poppet

[kittytoes]

(You can also view these pics and a few more as a slideshow here. )

This is a story I've wanted to tell for a long time. It comes from lots of places in me, but most heavily from my fascination with puppetry and an inward spiral of object and manipulator... I am especially entranced by puppeteers who remain visible and the use of large/life-sized puppets. I think that watching a puppeteer dressed all in black lends best to the illusion; you appropriately forget them. But when a puppeteer is intentionally visible it creates a tension as you try not to see them. It seems though, that just as they fade, suddenly, magically, they become part of the performance and the visible mechanics make the performance that much more compelling. I remember watching a puppeteering special on TV as a child which featured a performance by Bruce Schwartz. I was fascinated by how alive his puppet (a very large puppet of a beautiful Japanese woman in flowing robes) was despite me seeing his hands. It was like he was watching her too, unsure of what she would do next... The best part was that the piece features the woman becoming possessed by yet another puppet -- she is manipulating a small dragon-type figure (mask?)which overcomes her, her hands begin to move of their own accord and she is frightened of them. (The same performance is also blessedly featured in the Señor Wences episode of The Muppet Show -- an amazing performer in his own right!) There was a piece from another performer, all of whose details are lost in my memory, but the gist was the story of Frankenstein's monster, only the monster was the puppeteer and the doctor was part puppet. All that I vividly remember was that it ended with the doctor losing his head and me being horrified.

More recently, Mat and I attended a performance of "Ten" here in Philadelphia at The Painted Bride and although I cannot find my program or anything online, it was similarly centered only around the interactions of the puppeteer and a life-sized puppet. In it, the main character is building a sort of golem, so at it opens, the creation is just a head, but is added to scene by scene. The monster also stepwise becomes more demanding, insisting he be finished and ultimatley taking control of his creator's mind.

I unfortunately cannot find any of the performers I've mentioned, but I did find this great piece on Mediet og Masken.
A performance of Revenge of the Crystal.
And bits of another, Feraliae Nuptiae, which show more of the mechanics of the puppet.

Short story long, I come to my puppet/eer. Its an interesting exercise trying to give one life and leave the other vacant, although I must note that Claudia is so loosely strung, she would work as a marionette. He is literally holding her up in most of these shots. Making brillaint cameos are Judge's new Luts hands (the whites match perfectly) and Claudia's Musedoll wig (she has a pea head).

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