, I feel like with practice it could be mastered. However it was very heavy, which is where I believed aspects of the hollow wolf puppet could also be employed to reduce the stamina required for lengthy puppetry.

Our visit to the puppet theatre had given us so much food for thought about further ways we could develop our experiments! We stopped to chat some more with Zara before we left, and she told us about Tin House, a Norwich based community arts organisation specialising in street theatre including the large freestanding elephant puppets at the Lord Mayors Procession this year. I thought these people might be perfect to contact.