As I play Mrs Trotter, I initially thought I'd be 'playing' her as a normal (if small) part, but I was soon informed I would be using a puppet! Panic! I've never done any sort of puppetry other than sock puppets as a toy when I was little.
However, soon I was more interested than worried. Puppetry as a skill could be very useful for an actor, and also brings another dimension to the visuals of the show. I then realized we had already done some puppetry work, or to use the correct term "found puppet" or object manipulation with Chris Davey in our Innovative Theatre class. We used props which had been lying around the studio, such as a walking stick and a giant plastic flower to create small scenarios such as talking at a bus stop. Chris emphasized that your expression and movements should be matched to the movements of the puppet and visa-versa. I found this quite hard to achieve, as manipulating the movements of a tricky puppet plus acting is hard!
I did some research into types of puppets, as at the time we weren't sure what type of puppet we could be using:
Costume puppets
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| Big Bird from Jim Hensons Sesame Street |
Costume puppets are just a puppet that you wear. Most people think of this as a fursuit or mascot, to be worn by a human actor. These types of puppets allow the person inside, and often an animatronics operators on the outside, to create a visually interesting and unusual creature.
For instance, one of the most well-known costume puppets is Big Bird from Sesame Street.
Marionettes
Marionettes are perhaps the most easily recognised of all puppet.
Marionettes, simply put, are puppets which are controlled by strings. The strings are attached to a wooden control, either an ‘upright’, or a ‘horizontal’. An upright control looks kind of like a wooden cross, and a horizontal control is of a similar design, but lying flat. This can range from extremely simple controls, to very complex and hard to manipulate.
Rod puppets
A rod puppet can include a range of things, but generally speaking, it is inclusive of any puppet that uses rods as the sole mechanism for operation.
Rod puppets can of course be used in a variety of theatrical situations, including ‘white light’ theatre (where the puppeteers can be seen), outdoor events, ‘normal’ theatre performances, and so on. This is why rod puppets can be difficult to define, as they are extremely versatile, and don’t require a lot of previous puppetry experience in order to be performed well.
Shadow puppets
Shadow puppets are usually flat silhouettes, made out of a strong animal hide (traditionally speaking), cardboard or plastic (modern versions). These silhouettes can include animal, human and 'creaturistic' figures. The figures have rods attached to the parts that need to be moved, and joints made out of string or wire.
Some figures have rotating or removable rods, in order to facilitate better manipulation, and to allow the silhouette to face different directions. Figures can also be highly simple, with little to no moving parts; or they can include movable limbs, heads, and bodies.
and many more!
Scene one development p.11
The Trotters scene is tiny, literally one page! But a lot is happening, and quite a lot of implications. James becomes an orphan and two humans are eaten! For children, this needs to be humorous not scary (as much as possible anyway!). The use of puppets will distance the reality of the situation for the children.
We were first informed that we would be using Marionette type '3D' puppets that would represent Mr and Mrs Trotter. We would be facing forward and running away from the Rhino. How the Rhino would be represented wasn't fixed, but there were suggestions of a projection of the Rhino running behind us, or a puppet rhino head held by another actor.
Eventually we were given flat puppets a like mix of costume puppet (as they were attached to our bodies via a hook attached to a bodice) and rod puppet (the arms were hinged and had rods attached to them). The rhino was a simple Rhino shaped cutout with a movable jaw and a red light in its eye, moved by rods.
I was quite disappointed by the puppets. I was expecting properly coloured puppets, or perhaps copies of the Quentin Blake illustrations from the book. The red and blue colours of the parents seemed a bit odd, and the faces of the puppets were identical, which seemed a little odd when a range of emotion could have been portrayed. However, I do think the Rhino was probably the best, as it was simple, menacing yet not scary.
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