Post #1: The Workshop - January 15-17th 2007
During three days in EST’s 6th floor theater, I worked with Carlos, David Zellnik and four performers -- Natasha Marco, Ryan Farley, Michael Schupbach and Samrat Chakrabarti -- to explore and develop several puppetry styles for possible use in Serendib.
On the first day we worked through a Puppetry-101 training, with a random selection of household objects. We explored the basics of puppet performance -- focus, movement, weight, etc, and became familiar with interpreting impulses, emotions and narratives through externalized movement. Here’s a link to the workshop outline: SERENDIB Puppetry Workshop.doc
During the second and third days we studied the physiognomy and movement of the Toque Macaque monkeys -- Click here for a link to a great website with information about Toque Macaques, as well as images and movie clips. We began to perfrorm with four sets of mockup puppets, each built to capture a particular style of movement.
We worked with a (highly) modified Japanese Bunraku technique, a basic hand-and-rod technique, small Wayang style puppets, and abstract Head-and-hand puppets. Click here for a link to the info page, with links to two big puppetry websites.
Using the mockups, the performers presented four short scenes to the EST Artistic Staff and several members of the Serendib Design and Production Team. While the scenes were not directly lifted from the text of the play, they touched on interactions, story and character elements and staging and technical questions which the text presented.
In particular, we were interested in finding out which style (or styles) of performance were most articulate, clear and compelling to watch. We were also interested in exploring interactions between the monkeys as well as between the scientists and the monkeys.
We also worked to develop a vocabulary of movement which allowed the performers to transition between their monkey (puppeteered) and scientist (acted) roles as seamlessly as possible.
The presentation was followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience, as well as some further experimentation in movement.
After the workshop, we settled on using the full-body “bunraku” puppets for the male monkeys, the hand-and-rod puppets for the females, and the mini-Wayang puppets presented in a bird’s eye view format to depict chase or crowd scenes as seen in long-shot.
Thanks to everyone who participated - cast, audience, Carlos and David! It was great to work with you. Lots of fun and incredibly informative.
What works?
Saturday, January 27, 2007
