The Puppeteers

Eliza

2011-06-24T12:03:00.001-04:00

Why am I writing here? Show's over. Guess I just needed to contribute this little finding to our once-discussion of pareidolia and simulacra. Found here, this is in reference to Eliza, one of the first "chat-bots" and how people tended to behave with it (her?):

"The phenomenon Weizenbaum was observing was later dubbed "the Eliza effect" by Shelly Turkle, which she defined as the tendency 'to project our feelings onto objects and to treat things as though they were people.' In computer science and new media circles, the Eliza effect has become shorthand for a user's tendency to assume based on its surface properties that a program is much more sophisticated, much more intelligent, than it really is."

And now, an update.

It seems that my online wanderings keep leading me back to a theme here. Reading up (to stave off my unending appetite for to play the game Portal 2) on the trivia for the video game Portal, this little nugget popped up. It's regarding one of the props your character uses in the game, the companion cube:

The Weighted Companion Cube inspiration was from project lead Kim Swift with additional input from Wolpaw from reading some "declassified government interrogation thing" whereby "isolation leads subjects to begin to attach to inanimate objects";^[38]^[41] Swift commented, "We had a long level called Box Marathon; we wanted players to bring this box with them from the beginning to the end. But people would forget about the box, so we added dialogue, applied the heart to the cube, and continued to up the ante until people became attached to the box. Later on, we added the incineration idea. The artistic expression grew from the gameplay."^[42] Wolpaw further noted that the need to incinerate the Weighted Companion Cube came as a result of the final boss battle design; they recognized they had not introduced the idea of incineration necessary to complete the boss battle, and by training the player to do it with the Weighted Companion Cube, found the narrative "way stronger" with its "death".^[45] Swift noted that reported psychological comparisons to both the Milgram experiment and 2001: A Space Odyssey are happenstance.^[42]

I can't say that the world is trying to lead me to something for sure. But it surely is feeling that way.

ETC Article: March

2011-02-24T10:18:00.000-05:00

And We All Float On...
Tucked into a closet deep in the inner workings of the Electric Theatre Company there are a few things of mine: a pay-as-you-go cellular phone, an old Charlie Chaplin marionette and a new-but-somewhat-used rod puppet named Rudy Lippers (né Kalinowski). These are of course some of the trappings of The Puppeteers, which performed its last show on February 6. The fate of the rest of our cast of some thirty puppets, prefabricated and made specifically for this show alike, I don’t know.
   Well, a good many of them went home with Conor, as he provided them and owns them. With him too, and with Heather and Elizabeth as well, went their respective “doppelgänger” hand puppets - closing gifts from yours truly. But that leaves quite a few more. Some, I suppose, may have been scooped up by their makers, or by the amazing Chris Estevez or his brother, who spent hours beautifully and creatively applying color to our creations. No one could take them all though, and many of them were made of otherwise disposable materials. So, while some I’m sure got boxed up and shelved somewhere (this is a not-for-profit theatre, after all) many might have had existences as fleeting as a work of theatre.
   That is to say, now many of the puppets probably exist only in our memories.
   Nowadays, there’s a temptation to describe theatre as a uniquely temporal entertainment. We’re so focused on recorded media that it presents a context for something as fleeting as a theatre production to seem oddly archaic, when in fact the theatre is the more common experience. Sure, there’s all this stored and saved information - more and more every day. But life itself is temporal. The very experience of our day-to-day is a series of moments that can never be relived, no matter how repetitive or familiar they may seem. It’s commonly held that this is part of what gives life its value, the fact that it ends. In a way I find very similar, a show exists in the moment and, eventually, only in memory.
   So, some memories, incredibly partial and in no particular order:

Almost as soon as we discovered that golf-club covers could be made into wonderfully simple puppets, we fell in love with them and the Veedoots (as they came to be called) seemed to take on a life of their own. And to think: When we went shopping at the craft store for general supplies, I almost ruled out the little white cardboard circles that became their eyes for being too generic.
In Prohibitive Standards, I broke Heather’s toe with a chair. In The Very Nearly Perfect Comedy of Romeo & Juliet, she tore something in her calf. In The Puppeteers she re-injured that calf, and in every case she continued on with the show, incorporating her injury. (Heather may have to be the director next time, for her own safety.)
Come to that, we had illnesses and injuries galore during this process, from actors to company managers. Only Conor escaped unscathed, which seems about right somehow. We came to refer to ourselves as the Spider-Man of Scranton, in reference to the Broadway show now racking up injury liability left and right.
When rehearsal got too overwhelming or we needed time to refocus, we set to work on coming up with puppets. For a couple of weeks there, the theatre space was an amazing pastiche of trash, and we kept being nervous someone had left the glue gun on. It was a lovely mess.
Before proper rehearsal, when everything was still unformed, we had these amazing improvisations that might even as time goes on become confused in my mind with the show itself. We might have made three whole shows in our process, if only someone could have had the organizational super-power to gather our scraps.
The first night we all went out for a nightcap as a company, to Jack’s, midway through rehearsal. The warm light, relaxation and an icy snow outside.
“We have another interview today. We have another interview today?!” I think there was a week or so there where I was continually surprised by strangers in our rehearsal space. The frenzy of production and the torpor of bedtime, and all that permissible obsession.
How worried we grew about technical support as time marched on, and how Jim Langan and Drake Gomez swooped in and performed miracles on the space akin to the ones Chris and his brother performed on our puppets.
The many moments in rehearsal when, as we innocently explored the characters’ personal conflicts in this whimsical comedy, I was surprised to find myself deeply moved by the actors’ portrayals. Leonoria’s never-ending battle with her crippling fear, Tina’s amazing discovery of deep wells of emotion and, of course, Bob’s heart-breaking crisis of confidence.
Those first audience laughs.

There’s no shortage of memories with this production and, ultimately, that’s the best I can hope for.
   That sentence proves my assertion from the first of these articles - that I’m an excellent liar. The fact is, I can hope for more. I can hope that our show created some memories for those who participated in it with us, behind the scenes and from the audience. Undoubtedly some of the people who joined in the action of act two will likely remember their roles as either Dorothy, the uniform Ozian or the Wicked Witch of the West. More than that, however, I hope for a few of the children from our audiences to grow up remembering fondly our unworthy scaffold and its little story.
   One of the messages of The Wizard of Oz is that we each carry a little bit of our home with us, no matter where we find ourselves. I like that idea. It’s important that a memory of home lives on in us because, as they say, no matter where you go, there you are. I look forward to my next visit to Scranton (which I often refer to as my artistic home away from home) to collect my little talismans. There will be no stories to write, or windows to dress, or crocodiles to construct, but many friends to see. And though things will be different, they will also be new, and that’s a good way for life to be.
   One last thought. (I promise, because if I go on much longer we’ll have gotten WAY too introspective.) There’s another idiom about home that strangely in all my thinking about the themes of the show I never came up with. That is: You can never go home again. I think that one’s true as well, and it terrifies me, and that’s life - nothing stays the same. The trick is in learning to go with the prevailing winds when you can. Like a good balloonist. Don't worry, we'll all float on. Even if things get heavy, we'll all float on, all right...

Pareidolia or Simulacra? 2

2011-02-04T10:26:00.000-05:00

Or both!

Found here.

Bill Williams (Elizabeth's dad)

2011-02-03T10:48:00.012-05:00

Elizabeth's father maintains his own 'blog, and had some insightful and interesting ideas to share recently that were partly inspired by attending one of our matinées. Check out his thoughts on education and theatre here: Scranton Sunday.

Punxsutawney Puppet

2011-02-02T16:04:00.000-05:00

Super Punch had a post today that reminded me of one of the puppets we made from a screen duster found at Staples. We made ours into more of a googly-eyed-alien-thing, but different strokes, etc.

Final week of shows begins tonight! Getcher tickets!

Electric City Review

2011-02-01T12:45:00.009-05:00

We've received a lovely review from Alicia Grega at The Electric City. See it here: Uproarious Effort - Zuppa del Giorno's The Puppeteers Is a Laugh Riot.

Marybeth's Show Report: 1/28

2011-01-28T09:32:00.001-05:00

Show Notes 1/27/11

Time: (6-9) 6-set up/warmup Showtime: 7:10
Act I – 61 Minutes; intermission –13 Minutes; Act II- 39 Minutes
HOUSE 29

OH MY GOSH a little boy just told Leonoria “That’s YOU!” referring to her doppelganger [puppet]. He’s so cute! See, little kids ARE great! And he helped Leonoria build a fort and is now “The small puppet in the front row” -the newest member of our cast! Also, our cast is taking some different routes and by that I mean experimenting with lines, voices, and ALSO entrances and exits – completely different show! Hello, Zuppa! “Love is sometimes like going to Northern Light and getting a fancy coffee with a picture in it and listening to a guitar, and sometimes it’s like the Avian Bird Flu.” Poor little Rudy lost his legs… The two little kids in the front row were a fabulous combined witch!

Marybeth's Show Report: 1/26

2011-01-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

Our esteemed stage manager emailed me the show report after last night's performance, and I thought her color commentary too endearing not to include on the 'blog. And so, for your edification, ladies and gentlemen, Marybeth Langdon's show notes:

Show Notes 1/26/11

Time: (6-9) 6-set up/warmup Showtime: 7:11pm

Act I – 59 Minutes; intermission – 13 Minutes; Act II- 39 Minutes Minutes

HOUSE 30

The audience is eating the show like CANDY! There were a bunch of college students and a few kids. Oh my gosh and they CLAPPED when Bob found his voice! One of the best audiences ever! And now a little child has one of her puppets on a string of garland… and Bob used it to threaten Leonoria… This is insanity!!!! I LOVE IT! Best responses to kisses and roaring! So… the veedoot basket got caught on the clock sign???? Luckily it went along with the sound[; by] Jimminy Crickets these veedots know how to cause problems. So I had to throw two airplanes because the first got caught on the lights and took a nose dive. Le sigh. VERY interactive second act. Lots of energy!!!

