Puppetry project

Puppetry was the first project of my university experience. Ever since I was a child, I went to Marionette shows in a small independent theatre in Germany. Finally learning about it at a professional level was an exciting experience.

Making the Puppet:

The task was to make our own puppet and produce a small performance with it. The type of Puppet which we created was inspired by Bunraku, Japanese Puppetry.

In groups we worked together to create our first Puppet. It was made up of Foam and flat pieces of wood cut into the shape of different limbs of the body. By using Handsaws, the Band-saw, rasp, and at the end sandpaper. In order to work the most efficiently, we divided the body parts between the six of us. I focused on making the arms and hands. This is made up of three different parts: Upper arm, lower arm, and hand. They were constructed separately in similar steps: The first step was to glue together the blue Styrofoam to the wood on both sides. With precision I first cut the outline of the arm. As it slowly started taking shape, with the rasp I created more detailed and rounded pieces to make it look as realistic as possible. The elbows were created with small half cylinders. These were stuck at one end of each forearm and upper arm. This would allow the arm to only move in one direction, with a similar elbow function to a human.

Bringing the Puppet to life:

The puppetry performance kept the focus on our Bunraku inspired puppet. By using a string tied into the rigs, we lowered the puppet at the start. First, we explored doing this manually by having a pole in the back of the puppet and lowering it. This proved to be less effective and was changed. The beginning of our performance was inspired by “Frankenstein” performed in 2011. The puppet in our performance, and the creature in the play, both discover movement slowly at the start and experience different weather conditions. Through online sources we were able to find a brief clip of this scene. Research into Bunraku puppetry determined how the puppet was to be controlled. Like in the Japanese style of puppetry, we had three puppeteers: head arms, and legs. I was controlling the legs and had to recognize when the head was about to turn. This is another performative element: being aware of what is happening with the rest of the puppet during the performance. Often the head will lead when the puppet is walking, turning, or stumbling like it did in our show. Rehearsals and communication made it possible for us to create movements which flowed. It took time to learn how the legs moved and their mechanics. It felt strange, but with practice I became more confident in it.

What I learned:

Through this project, I discovered the different types of Puppetry and how culture affects their designs and function. Puppetry is used for a variety of stories around the world. For example: Eastern European countries used puppetry underground in order to voice their opinions under oppression. Japan uses Bunraku to pass on stories from generation to generation. Puppetry is an important part of theatre and is often overseen as something for children. But due to its broadness it is starting to become a bigger part of theatre again. In Japan and around the world puppetry has been a threatened art form at times but was never forgotten. In the end, I also learned how only through rehearsing and communication a puppetry performance can happen. It requires a lot of training to become a puppeteer and can be very straining after long days. Despite this, it is a beautiful art form and can convey a story without the use of narration.