Making Simple Marionettes E-Book

John Roberts

• Herausgeber: Crowood
• Kategorie: Lebensstil
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

Marionettes are loved by puppeteers and audiences for what they can do on stage, but they can be challenging to design, make and perform. This beautiful book clearly explains the process from making the puppets to putting them on strings and bringing them alive. Detailed step-by-step instructions are given to make three marionettes - a walking bird, a dancer and a wooden man - each using different tools and materials, with progressively trickier techniques. Written by a leading puppeteer, it celebrates the art of the marionette. This book includes a showcase of marionettes from around the world to illustrate the variety, and richness of this ancient art which are superbly illustrated by 247 colour images with step-by-step instructions.

Leseprobe

MAKING SIMPLE

marionettes

MAKING SIMPLE

marionettes

John Roberts

THE CROWOOD PRESS

First published in 2019 byThe Crowood Press LtdRamsbury, MarlboroughWiltshire SN8 2HR

www.crowood.com

This e-book first published in 2019

© John Roberts 2019

All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

All the templates in this book may be copied.

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978 1 78500 518 3

All puppets, photographs and drawings are by John Roberts and PuppetCraft unless mentioned in the text or in Puppet and Photograph Credits.

Acknowledgements

Many thanks to the puppeteers who have so generously let me use photographs of their wonderful puppets. Their work is credited in the text or listed in Puppet and Photograph Credits.

Sue Field has provided her expertise costuming the Dancer puppet, and has made two puppets especially for this book. Michael and Georgina Spurgeon have looked over my shoulder to help make sense of my writing. Thanks to Rufus for lending me his hands and a foot for some of the photographs. Thanks too to all the people – family, friends, students, colleagues and audiences – who have encouraged me over the years to pursue my puppetry dreams.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

1FROM IDEA TO PERFORMANCE

2MAKING METHODS

3GETTING READY TO MAKE

4PROJECT 1: A WALKING BIRD

5PROJECT 2: A DANCER

6PROJECT 3: A WOODEN MAN

7ONWARD

PUPPET AND PHOTOGRAPH CREDITS

INDEX

INTRODUCTION

Scope of this book

This book is an introduction to making simple marionettes.

My aim is to guide the reader through making three very different marionettes, and along the way learn a bit about the background of this special form of puppet.

Much of the book consists of step by step projects, each designed to use different tools and materials, starting with very simple and fast methods, working through slightly more complex techniques, and ending with the most challenging of the projects. The resulting puppets also have differences in how they can be used, who they can be used by, and for what ‘audience’.

Guidance is given on level of ability needed to complete each project, what tools and materials are needed, and how long they will take to make. All of the projects use simple hand tools and should be achievable with a moderate ability at making things.

There is an overview of different styles of puppet, with examples from around the world, to illustrate the vast range possible, and show how there are many common elements in how they are designed, made and performed.

My hope is that you will enjoy making the puppets detailed in the projects, and will use them to perform for someone, to see their happiness and amazement when you bring your creations to life.

I hope too that you will be inspired to make more puppets of your own design, see puppet shows, and find out more about this amazing art/craft form.

A wooden puppet head on the workbench.

How I got interested in marionettes

I was very young, around five or six, when I was given a lovely set of glove puppets, made by my brother and costumed by our mother, along with a simple little puppet stage. I made my own glove puppets and made numerous alterations to the stage, adding a proscenium arch, curtains, scenery and lighting. I used these glove puppets in their stage to put on little shows for friends and family.

The first puppet I was given – a glove puppet with a papier mâché head, that although a bit chipped, has survived more than sixty years.

About the same time I was taken to see a puppet show that captivated me. I remember it as a magical production with music, voice, scenery and the most beautiful string puppets of medieval peasants and sheep. From then on my obsession was learning how to make marionettes.

Growing up in South Africa, there were very few opportunities to see professional puppet shows so I relied on books, some of which were terrible, a few were OK, and there was one little book that was inspirational: Your Puppetry by John Wright. I was given this book on my twelfth birthday and it set my future direction. The book starts with these words: This book is intended for those who propose to take their puppetry seriously… and it referred to puppetry as an ‘art’. Reading this book was like having a great teacher standing next to me telling me how to make an excellent marionette. I only discovered decades later that the show with peasants and sheep, that so fascinated me, was by the author of the book.