ETC Article: February

2011-01-26T23:36:00.002-05:00

The Other Side
I am back home, in Queens. I still have a spot of crocodile-green (actually “chalkboard spray paint”) on my right forearm, and a warm glow in my heart from the way things came together opening week. The director’s process, you see, is done. I have given the show over to two very influential creative types now: the actors, and you - the audience. Most of the time shows are merely handed over to the actors after the director has left, but in the case of a show that has no script and is as dependent on audience interaction as ours is, it’s as much (if not more) the audience’s as it is the actors’.
    So what is of the utmost import now, is that we have an audience. I have some hopes for this, even going into what is routinely the toughest sell - the second week. The second week is the awkward middle child of the run. It gets none of the torrential press of opening (see the ‘blog for coverage from no less than six sources) and none of the last-minute dash of closing. The second week is the one during which people literally forget that there are performances. Yet, as I say, I have some hopes. We’ve worked hard to promote the show from even before the articles, even before the rehearsals began. If you are reading this in the newsletter, you probably received one of our unique holiday postcards, and if you’ve been by the theatre you may have lost in a coat pocket somewhere a fabricated stick puppet, or even a bag puppet you made yourself.
    At the end of my time in Scranton, I got to be an audience member a few times. Preview performances don’t count (I could still [and did, very much so] take notes then) and opening is far too high-pressure for any sensible appreciation of a show. That left two performances before I had to cross back over the Delaware Water Gap and of those one had a highly responsive audience, and the other less so. This is extremely important, and I and the rest of the troupe were lucky to have this contrast. It meant we were tested against both high-energy audiences - a boon for comedies such as this - and lower-energy ones, which can show some unfortunate failings in a given show.
    I’m very pleased to report that our show succeeds both as an interactive, zany comedy, and as a tender and intelligent little story about bravery and friendship.
    I am, of course, a little biased. At least I’m basing my evaluation in part on audience reaction. Even the quieter audience was all smiles, and leaned forward in their seats. At its heart, our play is a story about how confronting personal challenges can bring people together, and I think that’s the kind of story a broad range of people can appreciate. Especially when it’s funny to boot.
    And it is funny. I’ve heard directors say, and occasionally as an actor believed, that a comedy lives only once it’s left the director’s hands. I can now claim that theory to be definitive. All our little experiments for audience participation have had their tweaks now, and they work beautifully. Even the big gamble: text messages from the audience to the players! At the eleventh hour, literally when I was feeling past all hope, we acquired a new performer in the form of a Mr. Cory Brim. Cory took up all the offstage duties of ancillary puppeteering, and he is like the epoxy of our strange little world. Most of all, however, the actors have found their show. They know how to play it, and when to let it play them, and there’s a sense of satisfaction to that like I’ve never known.
    It was for me, however, slightly bitter-sweet to watch the show from the other side rather than participate in it. I’ve been grappling with this in little ways even as I sat in an empty audience in rehearsals, but it really hit home as I watched the actors riff on and ride out all-new jokes while friends and strangers laughed around me. While the audience gets to experience inclusion for the first time, and even participation, I have had to acknowledge that my involvement is waning. And when I return to watch the final shows, They’ll be something completely different from what I helped make. They’ll be your performances. And that’s going to be amazing.

Mark Dennebaum Jr. & that Thing called Theatre

2011-01-25T08:04:00.040-05:00

Every so often, the collaboration involved in a creative endeavor (like theatre) goes beyond simple reciprocation, and there are unexpected rewards. When Mark and 25/8 Productions Inc. came by and then created a fantastic promotional video for us, I thought that was the end-all, be-all of results. I was gratifyingly wrong. A whole heap of 25/8ers came to the show opening night, and apparently enjoyed themselves and - much to my surprise - Mark ended up writing a really wonderful response to what turned out to be among his first encounters with live theatre. Your can read that here.

I like this about theatre, that it can have a direct effect on someone and you get to be there to witness it happen. I also love this about information technology, that it gives us the opportunity to communicate about that kind of experience not just in the room, but more at large. Lastly, we like Mark. Somebody out there make him rich and famous, stat.

The Abington Journal

2011-01-24T09:00:00.020-05:00

Photo by Ryan D. Beardsley

Ryan Beardsley came by a couple of weeks ago and did a great write-up on us for the Abington Journal. You can check it out here: The Abington Journal write-up of The Puppeteers. I really enjoyed speaking with Ryan, and he seemed to really understand what we are about, to the extent that he considered quoting the actors in his article a priority.

The best part, of course, may be that it's now in print that Conor has promised to wear deodorant for the run of the show. That's binding and in the record, McGuigan!

Is This a Puppet? 7

2011-01-24T08:59:00.000-05:00

Found here.

Go Lackawanna

2011-01-22T09:00:00.001-05:00

Photo by Niko J. Kallianiotis

Rich Howells did an extensive interview with me a couple of weeks ago - my first for this show - and on the 18th the article went to press. Read it here: Go Lackawanna on The Puppeteers.

Rich really impressed me with his insights into what we are doing, and he's expressed some interest in following up with a visit to explore more of the inner workings of a contemporary commedia troupe. I hope we can work that out, because he's one honorary cast member I'd love to personally introduce to our lovely land of Oz.

First Preview

2011-01-20T12:38:00.000-05:00

First of all, thanks to everyone who made it out for our first preview performance! It goes for all theatre - but especially the commedia dell'arte sort - that the final cast member to join is the audience. We had about 35 daring folks join us for our very first foray with that "cast member," and we learned a lot from the experience. Primarily, we learned that including the audience as much as possible is going to be key to this show's success. We had a lot of enthusiasm from last night's crowd, and that was incredibly exciting.

We also had a lot of gaffs. That's what preview performances are about, after all. Pleasingly, all the gaffs were technical ones, which is the aspect of the show that's had the least rehearsal. One sock puppet got put on upside down (the next puppet show I direct may feature exclusively sock puppets with eyes on their bellies), a giant bag puppet needed about a minute to find its way to the stage and we were flat-out missing a plot-central sound cue. What was rather inspiring about the whole thing was that because the show is semi-improvised, all these gaffs brought us to exciting and useful discoveries about the show.

And our stage manager, Marybeth Langdon, deserves a Tony for delivering the missing sound cue verbally in her inimitable style.

I'm very much looking forward to tonight's second preview, and can only hope it brings in an audience as varied and generous as last night's. Official opening is this Friday, and I actually feel a little bad for the folks planning on attending then. The show will be so slick by then, they'll miss some of the developmental fun...

25/8 Productions Inc.

2011-01-17T09:01:00.003-05:00

This, dear friends, is exciting. Mark Dennebaum Jr. came by with his production company, 25/8 Productions Inc., and not only interviewed us all but produced a video from it to boot. I love the set-ups and editing on this - it makes me feel far more professional than I have any right to, and portrays the performers in all their effortless glory. Enjoy!

The Weekender

2011-01-15T09:15:00.000-05:00

Photo by Jason Riedmiller

Michael Lello did an unbelievably great article on our show for The Weekender, one which included interviews with the actors and photos of their acrobalance practice. You can read the two-page spread online here: The Puppeteers write-up in The Weekender. Be sure to scroll down for the acro-photos!

The Times-Leader

2011-01-14T10:22:00.000-05:00

Photo by Niko J. Kallianiotis

Mary Therese Biebel interviewed me about The Puppeteers for the Times-Leader, and you can view the polished results of my disjointed rambling here: Puppeteers write-up in the Times-Leader. I really appreciated Mary Therese's emphasis on the characters in her article. It seems in keeping with our process, and how the foundation for all the zaniness is grounded, recognizable and original characterization.

The Times-Tribune

2011-01-13T09:23:00.011-05:00

Photo by David Zarko.

Patrice Wilding wrote an article on our show, and it was a pleasant (albeit somewhat overwhelming) surprise to find it in a central, red-bordered location on the front page of the arts section of the Times-Tribune this morning. Talking to Patrice was a joy - the experience was more like a conversation between friends than an interview. You can read the result here: Times-Tribune write-up on The Puppeteers.

Introducing...THE VEEDOOTS!

2011-01-06T18:30:00.001-05:00

Rich Howells

2011-01-05T19:00:00.016-05:00

I don't like to pick favorites, but this interview Rich Howells did with me would be it, if I did such things. His style lent itself to a more conversational approach, and we really got into a discussion of what the ideas behind the show were. I didn't think of it as a significant moment at the time, but reading back over it I realize it was some of my clearest thinking about the show prior to its opening.

ETC Article: January

2011-01-05T15:51:00.003-05:00

Window Dressing

I was working on the window display along Spruce Street for the theatre yesterday - this is exactly the sort of thing I get obsessed with when there’s something actually important to get done - when I got to thinking about how to summarize everything that’s happened with the development of The Puppeteers since my last article. I spent several hours dismantling Christmas decorations, searching for raw material for our display and setting it up (and re-setting it up), and in that time I realized something important.

It can’t be done.

I could tell you about the two weekends spent in Scranton prior to the holidays, and all the plot and concept developed out of that. I could emphasize that we are all here in Scranton now, through the end of things; that in the past six rehearsals that we’ve had we’ve constructed some two dozen puppets, created an entire play, thrown out half of it and condensed the rest into a first act. I could go on to let you in on the fact that I structured a scenario for act two last night which, with any luck, the brilliant actors will improvise around tonight and find inspiration in. There’s a lot of detail I could relate to you about what we’ve been up to.

The trouble is, none of it would fully relate the strange place in the development process we’ve now entered. It’s not dissimilar to travelling to a magical land of color and song, in fact. Everything is predicated on instinct now. Ideas are realized fast and without thinking, and most discarded just as quickly based on sheer non-verbal responses. Improvisations are as likely to be created during break time as they are during stage time. There’s sheer glee and utter terror, more questions than what we know to do with, and two craft tables in a TOTAL CHAOS of paper, glue, foam, dowel rods and googly eyes.

It’s wonderful.

The aspect that probably sets this show apart from our previous collaborations is the sheer number of cast members. We are vastly outnumbered by performers made of felt and cardboard, and often upstaged by them at that. The ideas for a transforming set are coming together nicely as well, and we will soon be playing with a replica Punch-n-Judy box and a human-sized puppet stage. Conor and I will soon be recording sound cues for a psychedelic travel sequence, musical themes for our main characters and even a ferocious, threatening crocodile’s bark. But all of that, even the joy-infusing, scene-stealing puppets, is just window dressing.

The key to a good show under any circumstances, but particularly when said show is going to be semi-improvised comedy, is a strong ensemble. It seems to me that is one of the things audiences really come to the theatre, and few places else, to see. Real people in having true interactions in real time. It should be like watching an encapsulated family - dysfunctional, perhaps; hilarious, hopefully - and recognizing all the ways in which they push one another’s buttons. The actors have found that in the past week. Continue to find it, in fact, in new and surprising ways, and this is what gives the show its substance. Every day it has more heart, smarts, and bravery. In a word, more ensemble.

