Cratemen

Something about this reminds me of an aspect of our aesthetic.  Recycled materials, humanoid forms and transforming the mundane.  Also reminds me of an image (below) I found inspiring in my initial research for the show.  In that we might be addressing storage and puppets constructed from found materials, I wanted to share.

The Puppeteers meets Legal Snarls

Are These Puppets? 3

Found here.

Is This a Puppet? 2

Found here.

7 Stories

There's a popular theory that supposes that for all the entertainment we've created over the course of human history, all the songs we've sung and tales we've told, there are but seven stories in the world.  (Here you can find an article that purports to list them.) We just synthesize and deconstruct and borrow and graft elements of these same seven (or six, or nine, depending on who you ask) stories over and over again.  I don't know if I hold to this particular theory, but it's an interesting idea when approaching the raw stuff of story-building.

In the spirit of story-building, I'm thinking about what role The Wizard of Oz and other Oz stories in general might have in our construction of a show.  Taken to its core elements, it could be said to be a story type that involves traveling to a strange land, changing the land and you forever, and returning home.  I'll list other stories of this type below.  Please edit this post to add your own:

1. Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking Glass
2. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
3. The Time Machine
4. The Odyssey
5. The Lord of the Rings
6. Pinocchio
7. Charlie & the Chocolate Factory (Dahl sort of specialized in this type of "children's story")
8. 
   

Plastic Bag Ballerina

From YouTube user oceanchildd.  Note that the ballerina's feet are actually the puppeteer's big toes.

Is This a Puppet? 1

Found here.

Kim W. on "Raised by Puppets"

Kim is amazing and research-crazy and I've asked her to contribute information to the 'blog.  She's also responsible for the study guide content ETC produces.  She also has some 'blog access problems so, for now at least, she post through me.  Below is a sort of response to my post of October 27.


Puppets.  Jeff pointed out how this lead to AVENUE Q -- part of how that came about was a sort of meta-commentary on shows LIKE "Sesame Street," which sought to teach kids using puppets.  The creators of AVENUE Q were speculating on, "well, what would it look like if someone used puppets to teach more adult concepts like 'how do I handle an adult relationship' or 'how do I figure out my life's purpose' or 'what is the Internet'?"

Plus, there's something titillatingly subversive about puppets - something that culturally we all think of as "kids' stuff" -- singing songs like "The Internet Is For Porn".  ...Although, AVENUE Q isn't even the most "adult stuff with puppets" that's out there -- there's also the all-marionette movie made by the guys who did SOUTH PARK -- called TEAM AMERICA: WORLD POLICE.  This was a spoof of action films, complete with a "love scene" that would have been graphic enough to flirt with an NC-17 rating if it were real people.

Found here.  Warning - some disturbing puppetry at link.

Then there's something called MEET THE FEEBLES, a very early film by Peter Jackson.  (In his Oscar acceptance speech, he briefly mentioned it, only to thank the Academy for turning a blind eye TO it.)  It's kind of a cult classic now, and....well, the person who showed it to me described it to me beforehand as "Imagine a cross between THE MUPPET SHOW and HOLLYWOOD BABYLON."  ....That's not too far off -- I'd say it's more like, what THE MUPPET SHOW would have looked like if they were doing a burlesque show rather than a vaudeville one, and Jim Henson had done an internship with PLAYBOY MAGAZINE.  It's...quite something.  (I hesitate to recommend it to you for research purposes, for fear of really skewing the show in some unforeseen way.  However, once you've opened the show, maybe see it then, for amusement's sake.  And have a bottle of something very strong by your side when you watch.)

I suspect that this is another aspect of having grown up with puppets -- it's so much a part of all our childhoods that the idea of taking something so "of childhood" and putting into an adult realm makes it subversively funny.  And I wonder if we may be the first generation for which this would have worked; don't forget, the very first season of SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE had Muppets in the cast.  But the audiences then -- all of whom would have been little kids in the 60's -- didn't really seem to go for the idea, and the writers also loathed working with them.  (An early writer on the show came up with an oft-quoted response when he was asked to write a sketch for the Muppets for one episode -- "I don't write for felt.")  So the Muppets were retired after that first season.

Then again, shows like HOWDY DOODY and KUKLA, FRAN, AND OLLIE were on in the 50s and 60s, which seems to kill my theory.  Perhaps the media saturation was not as great?