Your Puppetryby john Wright: the book that influenced me more than any other, published in 1951, the year I was born.

My early attempt at a marionette show ofHansel and Gretel, with the help of my sister and mother.

I carved wooden marionettes, built a large stage and coerced my parents and sister to help make puppet costumes, write a script, record music and voices and then learn how to operate the puppets.

All through my school years and even through my architectural studies at university, my interest in puppetry continued. In 1980, roughly twenty-five years after I saw that first enchanting show, I was invited to join The Little Angel Puppet Theatre, in London, as a director. This theatre was founded by John Wright, the very person whose work originally sparked my interest.

During my ten years at The Little Angel Theatre, I toured with the company around the world to puppet festivals, performing and seeing some of the best shows of the time. I even operated puppets from the show that I first saw, called Mac the Sheep Stealer.

Mac the Sheep Stealerby john Wright’s Marionettes, that started my passion for marionettes in 1957.

Origins and uses of puppets

Probably the earliest puppets were made by prehistoric cave dwellers at night, using the light from a fire to cast shadows of their hands, twigs or bones onto cave walls. There is no evidence for this, but there are accounts of puppets dating to ancient times, with many world cultures having records going back thousands of years.

There is a human fascination with making inanimate objects come ‘alive’ such as playing with dolls or toy cars, or pretending a hairbrush can talk. People see faces in door-handles, burnt toast, and so on. Puppetry taps into this fascination.

Puppets have a long and varied history with many cultures using them for religious rites, morality plays, education and as satire, political comment or pure entertainment.

Sometimes puppetry is part of the mainstream of theatre, but often it has been more on the edge of cultural events. For example, in Britain in the seventeenth century, when human theatres were closed, puppets continued to perform.

Some puppetry performed today continues long traditions passed down the generations, while other puppetry is ground-breaking, inventing new ways to use this ancient art.

Characteristics of different puppets

Here is a short overview of how marionettes fit within the larger world of puppetry.

There are four main forms of puppet, each with its unique qualities.

Hand puppets

This category has a number of variations:

Finger puppet

This simplest of types is often a child’s first puppet. These fit onto fingers, or fingers are poked through holes to become the legs of the puppet.

A crowd of finger puppets can fit on just one hand.

Fingers become legs for this paper octopus puppet.

Glove puppet

Another puppet type that is frequently used as a toy.

They can be easy to make, needing just a head and some fabric for the body of the puppet, which is worn on the performer’s hand like a glove. Making the puppet move is instinctive.

A sketch of a glove puppet ‘booth’ without its fabric cover, showing how the puppeteer performs the puppets above his head.

This simplicity has contributed to the wide distribution of this puppet type over time and around the world. Another advantage is that one person can perform two puppets at the same time, with a puppet on each hand. The puppets are commonly performed above the puppeteer’s head in a little stage called a ‘puppet booth’. This makes for a most economic and portable form of puppet theatre.

Glove puppets can pick up objects easily unlike most other puppet types and they can move fast, lending them to slapstick comedy. They are not as elegant as other puppets, having limited arm movements, and usually no legs. Some glove puppets, especially traditional ones from China, can be extraordinary, able to do somersaults, be beautiful and poignant, as well as comic.

An exquisite Chinese glove puppet with legs, a fan, moving fingers and even a hat that rotates. Performed by puppet master Yang Feng, a fifth generation puppeteer.

A modern-day Mr Punch with large head and small hands, carved in wood. Based on Piccini’s famous puppet of around 1800.

In Britain the most famous traditional puppet is Mr Punch, who started life as a marionette imported from Europe, coming from the commedia dell’arte character Pulcinella, with the first recorded performance in London in 1662. Punch became a glove puppet performed by a sole performer, sometime in the eighteenth century. This transformation from marionette to glove puppet changed Pulcinella’s personality from a comedic, graceful marionette to the anarchic, violent, slapstick puppet that is Mr Punch.