So since I can’t summarize where we are (who after all can define the boundaries of Oz?), you’ll just have to come down and experience it for yourself. The development log is still up and running, and soon will have backstage video: http://thepuppeteersproduction.blogspot.com/. And if you find yourself strolling down Spruce Street and are suddenly blinded by the glare of golden streamers from a window display, don’t fear for your eyes and run! Come inside, past the window dressing and up to the second floor, and pop in to see what sort of anarchy we’re up to.

Creepy

2010-12-29T22:25:00.002-05:00

I repeat: CREEPY.

A Smattering

2010-12-28T22:12:00.017-05:00

Is this a puppet? (Assuming the captives are the ones responsible for moving the appendages.)

I always admired these when I was a kid...

...they are really, really difficult.

Simulacra!

Kim W. on Object Theatre

2010-12-26T18:36:00.012-05:00

This kind of thing is seen more often in Europe right now, but there's a subset of puppetry which turns various found objects into puppets. Aficionados and practitioners call this "Object Theatre" most often, but it's also been called "object puppetry". We all sometimes do this kind of puppetry on a small scale: when trying to describe a complicated event to a friend, we spontaneously may have reached for a couple of random things on the table to help illustrate our point: "okay, let's say this salt shaker is me, and the ketchup is the car I saw -- and the pepper mill is the bike. So if I was standing HERE, then the bike swerved out of the way of the car like THIS, and then..."

I found a blog maintained by one Richard Allen, who's pursuing a PhD in this very discipline; or, in his words, "on the practice and research of objects in performance." He's got an exhaustive, if somewhat opinionated, definition of "object theater" on his blog:

"Object Theatre is a term that has been ghettoised as a sub-category of puppetry, often used to describe a performance style that contains the animation of tilitarian, or pre-existing 'found' objects rather than those constructed for theatrical effect (such as the puppet). As a result, practitioners of 'object theatre' commonly share what I consider to be the key principle of puppetry: the transformation of an object into a subjectified character (a box of spoons becomes a village, a sieve the head of a girl). Puppeteers often claim that it is precisely the puppet/object's lack of a programme of acting or conscious ego (it's very object-ness) that makes it such a potent tool for the theatre, yet paradoxically, the process of puppetry often imposes it's own programme of acting propelled by the will of the performer. The objects are rarely allowed to act for themselves; the subject is forcibly imposed onto them, as they become a medium for the performers and audiences subjectifcation. The object adopts the role that character performs conventionally for the actor. I would argue that this ghettoisation misrepresents what thinking through a theatre of 'objects' might mean."

http://richobject.wordpress.com/

There are a handful of people here in the U.S. who work with Object Theater; one company, LorenKahn, is based in New Mexico, and is a two-woman company, offering shows incorporating not just traditional puppets, but feathers, life rafts, glasses of water, and themselves. LorenKahn's site has a collection of videos of some of their works:

http://www.lorenkahnpuppet.com/

Closer to home, New York is home to Tiny Ninja Theater, a company born when founder Dov Weinstein -- who's studied puppetry -- became fascinated with little ninja toys that started turning up in vending machines in New York in 1999. Something prompted him to get a bunch and use them to perform a rendition of Shakespeare's MACBETH; that debuted at the Fringe Festival in 2000. Tiny Ninja has since gone on to do adaptations of ROMEO AND JULIET as well as three original works, all
using tiny dime-store plastic toys as puppets.

http://www.tinyninjatheater.com/company/

2010-12-24T13:39:00.002-05:00

Here is a beautiful video that reminded me of some things we talked about last weekend:

Hammock - Breathturn from David Altobelli on Vimeo.

In Which Kim W. Has An Epiphany

2010-12-22T02:49:00.002-05:00

I was contemplating the response viewers had to Cookie Monster's puppeteers being visible at show's end; most viewers said that they honestly hadn't noticed the puppeteers, because they were too busy looking at Cookie Monster. Could it be, I wondered, that we've somehow internalized the idea that you're "not supposed to see them" that even when you do see puppeteers, you don't "see" them? This is how it's done with Japanese bunraku, after all -- the puppeteers manipulate the puppets in full view of the audience, but they dress in black so they sort of "fade into the background." Originally, bunraku used this technique because the low lighting in most performance spaces really did let a dark-dressed puppeteer fade into the background; and audiences just were used to the convention even as lighting improved.

But then I realized that it is very likely that a blue furry monster is simply just more attention-getting than a human. Any puppet is probably going to be more attention-getting than an actual human, even the very realistic ones -- because with a realistic puppet, audiences would be watching to see just how "lifelike" it is. So audiences may have simply tuned out the puppeteers because of "ooh, it's Cookie Monster, that's different!"

Anyway. Speaking of bunraku, here's another clip -- this made the rounds of youtube a few years back, where a team uses puppetry techniques not just on puppets, but on people, to do a sort of Matrix "bullet-time" sketch about a ping pong game.

Kim W. on Puppet Current Events 2

2010-12-20T13:05:00.000-05:00

I'm finding that puppets are turning up in some arguably unusual places lately. Cookie Monster showing up suddenly on SNL last weekend was just one example. But I've found some others:

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog is old hat by now, but probably raised a couple eyebrows when he first debuted in 1997. He's arguably enough of a hit that NBC made sure he was one of the "intellectual property" items that Conan O'Brien couldn't take with him when he left the TONIGHT show.
The Sci-Fi show "Farscape" was an Australian/American show that ran in the early 2000's. The Henson company was associated with some of the special effects -- and two of the regular characters, "Rygel" and "Pilot," were Henson-company designed puppets.
Craig Ferguson's LATE SHOW has been traditionally doing very, very silly things with the show's opening; before they run the opening credits, they usually have a musical production number, featuring Craig Ferguson and his cast either singing or lip-syncing and dancing to a particular song. Sometimes the song has something to do with the show (they wrote lyrics for the DOCTOR WHO theme song when the show's star, Matt Smith, was on recently), and sometimes, it...doesn't. And just to cap off the silliness, these segments are often introduced by a bunny puppet, named "Sid", and sometimes they feature shark or camel puppets to join in the action.

My own favorite clips are below: Craig and his cast -- including three puppets wearing fezes -- lip-synching to They Might Be Giants' cover of "Istanbul (Not Constantinople)"...

...and Sid the Bunny introducing Adam Savage and Jaime Hyneman when they joined in on a rendition of Modern English's song "Melt With You".

Kim W. on Puppet Current Events

2010-12-19T12:30:00.008-05:00

Don't know if anyone noticed, but a Muppet made it back on Saturday Night Live again this past weekend. The host for the night of December 18th was Jeff Bridges -- and in his opening monologue, he brought out...Cookie Monster. There was some flannel about how Cookie Monster had "always wanted to host the show," and he and Jeff Bridges sang an alternative version of the song "Silver Bells."

Today's NEW YORK TIMES arts blog pointed out something else interesting about the event, though. At the show's end, when the cast was assembled onstage for their final bows and goodnights, they also brought out Cookie Monster -- and the two puppeteers who were working him, who were letting themselves "be visible." The TIMES blog made a big deal of that -- they hadn't ever remembered a Henson puppeteer let themselves be SEEN working a puppet. However, most of the readers comments on the blog all said the same thing -- "...honestly, I didn't really notice the puppeteers, I was just looking at Cookie Monster."

[EDITOR'S NOTE: Most people are calling this a random sort of appearance, but in point of fact the Sesame Street folk created a parody "petition" video a few weeks back - a la Betty White - for C.M. to host SNL. I suppose this was the closest he was allowed to get.]

A R C

2010-12-17T18:32:00.003-05:00

I have a problem with letting people learn. I feel I run things best by myself. On the show I did most of the puppeteering and voices. It's just easier that way. It takes too much time to sit somebody down and go through the steps. And they'd probably do it wrong anyway. Soooooo.

Here come these 2 girls that are bothersome to the point of me actually getting off my keister and helping them with some crap they were harping about. We've gotten to a point where I am actually incapable of manipulating the puppets. Physically immobile. I have to step by step get these girls to do my work with the puppets. It goes horribly wrong at first but I find they're actually better than I first thought. In fact they're great.

Now I'm mobile again. We come to another "test". This time it's 3 puppeteers versus the world.

Also I think it'd be cool if I show off some of my old characters to the girls and it turns out all my voices just end up being my same yonko voice. The girls shyly have to tell me that my characters all sound the same. I get mad but end up realizing they are right and have to invent new voices. OHHHhhhh the layers of interpretation!

Character Arc: Elizabeth

2010-12-17T12:26:00.003-05:00

I start off a little too brash, loud, and fast for my own good. I am a young woman who is so "inter-connected" that I don't know how to actually connect or relate to people on a 'human' level. However, that is all I want. The whole reason why I am as "inter-connected" as I am is that it is a safe way connect, while still protecting my heart. It allows be to be one step out of myself while I connect to 'people' via the web, technology, etc. What I want is to open my heart, slow down, and make a real human connection.

I think perhaps early on in the show, having an interaction with a puppet starts to slow me down and open me up to the open heart and humanity that I am lacking. The fact that it is one step removed from a 'real' human, allows me to feel safe around it, and I start to soften, slow, open.

From this place, as I open up more through the puppets and my heart begins to feel life again, I realize that I am absolutely completely in love with Bob. Pitter patter pitter patter pitter patter . . . ga-gunk, ga-gunk, ga-gunk.

Now, if I could only get the damn puppets to help me get him to love me back . . . or have the puppets been him all along . . .

Through my journey, I find my heart, my humanity, my presence. (Sounds a lot like acting, huh?)

Character Arc - Leonoria

2010-12-15T18:09:00.003-05:00

I think my overriding problem is letting my fears get the better of me. I want to find my courage. I discover my courage and that I need the other two to help me do that.

We've played around with me discovering a ferocious voice through a puppet. I think it should take me a bit (3 beats?) to understand that this voice came from me and that I can say what I need though that.

I think I can get carried away with that and pick a fight or the like with Conor that is more than I can handle, but only realize it way to late and have to back peddle.

I also see me inappropriately taking charge, letting the strength go to my head.

I want to end up with balance and friends.....

Need to elaborate on this but to hungry. Going to eat. Will be back later.

Pareidolia or Simulacra? 1

2010-12-14T10:59:00.008-05:00

Wait for it.... Found here.