Just What Do We Think We're Doing: Part 1

The following is a summary I prepared for all involved behind the scenes of The Puppeteers.  It expresses pretty well what the show is going to be like, and represents an enormous step forward in the process.  The usual reminders apply - ALL IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE - but enjoy some somewhat concrete details below:

We are looking at a story set in the current day wherein three characters who do NOT communicate well become trapped together in a superintendent's basement apartment.  There is the resident of the first floor (Heather), who is a frightened and excitable middle-aged woman whose family used to own the house before economic concerns forced them to break it up.  There is a young woman who is a computer/Internet junkie (Elizabeth), hyper-kinetic and absurdly "connected."  And finally there is an aged superintendent and fix-it man (Conor) who used to be a puppeteer.

We don't have a specific scenario yet, but what we're looking at is a story wherein the three have to deal with vast generation gaps and trying to manipulate one another to fulfill their various wants and needs.  In their efforts to communicate/manipulate - and just to keep their spirits up - they begin to puppeteer with both true puppets and improvised ones from various objects and furniture collected in the super's seemingly vast dwelling, eventually becoming puppets and puppeteers themselves.  They tell stories, imagined and from their pasts, and both.  There's an element here of The Wizard of Oz - a story about being plunged into an unfamiliar world, and searching for reunion.

So - that's where we're aiming.  That's the general idea.  Of course remember, for all this lovely conceptual language, this will be an ecstatic physical comedy.  Some specifics:

Research:  There's a few different ways we're approaching puppetry in this context.  The commedia connections and Drake's design are specific to Punch'n'Judy, which is great, but we want to if not use than at least be informed of every variety we can.  I'm thinking of approaching it with a similar philosophy as we do to commedia itself - approaching it as a "living tradition," something interconnected that never left but evolved and continues to inform contemporary forms.  I've put some links to research on puppetry forms on the 'blog already, but it would be nice to consolidate or organize that kind of thing in some accessible way.  And we're always interested in history, of course, both global and whatever might be specific to North Eastern PA.  Perhaps the vaudeville circuit had some famous or local ventriloquists?  And just as a possible side note, Baum wrote a lot of Ozian and non-Ozian things as well, which might yield some interest.

Marketing: Everyone, please refer people to the 'blog and talk about the show as something anyone can be involved with in its development.  I hope for the month of December to have up Twitter and Facebook Puppeteers accounts linked directly to online ticket sales.  We may also send out Puppeteers holiday cards, if the theatre approves.

Set:  I wish you guys could see it now, but hopefully we'll have an image up on the 'blog soon.  Drake and the cast had a meeting about it, and it's an exciting sort of abstraction of a seaside Punch-n-Judy tent, with a human-sized "puppet" stage to match the real-size version.

Lights:  The theatre is somewhat limited in equipment, and I defer to the lighting designer entirely.  I always love actor-controlled lighting sources, as well.  Maybe after next time I'm in Scranton (12/10-12) we'll be able to say a bit more about this.

Costume:  Some commedia dell'arte character analogues to consider: Conor as a crafty (literally) Pantalone, Heather as a painfully shy Isabella (a contradiction, I realize) and Elizabeth as a sort of eager servant (Pedrolino/Columbina) or an innamorata.  It might be helpful if they all dressed somewhat of the period of their youth (E: contemporary, H: 60s/70s, C: 30s/40s or older) and then we could transition them to more commedia accents as the show progresses like we discussed, but obviously I'd want to hear our designer's ideas.

SMS! SMS!!!!!

Just had this insane idea that I had to put down.  What if we can make Elizabeth's "iPhone," or whatever, actually a TracFone and put the number in the program?  This way, the audience (both present and after they've seen the show) can interact with the action of the story.

I think I just had a glee heart attack.

Process is Change

Those who remain.  Photo by Jeff Wills. (Yup; all my fault.)

Well, in the past month we've had some changes with The Puppeteers.  I've said "all is subject to change" before, and I meant it.  During October it became clear to Todd - due to changes in his situation and in spite of our best efforts to circumvent it - that participating in the show wasn't going to work.  Not this show, not this time.

