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Welcome to the online development log for the The Puppeteers, an original comedy by the contemporary commedia dell'arte troupe Zuppa del Giorno. Here you will find lots of research, disjointed rambling and spit-balling, all of which has led to the creation of a show.
Want to book it?
The Puppeteers are available for mid-size venues, with sufficient time to remount! It's a show that can be customized to any area, any audience. Simply contact director Jeff Wills on email!

November 26, 2010

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")

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10 comments:

  1. Prof. Jenn10:56 AM, November 27, 2010

    Actually it's all one story: the Hero's Journey.

    Other than that, I'm adding the Lord of the Rings as #5. :)

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  2. Jeff11:28 AM, November 27, 2010

    Prof. Jenn, we're going to start calling you Prof. Campbell. Good addition!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Heather12:24 PM, November 28, 2010

    Lord of the Rings

    We need a villian. A wicked witch or something...

    ReplyDelete
  4. Jeff7:46 PM, November 28, 2010

    Maybe so. Sort of ironic to make the bad guy a woman in our first female-heavy cast. Maybe the "bad guy" is represented by a puppet...?

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  5. Marybeth12:48 AM, November 29, 2010

    Bad guy - evil puppetmaster! Or is that too "Pinocchio"? haha
    Pinocchio is also a puppet... and also a story of someone who goes off on an adventure and returns home and then is rewarded becoming a real boy! Wow I need sleep.

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  6. Jeff11:15 AM, November 29, 2010

    I've actually done some reading on Pinocchio lately, and have been trying to avoid referencing his story too much in this particular show for a few not-necessarily-iron-clad reasons. But what's interesting to me about your observation, MB, is that the real antagonist in the original Pinocchio is himself. It's a very dangerous coming-of-age story, actually.

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  7. Prof. Jenn2:32 PM, November 29, 2010

    Oo, I like the idea of a puppeteer being the villain. Sort of a sinister version of that one Daffy Duck cartoon--you know the one I mean?

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  8. Jeff10:22 AM, November 30, 2010

    No, I don;t. Do you have details on that, Prof.?

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  9. Prof. Jenn4:58 PM, November 30, 2010

    Gosh darnit I forgot what it's called--the one where the artist keeps messing with Daffy, creating and erasing scenarios/costumes, etc.

    I gotta go search for it now...

    ReplyDelete
  10. Prof. Jenn4:59 PM, November 30, 2010

    Duck Amuck!!! That's what it's called!

    http://video.yahoo.com/watch/218915/823695

    ReplyDelete

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