Dagnabit

2010-12-13T11:36:00.002-05:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N01aTvi7ef4
Atspriddygood.

Is This a Puppet? 6

2010-12-13T11:12:00.000-05:00

Found here.

Is This a Puppet? 5

2010-12-12T09:23:00.002-05:00

Are These Puppets? 4

2010-12-11T09:00:00.006-05:00

Found here, amidst several supposedly nutsy patents.

Assignment photo thing about whos awhat now

2010-12-10T17:51:00.006-05:00

So the first image was found by googling "children's show 1958" it's Captain Pugot or something. #2 is from googling "mash potatoes on a plate". #3 is from googling "lots of stuff".
So Bob was a local kid show host from the days when stuff was always broken and not polished. One take from one camera and you can hear the camera man coughing.
The tv dinner is how he lives. Nothing depressing about it just that he is a survivalist and doesn't need much. He also seems to be the only person who can still get Tv dinners that ;look like this. The basement is top to bottom with the collection-boulder of his life.

Images of Leonoria

2010-12-10T15:37:00.008-05:00

Image of me: I think this is a rather impish photo and I like the glasses for Leonoria. It's playful, yet current.

Yarn: Leonoria’s hair and brain.

Lion/Kitten – what lurks behind the soft exterior. www.merchantcircle.com

Running Gag: Threshold Conflict

2010-12-10T14:36:00.004-05:00

This is a running gag between Leonoria and Elizabeth. It happens when Elizabeth gets frustrated with Leonoria because she is too scared to enter the super's apartment, or go in another room, or "step it up." After trying to convince the scared Leonoria to take the step, Elizabeth tries a) pulling her into the space b) moving her legs for her (this reminds me of puppeteers with their puppets) and then finally c) pushing her into the space which causes them to both go tumbling in towards the super in a loud and roly-poly way eventually landing at his feet. Harumpf!

The Shalimar

2010-12-10T09:39:00.013-05:00

"'I believe the theater can be a metaphor,' Messick concludes, 'for the wonderful life experiences and stories that many people have that — if you take the time to listen — you'll be able to discover.'"

David sent me something he was reminded of when I sent him our show description. The concrete details of this are not a direction we're necessarily heading in but - Conor - you may find some interesting parallels in building Bob up.

Our Zone

2010-12-09T11:12:00.000-05:00

Cropped from image found here.

This is wildly divergent thematically, but I read a quote recently about The Twilight Zone that seems to me to contain some important wisdom for us in shaping this show. To wit:

“The Twilight Zone was shaped by Rod Serling. His instincts led him to a pattern he & I agreed upon as the bottom-line basis for buying stories for adaptation and for his own originals:

"Find an interesting character, or a group, at a moment in crisis in life, and get there quickly; then lay on some magic. That magic must be devilishly appropriate and capable of providing a whiplash kickback at the tag. The character(s) must be ordinary and average and modern, and the problem facing him (her, them) must be commonplace.

"The Twilight Zone always struck people as identifiable as to whom it was about, and the story hang-ups as resonant as their own fears, dreams, and wishes. Allow only one miracle or special talent or imaginative circumstance per episode. More than one and the audience grows impatient with your calls on their credibility. The story must be impossible in the real world. A request at some point to suspend disbelief is a trademark of the series. Mere scare tactics will not fill the bill. A clever bit of advanced scientific hardware is not enough to support a story. The Twilight Zone was not a sci-fi show.”

-Twilight Zone producer Buck Houghton (via Dimensions Behind the Twilight Zone)

Special thanks to Old Hollywood for the inspiration.

Lest the myriad readers of our 'blog (Hi mom! [My Mom: "What's a 'blog?"]) think I'm trying very hard to make Zuppa's first horror play, let me clarify that I'm not interested in exploring madness or weirdness for the sake of weirdness. That's not the connection I make with this. The connection I make has to do with fantasy. We are leaning in some respects toward building a fantasy, and when I use that word, I do not mean the bookstore section.

The first thing this quote reminded me of is another favorite of mine from Mr. Buster Keaton: "You could write the whole plot on a postcard. We do the rest." In other words, it's more important that the plot be simple and straight-forward so that we can build elaborate structures off of it. That's what the grounded nature of the guidance from Serling reminds me of.

The other thing I take from this and appreciate is the idea that there is a singular piece of magic, or imaginative circumstances (great term). For us, this is the puppetry, and how it can transform interactions and influence reality. The puppetry is the thing - and the only thing - that carries us into Oz, so to speak. And once we get there, it's all about our fears, dreams and wishes.

Running Gag -

2010-12-08T15:33:00.001-05:00

Don’t know how this fits, but here’s an idea

Running gag of the pillow fluffing
1. Leonoria offers whomever a seat. They go to sit, but the cushion on chair is not quite right and she snatches it away at last second to fluff it. Person sits with a thump.
2. Oh, I am so sorry, please take a seat. She offers another chair. Same thing happens, person A sits with a thump.
3. Person A grabs pillow fluffs it her/himself, carefully places it in chair, keeping her/his eye on me for the whole time and goes to sit down. The other character (B) needs chair for some reason, takes whole chair away at last second. Person A falls to the floor with a crash.

Albrecht Roser

2010-12-08T12:31:00.006-05:00

Okay, so this guy might not be as ancient as we were looking for, but he seems much more relevant and interesting. The characters described remind me of commedia . . .

Albrecht Roser (born 1922 (age 87–88)) is a German master puppeteer based in Stuttgart, Germany. Roser has made a major contribution working with marionettes. He first came to public attention in 1951 with his marionette, Clown Gustaf. Another of his characters, Grandmother, is outwardly charming but savagely humorous in her observations about all aspects of society and the absurdities of life. Roser's work was admired by master puppeteer Jim Henson, who made a film on Roser's work.

Information from Wikipedia . . . but of course, you can find it all on the inter-web . . .

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albrecht_Roser

I WANT I WANT I WANT I WANT

2010-12-08T12:10:00.004-05:00

Mr. Melvin: I want you to take some responsibility and fix the wiring between our two buildings. I am tired of losing my inter-connectivity. You are after all the superintendent of units 2 and 3 and you need to begin to act like one. I read on the internet that I can sue you for negligence . . . oh dear, mr. melvin . . . I think . . . I want . . . YOU!

Leonoria: I want you to understand me. When I speak to you, I feel like we are speaking two completely different languages. I don't understand where you have been all this time, but I am pretty sure that unless you catch up, you and I will never be able to communicate. I've read about that happening . . . many times.

Laurent Mourguet

2010-12-07T14:35:00.003-05:00

Is an early French puppeteer credited with creating the hand puppet. His work caused the French government to require all shows to be scripted and ban improvisation. This site had a lot of cool information about subversive puppetry.

http://www.rogueruby.com/radpup.html

Wants

2010-12-07T14:24:00.001-05:00

Mr. Melvin, I want to know where you hid my wool socks. You’re always taking things and I do not think that is very polite. No, not polite at all. What? No, it had to be him. LOOK at this place!

Miss Elizabeth: Can you teach me how to be connected? You seem to know so much that light just shoots out your fingertips. I want to be like you.

Welcome to the Mainstream

2010-12-07T09:03:00.006-05:00

Somehow actually even a bit more risqué than your usual Simpsons episode, right at the end. Check some of the inside-jokes on puppetry and in particular the Muppet form of it. They get Cookie Monster's behavior and Ernie's laugh in there. I would say all the pop culture references in here have strong commedia dell'arte archetype roots. (Even Katy Perry.)

The Cell Phone Lazzi

2010-12-06T20:59:00.003-05:00

My phone gets taken by Conor who is interested in it as a new artifact for his room of junk. As he looks at it and shows his discoveries to Heather, my character gets more and more frustrated and a variation of monkey in the middle ensues, in which they are so into their new discoveries with this new piece of technology and showing each other things that I simply can't get my phone back which sends me into a panic - feeling cut off, disconnected, oh, the pain! Of course, they don't even realize what is happening with me. The fact that I can't get the phone back is all coincidental with there movements.

What We're About: Part 1

2010-12-06T13:25:00.000-05:00

Just wondered if we could make the climax of our show a moment when the characters all tell one another what they're really thinking, face to face, with no puppet intervention, mechanic or ulterior motive. In other words, what if the show is about trying everything else, just to get to this moment? It may be a bit too neat to be practical, but it;s a direction I'm considering. Our discussions of characters and themes seem to revolve a bit around the inability to connect face-to-face, after all, and each has their own way of doing that. Something to think about.

Also, there's this, on empathy:

Riddley Walker

2010-12-05T22:05:00.004-05:00

....My apologies, all -- Jeff and I had a conversation today in which he (very, very kindly) mentioned that the Jim Henson clip I was so excited about...was one of your first posts. Oops.

So to make it up to you -- a book recommendation. This is definitely in the realm of "tangential, but still interesting;" a science-fiction book I've gotten fond of, in which Punch and Judy puppets are key elements.

Riddley Walker, by Russel Hoban, is set about two thousand years after a nuclear apocalypse. Mankind has managed to survive -- but has been living at a stone-age level of technology ever since. It's a coming-of-age story for the title character, in which he also comes upon a secret plot to try to redevelop and rediscover gunpowder.

What this has to do with puppets is in the cultural backstory Hoban's created for the characters. By this time, Hoban imagines, all history is an oral history -- based on half-remembered news reports and half-understood relics of this world. And in the world of the story, people have created an entire religious ritual out of Punch and Judy puppets. In the novel, one of the rituals is what the people call "the Eusa Show" -- pairs of puppeteers travel from town to town, setting up a puppet show to re-relate their own cultural history. The "Eusa Show" is a very ritualized re-telling of the nuclear conflict and the story of how people survived and came to live as they do in the world of the book; each town also has a sort of shaman figure who helps to "interpret" the show for the audience.

In the book, the main character Riddley also comes across a Punch puppet of his own. Another character tells him that the Punch puppet is related to the puppets from the "Eusa show," but that it's a very different character -- and the stories Punch tells aren't part of the Eusa narrative, they're supposed to be...for fun. It's the first that Riddley hears that there are puppet shows that tell different stories.

