This week I have been at Puppet Place working on the new show. Here's a couple of pictures of the space:

 I spent Monday and Tuesday making newspaper 'sketches' of the two characters, one big set and one smaller set. At lunchtime on the Tuesday I went for lunch with a group of puppet builders from Rusty Squid who have been working on a large interactive display at the Bristol Central Library

Click here for a video of the 'Book Hive' by Rusty Squid, including a short interview with David McGoran explaining how the project was conceived. 

On Tuesday Bee and I did some trial runs with the newspaper puppets, quickly discarding the larger more unwieldy puppets for the smaller scale versions. This scale offers more scope and comfort, as well as avoiding the 'puppets walking on the floor of the stage' issue, which Cris Pirie explained at the workshop on Saturday.  When a puppet walks on the floor much of the action ends up hidden from the audience unless you are sitting in the front row. Working on a raised set will be much easier with smaller puppets. The 'legs' guy measures up at about a foot and a half, and the 'arms' guy about a foot tall (with arms of nearly two and a half feet in length). 

We came out with some lovely bits of movement, and really broke it down on a few things and made strong progress. I'm really happy with how the performance aspect is coming along. Sadly I don't have the videos from the session with me at the moment, but hopefully I will be able to put them up here soon in one form or another. Bee also did some sketches exploring some costume ideas for the puppets:

Working largely from these I sketched a few more designs myself later that evening.

Wednesday was kinda rained off, but I used the opportunity to stock up on materials for making wooden armatures for the puppets and bits and bobs to begin set fabrication. 

On Thursday I was able to stay late at the workshop with Dik Downey of Pickled Image, He and his team are working on some large scale puppets for a show in London and I was able to pitch in and assist them for a while. I made good progress on the Legs puppet over Thursday and Friday, here are some Images of him so far:

 There are a few things that need doing on this puppet still, including perhaps lengthening the shins a little (they do look a little off don't they?) and finishing the head and hands. It sure is lovely to be able to build with wood at a good speed, since leaving John Wright Modelmaking I've missed doing machine work. For Monday and Tuesday next week Bee is coming in so we might get started on some set stuff. Here are some bits and bobs of set stuff I drew out:

 You'll have to pardon the lack of plot exposition as there is a lot to touch on, perhaps when we have a semi final treatment of the play written out I'll put it up.

I've booked the space for another week to give us a bit more time there. More updates soon!

Well its been a while again! But a lot has been happening. I've been waiting to get back the camera which had the puppet tests Bee and I filmed on the 6th of February. We only really ended up with one take as it got late, we were trying some more complex set and lighting stuff. Here it is:

I also have some good/bad news. The bad news is we will have to shelve this show for the time being, the good news is we are shelving it because we have a commission to do a show for a school! It will be my first bit of paid puppetry work so its pretty exciting. They are asking for two 20 minute shows, each for 200 children.

For this one I want two bring in two Japanese folk characters, Ashinaga and Tenaga (or long legs and long arms)

In other news I attended Green Ginger's 'An Introduction to Puppetry Manipulation with Chris Pirie' on Sunday. It was a fabulous workshop and I would recommend attending any of Chris's workshops, having also attended his Trash Hack workshop last year. Tomorrow morning (well at about 10am today) I will be starting my residency at Puppet place where I will be renting studio space till the 18th. I feel honored to be able to work along side Green ginger in the workshop, as well as Rusty Squid and Pickled Image, who are all producers of superb puppets and puppet shows. I'll make sure to keep posting about my experiences there over the next few days.

Over the weekend I have been making some more set pieces for the practice set. My thought here is to use 'quick and cheap' materials to rough out set components, play around with them and get a feel of how they function both aesthetically and functionally alongside the puppets. Successful pieces can then be made from MDF and properly decorated.

 I started out with a page of potential shapes:

 I've started with shapes P and Q. You won't see Q in the photos as it is in the garage drying, I'm trying out a mixture of PVA and woodchip for texturing the surface.

In response to the puppet testing last Thursday I thought it would be interesting to create a set of steps leading to a platform. This would give the comb guy some terrain to navigate. It also allows us to place more buildings in the foreground without obscuring the puppet, so we can build more of a city scape.

Here's where I'm at as of this evening:

I've Also been fixing the puppet up a bit, with thicker cotton for the wrist mechanisms (along with a new kind of knot so see if that helps). I also added some squishy pads on the palms to protect the wrist mechanics when he walks on his hands.

White might also help make the hands more visible during performance.


 I thought it would be interesting to have two figures shaking hands or sat opposite one another at a table. Tiny cities in each of their heads represent their thought process, personality, drives ect. Between them a third city is built up as a kind of 'dialogue' between the two figures. Perhaps this could represent the unspoken communication that might lie underneath a simple gesture like shaking hands. For example if two business partners finalize a deal or two friends part ways. Under the surface a war wages both internally in each figures head and externally in the void separating the two.

(If I turned this into a piece I don't think I would color divide the buildings or space as explicitly, the performance should speak for itself.)

If I merge the current concept for the play with this image I would probably have to start almost from scratch, but at the moment I'm giving it careful thought.

I have my induction at Puppet Place on Tuesday morning, so tomorrow night Bee and I will meet up to discuss the project and nail a few things down in order to come up with a treatment of the project to present to Chris and Rachel at the induction.


 

A selection of profiles. Potential 'base pieces' for buildings on the set.