It's easy to write that, and it does make me feel better to write it.  But of course, losing him from the show is a major loss.  Todd's talent is enormous, and he's a fellow founding member of Zuppa del Giorno, and it was an absolute joy to work with him again.  We'll miss him.  There are no hard feelings.  (If anyone understands the amazing effort and sacrifice it takes to commit everything to a theatre show, even without living thousands of miles from the theatre, anyone would be me.)  The truth is, too, that he'll be in the show.  He can't help it.  His work has already influenced The Puppeteers in very significant ways.

We have another comfort, too.  Todd's absence is being filled by Zuppianna (sp?) extraordinaire Heather Stuart.  I can't say enough good things about Heather.  She's been my creative partner-in-crime for all things comic for six years; we've worked on five full-length shows and created three of those, as well as two shorts, together.  Together she and Conor are arguably the most popular actors in Scranton.  She's funny and smart and, best of all, true.  This is going to be fun.

And so we bid adieu to one member of Zuppa del Giorno, and welcome the participation of another.  It's kind of wonderful for me, actually, because I get the pleasure of working with two of the old guard on one process.  The process itself is all about change - finding what works is important, but so is finding what doesn't.  To bid dear Todd a fond farewell, I present one of my favorite improvisations that he created with Elizabeth and Conor at our first developmental meeting:

Bring a Puppet

Our next developmental meeting is this Sunday, and it's short one, so I have asked our actors to do a little homework assignment.  I present the assignment  here for your admiration or ridicule.

Bring a puppet.

• Can consist of 1-3 items
• Must read from stage (something that occupies more space than just a hand)
• Must have a mechanic; a plunger won't work, but a plunger with a cracked suction cup that flaps (mechanic) will
• Must be untraditional (e.g., NOT sock, paper bag, classic marionette, stick puppet)
• Must have:
• Distinctive voice
• Three repeatable signature movements (think Muppets/commedia characters - this is how this guy nods, runs, plays the fiddle)
• Ability to monologize
• Does not have to have:
• Life history
• Smooth or finished look
• Immediate recognizability (this is a man, this is a dog, this is a furry monster)

The ideal way to make this puppet is to find it, utilize something extant to its full absurdity.

Two Contemporary Puppet Shows

Discuss.  (Fair warning: the second of these can be a bit, well, terrifying.)


Interactive Puppet Prototype with Xbox Kinect from Theo Watson on Vimeo.


"The Narrative of Victor Karloch" Trailer from Kevin McTurk on Vimeo.

A Conversation

Yesterday Heather Stuart and I got into an accidental little discussion about the show, which resulted in some useful ideas.  It went a little something like this:

---

Jeff Wills	Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 2:56 PM
To: Heather Stuart
One of the ideas we were playing with was to introduce new characters when the base characters are in altered states, such as drunk or hypnotized.  Black Books references will abound, in that case.

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Heather Stuart	Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 3:08 PM
To: Jeff Wills
or possessed.  I like the idea of a rotating puppet master that can induce these states on a whim.

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Jeff Wills	Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 3:11 PM
To: Heather Stuart
Me too.  Although I also like the idea that we can't be sure who is manipulating whom, especially from a comic stand point.  In the case of hypnotizing, maybe the hypnotizee is faking it to manipulate the hypnotizer.  Or someone pulling a Marion with a drinking contest.

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Heather Stuart	Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 3:25 PM
To: Jeff Wills
Yes, and I don't know if this is possible, but can we toss the manipulation to the audience? or a plant?

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Jeff Wills	Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 3:28 PM
To: Heather Stuart
Absolutely (he said without having tried it yet).  Let's try to think of ways to make that "puppeteering" grounded in a concept, though.  I'm not immediately opposed to supernatural conceits, but I think it will play smoother and more interesting if we can justify it in relatively real-world scenarios. This reminds me of a sketch they do on SNL, where two folks (Kristen Wiig is one of them) come on the news pretending to have rehearsed a bunch of songs, then make them up as they go, one basically trying to simul-copy the other.

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Heather Stuart	Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 3:34 PM
To: Jeff Wills
that might be a fun game. ala ventriloquist and dummy? Yes, I'm with you on the groundedness. Supernatural is hard to pull off and ultimately less funny, I think.  (That is if funny is what we're going for) :)

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Jeff Wills	Tue, Nov 16, 2010 at 3:46 PM
To: Heather Stuart
See, I need these simple, brilliant connections made for me now.  VENTRILOQUIST AND DUMMY OF COURSE!

Paul Zaloom