One word of warning if you do try reading it -- the language is really tricky at first blush. Hoban doesn't just imagine that culture would change, he imagines that language itself would also change, and the whole book is written in a sort of pidgin based on the phonetic sound of the Kentish accent (the book is set in what is now Kent, England). So it takes a few pages to get used to the language and make heads or tails of what on earth everyone's actually saying. But once you get past that -- it's fascinating to see how Hoban thinks a culture's idea of puppets and puppetry would have changed in those two thousand years, and how they interpreted and synthesized things that, to people in those conditions, would have been mysterious relics. (I've read it through three times, and it wasn't until the third time that I figured out that something Riddley was describing in one chapter was a "Green Man" gargoyle in a ruined cathedral.)

But especially interesting for the puppeteer project is how Punch is treated a little differently from other puppets, even still...the other puppets in the "Eusa Show" are based on other minor puppets from Punch and Judy, but Punch is different. And not because he's unknown to the culture -- Riddley shows the Punch puppet to an older mentor, who recognizes it and tells him that yes, this is a puppet like the others, but his stories are different. Riddley actually tries putting on an old Punch and Judy show using the Punch puppet, and the townspeople he shows it to are very disturbed by how unlike the regular "Eusa show" it is.

It's a very dense read, but a fascinating one.

Pareidolia

2010-12-05T11:29:00.003-05:00

Halfway through the "puppet seminar" below, it struck me that a human quirk works to the puppeteer's advantage: that of "pareidolia." This is the term for perceiving a "pattern" in random stimulus -- and it most often manifests in seeing a random -- and often minimal -- series of shapes and thinking "that kind of looks like a face."

The mop was what struck me -- all you had to add to make it look like a face was add three balls to it, one for a nose and two for eyes. Look at it from another angle and it still wouldn't look like a face. But hold it a certain way and two balls suddenly became "eyes."

Some researchers believe that we're genetically inclined to respond to faces. Carl Sagan argued that being able to recognize faces at a distance, with only the poorest of visual cues, was a genetic advantage - being able to pick off a friend from a foe at a great distance was sometimes a matter of life or death, as was being able to even just see that the thing sticking up several yards off was a person rather than a tree, say. So the better humans were in responding to "facial features" without needing much detail, the better off we were. Even newborn babies tend to pay more attention to "faces", or objects resembling faces, than anything else around them.

So we're kind of hardwired to see "faces" in things with only the most minimal of cues, which is why if you hold your sock in a certain way it makes people say, "hey, it's a mouth."

A PUPPET MAKING SEMINAR FROM JIM HENSON!

2010-12-05T11:17:00.002-05:00

This just in: A fifteen minute "how to make your own puppets out of stuff you have around the house" lesson from Jim Henson. And the "stuff around the house" are things like fruit, potatoes, wooden spoons, socks, rubber bands, mops....

The Lazzi of the Pile of Junk

2010-12-04T16:04:00.003-05:00

The room is filled with "junk". Conor is looking for something and keeps picking up pieces and discarding them by tossing them behind him. One of the other characters picks up the pieces as they're being tossed and puts them on as there is no other place to put them. That person becomes unrecognizable and giant puppet made of junk.

ETC Article: November

2010-12-04T13:25:00.013-05:00

Wonderful Weirdness & OZ

When I was growing up, we had one regular option for movies beamed directly into the house, and it was called UHF. (Those of you under the age of 25 might want to Google it.) Sure: VHF had actual reception quality and lots more interesting toy commercials, but only UHF had channel 50, which showed a movie just about every night and several on the weekends. I love movies, so I endured the constant static and frankly terrible films, but when the holidays rolled around (and for me, “the holidays” start with Halloween) I didn’t have to. Holiday-themed films would enter heavy rotation on the VHF stations, and two Hollywood ones would air over and over again: It’s a Wonderful Life, of course, but also The Wizard of Oz.

It’s weird: We’ve had some head-spinning progress with the development of The Puppeteers in the past month. As quickly as we lost an actor from the show, we gained one of Scranton’s favorites: Heather Stuart. After some lost time from that kerfuffle, Heather, Conor, Elizabeth and I managed to rush to the theatre in a weekend and determine a tremendous amount about characters and the play’s direction, so that we are now creating the story itself. The actors even brought along their own puppet creations, thereby effectively doubling our cast. The designers are working right alongside, adapting brilliantly to what we come up with in the room, and there are some exciting possibilities percolating toward promoting the shows in an interactive way. You can as always follow this behind-the-scenes business (and join in the conversation) at The Puppeteers’ development ‘blog.

One defining moment in our development that weekend at the theatre was in discovering connections between the story that is sprouting up around our characters like a field of poppies, and the vast world of Oz created by L. Frank Baum. There’s the superficial similarities of course - the old-fashioned puppet-show aesthetic reminds us of Professor Marvel’s wagon and Oz’s colorful cast of characters - but there’s also a deep thematic resonance. Our story is about strangers with problems finding one another and exploring a weird new world together. We’re going to be taking our audiences along with us into an uncharted territory of transformation, laughter...and maybe a little fear?

It can be easy for me to forget how I felt about the antagonist - that weird wicked witch - in that old movie when I was young. Now she seems little more than a caricature comprised of some long-forgotten Salem misconceptions. However. When I really cast my mind back, I can remember part of what I looked forward to all year was the utter thrill of that witchy theme music, and what it might portend. The giddy border between terror and excitement is a place we love to to explore when we’re young. We give it names as adults. Nerves. Anticipation. Stage fright. It’s all the thrill of the unknowable.

The unknowable is what we embrace and return to over and over at this stage of things. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke has some much-quoted (and often truncated, not to mention translated from German) advice on that: "...[H]ave patience with everything that remains unsolved in your heart. Try to love the questions themselves, like locked rooms and like books written in a foreign language. Do not now look for the answers. They cannot now be given to you because you could not live them. It is a question of experiencing everything. At present you need to live the question. Perhaps you will gradually, without even noticing it, find yourself experiencing the answer, some distant day."

The days of our next meetings in Scranton are December 11th and 12th, and 18th and 19th, and by the end of that we aim to have a sequence of plot to follow. In a little under a month we’ll begin rehearsals in earnest, and in a little over a month we’ll have our last piece of the puzzle - you, the audience. It’s going to be improvisation, so the thrill of the unknown will still be there for all of us, but by January we’ll all be having our own journey to Oz in technicolored VHF clarity. We can’t see the details yet, but what’s coming through is weird in the most wonderful ways.

2010-12-03T20:14:00.004-05:00

1. Grover first made his TV debut on the "Ed Sullivan Show" in 1967 when he was known as "Gleep" and was a monster in Santa's Workshop?

2. Telly Monster was originally the Television Monster when he debuted in 1979. He was obsessed with TV and his eyes would whirl around as if hypnotized whenever he was in front of a set. After a while, producers started worrying about his influence on youngsters, so they changed him to make him the chronic worrier he is now.

3. Miss Piggy is apparently from Iowa.

4. Gonzo was raised by chickens.

4 puppet things from Heather

2010-12-03T15:44:00.001-05:00

· Some use for puppets have been discovered in almost every civilization. Small white figurines were found in tombs of ancient Egyptian children.
· Commedia dell’arte troupes incorporated some hand puppets into some of their scenarios. The puppets were able to say even ruder things than the actors.
· The oldest puppet known was found in a cave in Mexico. It was made of whale bone.
· A Chinese playwright created elaborate wooden puppets, known as Bunkaru puppets and wanted to replace actors with them.
· A mummer is an olde English term for “mime artist”. It also refers to a parade in Philadelphia where old white men dress as women on New Year’s day and parade down Broad Street.

4 puppet tings

2010-12-03T11:02:00.003-05:00

1. On Ed Sullivan, Topo Gigio was voiced by Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs Bunny).
2. Sherry Lewis insisted on having a separate plane seat for Lambchop.
3. Kermit was originally made from Henson's mother's coat.
4. Boglins were popular puppet toys in the 80's that looked like monsters.

How "Real" Are They?

2010-12-02T22:05:00.003-05:00

I'll admit that this post is on the borderline between "this could be helpful" and "this is just freakin' cool," but.

Back when Jim Henson was developing the first Muppet Movie, one of the things they wanted to check out was how the Muppets would look on camera "in the real world," outside of a studio. The only way to check that out was...to do some live-action "screen tests.

Like this.

Kermit and Fozzie get downright existential in part two.

Now, no one was ever supposed to see these other than the filmmakers. But you can tell that Henson and Oz are having an absolute ball with this. I found out about these clips from an online forum I belong to, and the discussion prompted by these clips was especially lively -- and someone made an especially telling comment:

What always blows me away in the unscripted muppets things is that they never break character. NEVER. There's no swearing or anything. It's just...Kermit and Fozzie, hanging out.

Another person said this:

There's something about a puppet that requires suspension of disbelief from the audience. The puppet is clearly a real, physical object that exists in the actual world, but it is also an imaginary creature, and when we treat it as alive we enter into a sort of conspiracy with the puppeteer that's very childlike in its way. For children it's easy to go back and forth between a play world where teddy bears and stuffed frogs can talk and the real world of rules and obligations, and for the rest of us believing in puppets (if only for the length of a youtube clip) is a reminder of that time.

Another commenter reported that he was watching the clips on an iPod on commuter train on the way home from work, using headphones, and halfway through the second clip burst out laughing -- and had to explain to his startled seatmate, a stranger to him, what he'd been laughing at. "Here, let me show you, he said, showing him the clips. And then the second guy started laughing, which attracted even more attention. And by the time the train finally pulled into the station, he was playing the clips through a third time for a small audience of eight total strangers all huddled around his iPod window, all of them laughing. They stood on the platform for a good three minutes in lively conversation about "what was that and where did you find it?"

The clips, and the thread, were a wonderful testimony to what Henson just got about what puppets could do, and why they work. The comment about how kids just sort of accept that stuffed bears and dogs and staplers or what-not can sometimes talk is dead-on, I think.

One last clip -- okay, now I'm verging into "I just want to post something cool" territory, but it also has a good statement about Henson's legacy. At his memorial Harry Belafonte first spoke a bit about Henson's legacy worldwide, and then sang a version of his song "Turn The World Around," which was apparently Jim Henson's absolute favorite Muppet Show sequence.

Bob Melvin

2010-12-02T16:16:00.003-05:00

Uh... Hey...S'goin on? Jeez, I never really get people down here, ya know? It's usually just me an the boob tube. Yeah. Just sittin' back and fixin a lil' sumpthin to relax an' ya know, jus' sittin. But, hey, ya know, yas come don here an' ya got some kinda problem er' sumpthin...that's alright ya know. Cuz, look we get goin' and keep goin back further into the cellar and well, dont be tellin' no one dis but tings get a lil' weird. Tings change a bit ya see. Like evn you an me. Like dat's why I don't come upsatirs much because when I'm down here I can go back to the way it was for me. An look at this over here I bet you didn't think dat deez ol' puppets could talk n'stuff. Oh yeah nuttin really makes sense but it has some sort a way of workin' out. You'll see. So you gonna take that drink?