I managed to find some large pieces of cardboard and a carrier bag full of newspapers among the neighborhoods recycling boxes. Should prove useful for set building.

I also brought my set of Kapla planks over to play around with. Perhaps they will prove useful for exploring possible set structures.

 

Whew, another busy week. Hence the lack of blog updates. This week I have been continuing to develop the comb puppet and roughing out some set pieces.
Yesterday I had my weekly evening of puppetry with Bee Daws of Effigy Theatre. We roughed out a set and did some practising with the puppet. Here is an edit of some of our test shoots:

Its been great to see everything pulling together and begin to get a feel for what is assembling itself with this project. Each new piece of progress is very exciting and spurs me on to continue to work hard on developing the piece.

Having the opportunity to work alongside an experienced puppeteer is something that I have hoped for for a number of years, it seems the catalyst for the development of my work in the field has arrived and I am now able to take things to a new level. I have virtually no experience at preforming puppetry to a professional level. Because of this I absorb a lot of new stuff with each attempt and these sessions will contribute immeasurably to developing my ability.

Filming little 'sketches' like this is also really helpful for communicating the development of the project to other potential members of the team (including other members of Effigy) who have not yet made the move to Bristol. Already I have received a  wealth of valuable feedback which helps me to further develop the project and ensure a robust growth of the concept.

Speaking of concept, I have some more ground to cover here on the blog. A few days ago I started thinking about set design for the show and these appeared in my sketchbook:

The idea would be to create simple architectural shapes and cover them in abstract patterns. It occurred to to me that this may be an ideal way to begin to explore the connections between the modern first-world metropolitan that we in the west experience, and the more imaginative, spiritual and ritual focussed communities that still exist elsewhere and were once the mainstay of our existence.

A jumble of geometric shapes, decorated with repeating motifs that evoke brickwork, doors, windows, solar panels, satellite dishes. The idea would be to pay homage to the sensibilities of, say, formline art (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formline_art) or pursian rugs like this one: http://www.jozan.net/distrikter/bakshaish.asp
These aesthetics are crowded with symbols which, while apparently chaotic to the uninitiated, are in fact loaded with symbolic meaning that references their mother culture and tribal knowledge. My hope would be that these jumbled structures would still 'read' as an urban landscape due to our deep familiarity with the aesthetics of large buildings, floodlit streets and industrial structures.

The comb faced puppet extends this concept by more blatantly blending an 'exotic' cultural artefact (a decorative comb) with architecture to generate a character who is an extension of his environment.

This leap opened the floodgates to an array of little ideas involving turning buildings within a modern city into actors playing out little fables about life, death, humanity. There are so many questions that could be put forward with this palette. How do the things we build convey information about who we are and who we are not, who we want to be or be seen to be and how this changes with time. New buildings replace old buildings, new priorities and aesthetics usurping the old ways on a grand scale.

Here are some rough set pieces I made for the puppet testing. I really must start making a habit of photographing things against plainer fabrics.

 Here are some snaps I took of the arm mechanism. I've painted the arm to look similar to the aesthetic of the set sketches. The fabrics used to flesh out the puppet further enhance the blend between set and character. Although at present there is some concern as to the extent to which this makes the character read clearly, so I may need to downplay this aspect.


So this is where I am. In the next week or so I hope to get a few of the following things done:

• Reinforce wrist mechanism (the cords broke a few times during the tests, I need a new thread, some pads on the palms to protect the mechanism and perhaps some shrink wrap on the cord that runs through the copper tube).
• Some bigger set pieces. The vulnerability of the character seems to be a key aspect, a small outdated building among modern giants begins to create a narrative all by itself. There has also been a call for having the puppet cover a greater distance and move around more in further tests, so some larger set pieces will help.
• Get back my lighting rig (with faders ect) to start looking at lighting more.
• Find a way to make the hand movements read better, perhaps white heat shrink tubing over the fingers. 'Think Michael Jacksons glove' says Ben Jones.
• Have a think about sound and maybe make some soundscapes with foley sound (rubbing bricks together, pourning pebbles on things, recording city sounds/traffic ect)

Another busy week ahead, next practice session is Tuesday.

Hello all, today I have been continuing my overhaul on the little comb puppet. It now has a fun little breathing mechanism that I'm quite happy with.

Its operated with a little ring on the inside and is designed to work in conjunction with the support handle down the spine. The body is a 2 liter milk bottle this time, this allows more flexibility of the shoulders. The upper arms are of a comparatively thicker plastic and so push the little tabs on the milk bottle into the body cavity when the arm is raised. I'm pleased to finally have this shoulder system working properly. The neck also has some changes. The plastic tube has taught elastic running through it. This system holds the head upright when not held by the puppeteer, whilst still allowing it to be moved about freely as required.

Today I have mainly been working on the arm.

When its finished a swiveling paddle on the control handle will allow the puppeteer to remotely pivot the wrist up and down, allowing nicer expression and follow through of arm movement.

This video was most helpful while I was making the arm, my arm is essentially a miniature version of what this lady made: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hAVCtWOLuDQ

Lastly I have been weathering one of my plastic afro combs for the puppets face.

Sadly these are the only suitable combs I am able to easily find, although I've been checking ebay regularly for cheap carved combs I'm being pretty picky with what I want. I'm hoping that with a little dry-brushing this comb will resemble rough-carved wood.