Leonoria (Heather)

2010-12-02T15:07:00.000-05:00

I really have no idea. None at all. I want more than anything in the world is to find my place in it. And my really good pair of wool socks. I lost them several years ago, somewhere in the house and haven't been able to find them since. This "show" feels revealing. Revealing. Who is behind that curtain anyway? And will it eat me? I awoke this morning and knew today would be different, if I could gather enough courage, but it seems to have gone the way of my wool socks. Hopefully I won't freeze like I normally do. Perhaps I should try singing my woes? What's that? Shhh. Shhh. NOT NOW! That doesn't happen until the second act, and she's not really my evil twin, that's just what "they" say. Maybe I am looking for my inner child. She was frightened by the monster under the bed and she never came back. The monsters are real, you know. The monster at the end of this book. And you were so scared...

Elizabeth

2010-12-02T08:39:00.003-05:00

Hi, my name is Elizabeth. I live in Scranton building unit #3 and I am a media engineer. I basically can tell you everything that is going on out there in the world; from the latest with Brangelina to how to install just about anything onto your computer. I am currently learning how to play the piano, break dance, sing gospel, learn German, Spanish, and Latin all off of programs that I have found on the internet. The internet is such an incredible tool. Really you can do anything: order in online, meet people online, find people online, create people online. I find that I am happiest at home on my computer. I really don't need anything else. I can get my work done from my computer, I can catch up on the news, I can be at my desk and have the world at my fingertips: complete access. And what else I love, just love love love about the world is that now that my phone can do everything my computer can do (and more) even when I lose access because of the bad wiring between my place and the building next door, unit #2, no problemo. Those days used to be the worst, when my connection got cut short, but no more, infinite phone access! . . . see . . . like right now . . . my signal . . . keeps going in and . . .o . . .u . . .t, but because I have my phone I can still get everything done that I need to get done . . . and look . . . four bars . . . see . . . oh / / / no . . . my phone didn't charge last night . . . my outlet is dead . . .shit . . .and my internet is on the fritz . . . shit . . . i am going to go next door . . . see . . . what those . . . loons / / are / / / /doing / / / /with / /////////our ///////////////// shared wires. This is all unit 2's fault!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cratemen

2010-11-30T12:43:00.025-05:00

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

2010-11-29T11:06:00.003-05:00

Are These Puppets? 3

2010-11-28T11:22:00.000-05:00

Found here.

Is This a Puppet? 2

2010-11-27T11:39:00.000-05:00

Found here.

7 Stories

2010-11-26T18:27:00.005-05:00

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:

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

Plastic Bag Ballerina

2010-11-25T09:38:00.008-05:00

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

Is This a Puppet? 1

2010-11-24T11:52:00.000-05:00

Found here.

Kim W. on "Raised by Puppets"

2010-11-23T10:14:00.000-05:00

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

2010-11-22T14:59:00.000-05:00

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!!!!!

2010-11-22T13:25:00.000-05:00

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

2010-11-21T11:57:00.075-05:00

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

2010-11-20T09:00:00.001-05:00

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

2010-11-19T12:46:00.000-05:00

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

2010-11-17T06:24:00.001-05:00

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.

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.

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.

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?

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.

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)

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

2010-11-09T22:09:00.000-05:00

More random dialogue...

2010-10-28T09:30:00.000-04:00

"Have you ever been falling asleep, and quite inexplicably been woken with a twitch? That's the puppetmaster, plucking a string, telling you you're not done with the day."

"What does it mean?"
"What does what mean?"
"The story. Punch and Judy. What does it mean? He gets away with everything, tricks and murders everyone in sight, and laughs right through it all. There's domestic elements, supernatural elements...what does it all mean?"
"Nothing. It means nothing."

Running gag: "Go see if it's still raining." Exits, torrential sound, returns. Pause. "It is, yes. Frogs now."

"Don't touch my puppet(child)! S/He's mine!"

"I'm automatonophobic. I'm serious. Don't bring a doll or mannequin near me, seriously. I will pee. Involuntarily. It won't be pretty. Don't even sweep with that broom like that. If you so much as suggest anything anthropomorphic about anything at all, I'm likely to pass out. And pee. Involuntarily."

Raised by Puppets

2010-10-27T09:49:00.008-04:00

Well, we were.

The actors and I are all around a certain generation that, generally speaking, experienced two things: 1) Television as babysitter, and 2) lots of shows and movies that involved puppetry. We could call this The Age of Henson without getting into terrible trouble, but that would also be leaving out some key players from our youth, such as Fred Rogers, Captain Kangaroo and H.R. Pufnstuf. And it of course goes back farther in television history, to Lamb Chop and the earliest children's television, Howdy Doody.

Maybe it's just me, but the traditional Punch'n'Judy tent even reminds me of those old rolling-cabinet television sets (er, um: vice versa?). Big thing full of unseen doings, made as portable as possible with a really rather proportionally small viewing area in which the face of the entertainment takes place. All of this shape descends of course from proscenium staging, hence our proposed set design of a delineated proscenium, as well as archways and masked areas where unseen goings-on go on. It's a bit ironic that the commedia dell'arte staging could practically be defined by a lack of this framing, by open-air and fourth-wall-destroying address. Then again, those "households"; defined by what? Doorways, if nothing else.

The point is, we were raised by puppets, which led us to accept some rather strange tropes and conventions. It's still strange for me to see the Muppet puppeteers below their creations, their arms raised in frozen exultation, and I don't even think twice about being asked to accept that a doll tossed across a screen is actually Gonzo or Grover in flight (dangerous to be blue in Henson's world, it seems). For that matter, experiencing puppets through a T.V. comes with all those television conventions we take for granted, and make sense of in our subconscious: theme music, cuts, asynchronism, and the camera as character. Our generation has gone on to create Avenue Q, a musical that emulates the Muppets with adult lifestyles, and exposes the puppeteers as part of the performance. And even in that show, at one point at least, we're reminded of the camera-as-character when we're granted an overview "shot" of two of the characters in bed.

Found here.

It also means we identify with puppets very immediately, even beyond the usual stuff of simulacra and pareidolia. This is interesting to me too, because it's pretty specific to the puppets to which we've been exposed, I think. For example, if you just put a couple of dots on a glove of felt, I'm quick to say, "Hey, neat minimalist puppet." I'll bond with the little guy, maybe even name him if you don't beat me to it. But I can look at the gorgeous shadow puppets of the Wayang Kulit for several seconds before I even recognize them as something more than intricate paper art. I wonder about the uses we can find for both responses. Will people bond with a puppet before finding out it's not actually a puppet? "That? No, that's my laundry bag. Puppet's over here..." Can we also shock people with the discovery that something on stage is actually a puppet, like a pile of cardboard boxes that animate and contribute to an ongoing conversation?

How do you think your early exposure to and relationship with puppets has influenced your responses? To objects? To entertainment? To bearded dudes wearing colorful headbands?

Found here.

Laughter

2010-10-15T14:31:00.000-04:00

Excerpted from a lengthy (and very crudely "adult," but intelligent) online post I read recently about one man's two-year stint in a prison. One of the things he lists as being the best part about finally being out:

"Laughter

"No one laughs inside. You might occassionally fake a laugh when someone does something stupid, or gets what they deserve. But inside you laugh at straight up irony. Nothing is really funny when you're locked in a concrete bunker with seemingly no hope of getting out.

"When I went inside, my favourite things were horror movies and violent video games. But now I can't stand the thought of them. I've seen too much real violence for one life time.

"Instead I've burned through three seasons of 30 Rock. I haven't laughed so hard in my entire life. I find myself laughing at s&%$ that a couple of years ago I would have been too jaded and cynical to laugh at, or thought that it wasn't cool to laugh at. Now I find myself cruising through Metacritic for the funniest films of the last two years. I liked to think that I used to be funny, but now, I realise I'm not. That I look in the mirror and there is this kind of grimness there.

"So don't take laughter for granted. It can actually be taken away quite easily."

In Spite of It All

2010-10-11T13:47:00.000-04:00

I don't think this one is exactly one to research, but someone who's better at research may have better results than I. What I'm thinking about are the ways in which we combat and in some cases overcome times of hardship, even if it's just for a little while, with some sort of folk or home-spun entertainment. The first examples I can thinks of are the harmonica and the "jig doll," which I always associate with the Dust Bowl for some reason. In fact, that form of dancing doll dates back to 18th century London, and an even earlier form, incorporating a string, goes back to...well, what do you know? Italy, in the 1500s.

Obviously, these home-spun entertainments lend themselves to puppets, but I think other things as well. The point is that people devise entertainment from what is cheap and widely available - we could even consider the Internet itself to fulfill these requirements for vast numbers of young middle-class westerners. Taking it back to pre-computers, however, some forms that initially come to mind:

Music - singing, beatbox, varied percussion, jug band, cigar-box ukulele, berimbau (capoeira), whistles and flutes
Storytelling - simple, formal, theatrical, visual/painted, collaborative, sung, danced
Sports - improvised balls, war games/skills, tug-o-war, dance competition, combat, gymnastics, races
Games - checkers, chess, tidily-winks, pick-up sticks, jacks, card games, gambling
Craft - whittling/carving, pottery, sculpture, weaving
Practical jokes

So how do these things elevate our minds and spirits, help us to carry on through tough times? I find it interesting that all of these things thrive in contemporary situations of deprivation, such as prisons or true rural communities. What does it mean to overcome trying circumstances? Is it a material victory, or a more personal one?

"Hamburger"

2010-10-10T13:32:00.001-04:00

Check out this incredible video (incredible both for its content, and its presentation) featuring an interview with Del Close:

Lots of what he has to say resonates for me. Some highlights:

Improvisational theatre gets a much better audience buy-in when it's referred to as a sport or game, even if what it's doing is more akin to performance art.
When what you're engaged in takes concentration, there's no time to work at entertaining an audience.
Collaborative art is very sincere art (this is something I extrapolate).
Everything that's said or done contains emotional intention - it might be a good idea to be as paranoid as possible on stage.
The audience comes to see reactions and discoveries (unexpected synchronocity?).

I'm reminded in particular of the "hamburger" improvisation you all performed. There was so much intention there, and the sense of game I mentioned in our discussion was extremely clear. Elizabeth, I think this was also the improv in which you explored this idea of a techno-savvy internet-savant.

PS Characters . . .

2010-10-08T15:57:00.001-04:00

PS When it comes to characters and relationships that are interesting to me, I like the generational gaps that develop because of technology. A pre-teen hooked into the web and game boy (or whatever it is these days). A know-it-all kid always teaching his parents info because of what he read on the web. The difference between people building and playing with their hands: real craftsmen vs. everyone being able to do everything because we can all just learn it on youtube (as Todd mentioned). And also, the gap (which my father's blog mentions) between kids fiddling with things until they get it right versus their parents who sit down and read the manual from front to back.

Blog-A-Blog-A

2010-10-08T15:14:00.006-04:00

Wow! I can't believe it has been almost a week since we first met. And I have to say, before I get into more detail, how much fun it is playing with my co-collaborators. Which, as it turns out, brings me to another theme that we talked about and which has been resonating with me lately: PLAY! Play in theatre, play in education, play in the work place, big companies bringing in improv peeps to remind them how to think creatively and communicate with one another. Games as life. Play as learning.

Now, I LOVE games: Pictionary, Scrabble, Settlers of Catan, Frogger, Taboo, Scene-It. You name, I'll play it. I've always loved them, and think that this idea of PLAY taking over the world and transforming the ways we think about learning and being and interacting is an exciting place to develop from. What if the recession weren't a serious economic travesty, but instead a "Go Directly to Jail, Do Not Collect $500.00?" What if as you move through the game of "Life" or "Zuppa" you get stuck in certain roles, as certain characters and have to PLAY your way out of them? What if PLAYING is the only way to escape oppression, repression, pain, stupidity? Is our character defined by us, or by the 'roles' we play in world?

Now, here's a thought in my little rant: does the idea of play then become puppet-like? Might play shift to a do-a-good-trick-to-proceed-to-the-next-level way of thinking? What if the world turned so dark that even the idea of play was about success, approval? A darkly competitive puppet world . . . I mean, isn't play competitive too? Where and when does play time turn to a capitalist jungle gym? What is the relationship between play and money and entertainment and money? And what sort of fearful place are we operating from if even playtime becomes scary and in need of external approval.

Some of these questions are things I notice myself asking or struggling with and some are inspired by my father's blog, a blog on creativity, in our schools and in the workplace.

(http://billwilliamsblog.blogspot.com/)

I'm not quite sure where I am going with all this except that: we are doing a PLAY, we like to PLAY, we PLAY roles, and for us this is the WORK that we do for a living. And I love it, I would not change my career for the world. However, I also recognize that a battle I have in myself is moments when PLAYING becomes scary because it suddenly seems that my livelihood is on the line. I experienced this, this past weekend during the clown interview exercise. I didn't even know what I was interviewing for in this completely imaginary set-up and my clown was terrified and yearning for approval. And then Jeff said, "Do you want to get this right?" Timid and scared, my clown nodded yes. Don't we all want to get it right at a job interview these days? And then is it really still PLAY, or does it need to be redefined all over again, to try to finally "get to the next level."

Oirlend

2010-10-08T11:07:00.003-04:00

I'm off to Ireland today for some reason or another. I'm sure I'll find something to do or something.
So Jeff as far as characters that we were interested in so far, I liked the zanni-like superintendent guy that ruined the Feng shui session. I was kind of basing it on the guy who fixed things in the Bog apartments, though with much less obscenities.
I'll be on-line to a certain degree in Ireland, but I won't be crying if my hotel doesn't have a future box.
AAAAAANd I'm out.

Simulacra & Pareidolia

2010-10-07T12:57:00.002-04:00

sim·u·la·crum (smy-lkrm, -lkrm)

n. pl. sim·u·la·cra (-lkr, -lkr)

1. An image or representation.

2. An unreal or vague semblance.

[Latin simulcrum (from simulre, to simulate; see simulate) + -crum, n. suff.]

Found here.

pareidolia (ˌpæraɪˈdəʊlɪə)

	the imagined perception of a pattern or meaning where it does not actually exist, as in considering the moon to have human features

[C20: from para- ⁴ + eidolon ]

Found here.

One of the ideas I mentioned in our first discussion about themes for the show had to do with these two concepts - our tendency to "recognize" faces in objects, and our tendency to create objects with a "face" of some kind, even such objects as don't require one. I think these are intrinsically related, and that both are pretty ancient aspects of human behavior.

First, simulacra. I'm sort of assigning this word to the phenomenon of building faces into things (borrowing from the gnarly Skull-a-Day 'blog), when in fact now-a-days it actually refers more to poor imitations. If someone can find a better word, please be awesome and share it. I think we put faces on things for three basic reasons: subconscious patterning, a craving for identity, and finally a creation/recognition impulse:

In terms of the patterns in which we think, some of our first acts of comprehension come from those faces thrust inquisitively into our cribs. In other words, our earliest and best-framed visual interactions are with faces. Those interactions are even coded, by facial expressions, and it's the first code we get to crack. That becomes a recognizable pattern which we reinforce throughout our lives, trying to figure people out, so when we make something ourselves we tend to include a design that incorporates a similar pattern of some kind.
Identity is very important to us, whether we contemplate it consciously or not. Every time we make something, we want to sign it, put our stamp on it, say we were here. One of the first drawings any of us learn is the circle, lines and dots of a face.
When we make something, we're recreating an act of parents and gods. It's a natural impulse that lives in all of us - to create - and along with it comes the idea of a piece of ourselves travelling out past our influence, having a life of its own. It should share our features in some way, be made in our own form. It should recognize us as its maker.

Many of the same instincts apply to our tendency toward seeing faces in things with whose creation we had little or nothing to do - pareidolia. We see faces in woodgrain, water stains, toast. You name it. Of course we're inclined toward this for a variety of reasons, but what interests me about it are a few possibilities outside the realm of anything logical:

Maybe we're more inclined to pareidolia when we're lonely, or feel great need of some kind.
What if, instead of seeing faces because of a need, we're seeing them because we in some way recognize an object in front of us in some personal way?
What if pareidolia leads to a relationship, the way the supposed recognition involved in "love at first sight" can?

At any rate, these are ideas about human behavior that I find some relevance in when thinking in terms of puppetry, especially with puppets made from found objects. Plus I've been wondering about how we could maybe extend the Zuppa trends of playing multiple characters and the in-joke of playing scenes with ourselves to include puppets or other inanimate objects. That's often all a clown piece consists of. In this scene from Benny & Joon (derived from Chaplin and Keaton) the hat, snot and handkerchief are all scene partners. In fact, one of the classic Arlecchino lazzi has to do with eating an imaginary fly, who offers all the obstacle and emotional challenge a scene could need.

Some of these ideas of mine have come in the form of "lines" for some eccentric character or other who is keyed in to these concepts in a particular way. Not dictating anything here! Just sharing them as a furtehr possibility on how we could go from ideas to actions:

"You think you're funneling some life into a dead thing, no? It's a common misconception. That 'thing' has its own life, without you. You're just invading it for a time."
"We see faces in everything. Why should we be so surprised when one of them sees us right back?"

Meeting Recap: Oct. 2-3 in NYC

2010-10-06T18:00:00.182-04:00

The Cast: Todd d'Amour, Elizabeth Hope Williams and Conor McGuigan.

Last weekend we met for the first time as a cast: Todd d'Amour, Conor McGuigan, Elizabeth Hope Williams and I all gathered in Paradizo Dance's studio for the weekend and went through a thing or two. Here's how we progressed in our first preparatory meeting for our rehearsal period:

October 2nd:
We got a bit of a late start, which was just as well, since it meant that I could catch Conor and Elizabeth up on some basics of acrobalance.

For roughly an hour we worked on basing and flying angel and thigh-stand.
Once all met, we reviewed some of the basic commedia dell'arte characters and their physical characteristics, eventually branching out into interpreting them into more modern contexts.
From there we moved on to some scenario work. We took one of the Scala scenarios - Flavio's Disgrace, a production of which I had just directed with the students of Marywood - and worked on how to learn a story by the story and incident, rather than by lines or character. This included:

Breaking down a story into simple, single actions
Learning how to memorize simple action sequence
Learning the sequence from different perspectives
Varying the basic circumstances of the scenario

In the scenario work, we examined some style elements; namely:

"One thing at a time."
Committed physical choices and gestures.
Rhythmic unity.

We moved on to examining clowning from there, including:

Practicing "just being" with an audience.
"The Interview" exercise.
Brief review of "1-2-3" clown types.

We ended the day with conditioning by working with the commedia animal forms we learned from Angelo Crotti:

Dog
Cat
Frog
Lizard/Crocodile

At the cap, we had some casual conversation about the show to come.

October 3rd:
The day began with discussion, and moved into exploring themes, largely through improvisation.

There was much ecstatic dancing to big brass music.
Acrobalance: In addition to practicing thigh-stand and angel poses, we worked with head- and hand-stands and learned shoulder-sit.
We began a discussion of themes and ideas for show content. Some of this content included (Players - please add to this list as you remember; both for new subjects I missed and ones you want to fill in.):

Vast economic disparity, then and now.
Spending vast amounts on entertainment in times of great struggle.
The entertainment people resort to when they're poor.
Culture gaps between the young and the old, and the conflict that creates.
Todd's story: Mom finally getting to Yankee Stadium.
New archetype relationships: e.g., master & apprentice.
Inherited knowledge as something going extinct; are our brains changing into ciphers instead of strongholds?
Seeing faces in everything (pareidolia) and making faces in everything (simulacra).
Puppetry as themes, puppetry as practice.
Practical actions performed live on stage (i.e., building something, cooking, etc.).
Possible preference for "base characters"; definite priority for getting in-depth with a character.
The differences of demeanor when you change who you're around.
Unexpected transformation.

We warmed up with a little further scenario practice.
We applied some of the themes through two basic improvisation scenarios:

Teaching, Building & Destroying: A master teaches a student something, and eventually an interloper destroys that thing.

Pizza Making - Master: E; Apprentice: T; Interloper: C (this is also the one that made me realize the WEIRD initial thing)
Carpentry - Master: C; Apprentice: T; Interloper: E
Feng Shui / Painting - Master: T; Apprentice: E; Interloper: C
Self-Defense - Master: T; Apprentice: C; Interloper: E

Old, Young & Compromise: An older person and a younger one come into a conflict through a disagreement in culture, and eventually a third enters to resolve the conflict.

Video Games - Old: C; Young: E; Interloper: T
Lost / "Coke Machine" - Old: T; Young: C; Interloper: E
Math - Old: E; Young: T; Interloper: C

After a break, we examined acting with objects. After choosing an object from the room, the performers improvised a scene with that object as though it were new to them, and they were having a dialogue with it that included emotional response.
As a final action, we did a few things for the video camera:

Improvised marionette dancing incorporating acrobalance and oral accompaniment.
Two improvised scenes along the lines of the others.

We closed out with upper-body conditioning - push-ups, pull-ups and one-minute handstands.

All-in-all, a great weekend. I look forward to the next one in November. In the meantime, let's collaborate here! Look for thematic posts from me in the coming weeks, and start a little writing yourselves about whatever you will (but be sure one or two have to do with character[s], too). Avanti!

5 minute.com - So last second..."How to have a Lazy Sunday Picnic"

2010-10-06T12:25:00.002-04:00

This was an improvised 5min.com video. Obviously a "bit" tongue in cheek. Nathan just sent it to me out of the blue. Coincidence? I think not.

How to Enjoy A Lazy Sunday Picnic

Games in Everything - Pervasiveness of Technology

2010-10-06T12:21:00.001-04:00

Nothing

2010-10-05T00:27:00.001-04:00

This was amistake.

My PBS Memories

2010-10-04T23:51:00.014-04:00

I always really loved the vacancy of the background on The Letter People. I felt there was a world so much bigger beyond the puppet. Unlike real life where you can see the end of everywhere you look, this show left a black void behind the action. I feel this is much like a theatre. Also this show let me see, as I said to Jeff the other night, the cracks in the facade. People love to see the fingers of the puppeteer. It's like seeing the hands of the creator and they are in on some big secret. Later on, the Letter People, which was from a local PBS station in the midwest, received more money and built sets. It still had a similar feel but not like the early vacancy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qzdd0FnVHJQ

Under Pressure

2010-10-04T12:37:00.000-04:00

This is such a strangely apt combination of the elements we were talking about last weekend that I had to share. Poverty and entertainment, humor and compassion and ridiculousness. Enjoy.

Never Mind

2010-09-29T10:22:00.001-04:00

I got it, I'm subscribed. Hey everyone! Those of you who can, come to the opening for Under Milk Wood on Friday October 1st! It's going to be a terrific show.

Chance Favors the Connected Mind

2010-09-27T14:14:00.000-04:00

Ventriloquist with Human Dummy

2010-09-27T10:00:00.002-04:00

Here is a link to a ventriloquist who uses a mask on a member of the audience to create a human dummy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyTGwflaNx0

ETC Article: September

2010-09-20T09:38:00.019-04:00

See "ETC Article: August" for context.

In Spite of It All
Sometimes, circumstances are so utterly insane that laughter is the only rational response. There are those of us who feel this way about the national economy of the past couple of years (although in fairness, it seems we ought to have found certain fiscal practices prior to the decline more laughable). Now just imagine how the residents of New Orleans feel. Massive flooding with tragic lasting effects, economic meltdown, then oil spill, with tragic lasting effects. For that matter, take a wider view of Scranton in the 20th century: the iron ore runs out and its founding family leaves for grayer pastures, WWII leads to strip-mining the land, and then disaster, dwindling demand, and restructuring the railroad take away even the coal mining industry. Ridiculous. What can you do?
You have to laugh.
I don’t mean to trivialize disaster or economic ruin. Quite the opposite. It’s my firm belief that the higher the stakes of something, the more necessary and natural the need to laugh, at or in it. I think that - particularly in recent western history - laughter has come to be associated with judgment and mockery, but that’s an awfully limited view of a complex emotion such as humor. We also laugh because we identify, or need catharsis, or from involuntary physical response, or from fear, or (and this is the one that’s really fascinating) because it’s the only thing we can think to do.
That’s one of the funny things about working on a Zuppa del Giorno show - the initial conversations almost always end up being geared around serious ideas and concepts. Look at some of our themes: encroaching capitalism and the lust for status, anarchy, lives lost to regret, ambition’s bitter aftertaste, excess in times of struggle, and first love’s tragic demise (granted; that last was more Shakespeare’s than ours). It’s not until we get to the details that we start the incomparable high of making one another shoot milk from our noses. The gags spring from complex and often weighty ideas.
Two weeks ago I was in Scranton working with fellow Zuppa member Heather Stuart to teach the youth of Marywood about commedia dell’arte, and I used the opportunity to meet with our set and costume designers, Drake Gomez and Mary Ann Swords-Greene respectively (and, respectably: the coolness of their names reflects their talents). We talked about different things, with regular interjections from me along the following line: “Now, keep in mind, nothing is set yet. All is subject to change. I mean: ALL.” In spite of that, some exciting ideas were bandied about. Ideas like stages within stages, classic commedia dell’arte characters cloaked by contemporary clothing, and mirrors.
This week the development weblog will go live, and we collaborators will all have a repository for our notions and spit-balling. Each of the actors - Conor in Scranton, Todd in New Orleans and Elizabeth in New York City (a town that has known its own share of upheaval) - will be able to convene online before our first development rehearsal at the start of October. Yes, in spite of great distance and incredibly varied schedules, we’ll start to build a show together. And guess what? You can watch it happen. You, dear reader, can even get involved. Here’s the ‘blog address: http://thepuppeteersproduction.blogspot.com/ Follow us, comment, but remember: all is subject to change. I mean: ALL.
What we do to entertain ourselves during times of ridiculous struggle is interesting. It would be easy to dismiss these entertainments as distractions or escapism, but I find that just by scratching the surface we can find an intense relevance between what we’re challenged by and what we’re making to theoretically offer some relief from those challenges. While we create characters and engineer pratfalls and possibly play with puppets, the world will go on whirling out upheaval and disaster. Maybe that’s actually the cause of our comedy. I won’t venture to guess. But I will say this: You have to laugh. In spite of it all.

The Entertainment of Poverty

2010-09-20T09:26:00.000-04:00

Been thinking about what happens when people become unexpected aliens - they leave their home, go somewhere new, and don't realize until they're there that they are total outsiders not just because of where they're from, but who they are. (Maybe the two are indivisible.) This led me to an un/popular trend lately referred to as "slum tourism." (See NYT, 8/9/10.) What's the implication of diving head-first into a blighted or impoverished culture? What does it mean as a form of "entertainment," and do the divers-in provide anything valuable to the culture...or are they themselves entertainment for the people they think they are being entertained by?

Henson Teaches Puppet-Making (1969)

2010-09-16T16:52:00.000-04:00

ETC Article: August

2010-08-15T09:28:00.028-04:00

Each month I am writing an article for ETC's newsletter that offers a little detail on our process developing the show. This is an entertaining pursuit, since we don't have a show per se yet, and won't really until production week. I'll share them here on the development 'blog. Think of them as a peek into the director's mind and an effort to keep all the communication open. The first of these:

What’s So Funny
I have a joke with some of my friends that consists only of screaming, “RELAX!” at someone who is already sort of tense. If the humor of this is lost on you, don’t worry. It’s probably more cruel than funny, though sometimes it makes the person being shouted at laugh and gain a little perspective on that about which they had been tense. It’s remarkably difficult to perform this joke on oneself, because A) people will think you’re bonkers if you randomly scream “RELAX!” at seemingly no one at all, and 2) when you’re tense it’s tough to focus on anything other than the tension. So it’s a real friend who will snap you out of a tense stand-still with a little homeopathic dose of cruelty.
Somewhat to my surprise, Zuppa del Giorno (ZdG) will be contributing another wholly original comedy to ETC’s season this winter (earlier in the year, it had seemed we wouldn’t be able to pull together the resources for this). Much to my surprise, the show will feature the returns of founding member Todd d’Amour and recent convert Conor McGuigan, who are each hilariously creative and miraculously haven’t made anything together yet. Almost completely to my surprise, I’m directing the show; my first time in such a position since working on every show since ZdG’s inception in 2002. We’re in store for quite an adventure.
For those of you who haven’t experienced one of our shows before - and, perhaps, some of you who have but never thought about how these things come about - a few facts: we start every development process, even those with scripted material, from scratch; the shows are devised and developed through improvisation and experimentation, often based on individual research on a particular topic or theme; the final product is to a greater or lesser extent semi-improvised. That last fact means the show is always changing, growing and unpredictable, and the only way to do that is to understand the show - not a script or story, but the show itself - in our bones. And that first fact? That first fact means we start with nothing: A blank sheet.
I don’t know if there’s anything that can produce a more paralyzing anxiety than a blank sheet. Writers loathe a block, and painters are famous for disposing of hundreds of fresh starts. In improvisation, too, we offer “givens” or variables in order to give a performer a few little anchors for their imagination; grains of sand around which we hope to grow a pearl. That’s exactly what I did in last month’s callbacks for a third cast member - offering up suggestions of a profession, location and object, over and over again - so the actors wouldn’t have to worry about impressing us and summoning a story from thin air. “Givens” are more a giving of permission than anything else. Giving “givens” had nothing to do with the good stuff that came out of our auditioners’ imaginations. That good stuff, like all good things, came from the nothing.
I can’t lie. (Actually, I’m an excellent liar, but you get my point.) The blank page terrifies me too. I find excitement in that terror, and promise, but it’s all always terrifying, and I’ve given us our own anchoring grain of creative sand for this show. All of our productions have explored the connections between the commedia dell’arte and more contemporary forms of expression, from situation comedy to silent film to the opera and Shakespeare, and in that tradition we’re seeing what we can do with another theme: Puppetry. I think there’s a lot of potential in this for doing new things with our uniquely creative and physical form of theatre.
We’ll start with several brief development rehearsals in the fall, when I and Conor and Todd - and our new cast member, Elizabeth Hope Williams - will dig around and fall down and find out just what’s so funny about puppets. I’m really looking forward to sharing this process with anyone who’s curious, and soon we’ll have a ‘blog set up where anyone can contribute a little feedback. We’re all in this together. So, if you see one of us walking the streets of Scranton one weekend with an anxious, preoccupied expression on his or her face, please remember to get in our face and scream, “RELAX!” We’ll thank you for it.