A sock plus two ‘eyes’ on elastic, and some ‘hair’, makes a talking hand-in-head puppet.

Hand-in-head puppet

Sock puppets and The Muppets are examples of hand-in-head puppets, with the puppeteer’s hand fitting inside the mouth of the puppet, allowing the puppet to ‘lip sync’ (lip synchronize) to spoken or sung words.

Bare hand puppet

Here the glove of the ‘glove puppet’ is absent, leaving the bare hand exposed. First pioneered in the 1930s by Russian puppet master Sergey Obraztsov.

A wooden ball with simple eyes and a nose on a bare hand can be surprisingly expressive.

Rod puppets

Any puppet controlled by sticks from below or behind the puppet is called a rod puppet.

The puppeteer may be out of view, hiding behind a screen, with the puppet performing on a ‘play-board’ or narrow stage above the puppeteer’s head.

Large rod puppets with rods to head and hands, worked from below. The Bewitched Baobab Treeby PuppetCraft.

A sketch of three performers working together to animate a Bunraku puppet. The master-puppeteer stands on clogs and has his face showing. The other puppeteers have their faces covered with hoods.

Alternatively, the puppet operator may be visible standing behind the puppet, working rods coming from the back of the puppet. This form comes from a Japanese tradition called Bunraku, after the man who came up with the idea. In a Bunraku show each puppet is worked by three skilled puppeteers.

Bunraku technique has been modified in modern times to be used for large and small puppets, performed by one person or by a team. If performed at table height these puppets are commonly referred to as ‘table-top’ puppets.

Rod puppets are usually bigger than glove puppets, so they can perform for larger crowds. They can have legs unlike most glove puppets, and are able to perform a wider range of movements, with longer arms, and can be given very subtle movement by the puppeteers.

A table-top puppet by PuppetCraft.

Vietnamese water puppets are a very unusual form of rod puppet. The technique started as a folk art made and performed by farmers in rivers. Brightly painted wooden puppets are fixed to long bamboo poles that are submerged just below the surface of muddy water. Puppeteers stand chest deep in the water, hidden behind a screen. The puppets emerge from the water, without any visible means. Simple puppet movements are controlled by the bamboo poles and cords that articulate arms, or make the puppets spin. The performances are enhanced with music, singing and fireworks!

Brightly coloured Vietnamese water puppets are reflected in the water from which they rise.

Shadow puppets

The audience watches shadows cast by puppets onto a screen. The puppet may be two-dimensional or 3D, translucent, transparent, coloured or black. The light shining on the puppet can be the sun, a candle or an electric light. Any material can be used to make shadows, including paper, cardboard and found objects, or shadows can be made using just your hands. Shadow puppetry uses deceptively simple techniques to transform a scruffy bit of cardboard, a feather, a hand or a complicated design, into a magical on-screen creation.

Asian traditional shadow puppets have been made for centuries from leather, cut into intricate patterns, and coloured with inks or paints. If the leather is very thin the colour can be seen as beautiful tints through a thin white fabric screen. Thicker leather will cast a solid black shadow.

Indonesian wayang kulit uses hundreds of finely cut and coloured shadow puppets to tell stories from the Hindu epics Ramayana and Mahabharata, accompanied by a large orchestra called a gamelan.

Simple shadow puppets cut from black cardboard, seen behind a drum-skin which is used as a screen.

A delicate Chinese shadow puppet cut from translucent leather which is coloured with inks, that produce a softly coloured shadow.

Awayang kulitpuppet cut from thick leather and intricately painted. The colours can only be seen when watching the show from behind the screen.

Marionettes

A marionette is a puppet controlled from above. It can be worked by strings (often called a string puppet) or by rods.

For many the archetypal image of a puppet is Pinocchio, the famous string puppet boy, whose nose grows when he lies. He is from the Italian children’s novel written in 1883 by Carlo Collodi, which was turned into the famous animated film by Walt Disney.

A drawing ofPinocchioused as the logo for a shop selling puppets in Australia.

It is thought that the word ‘marionette’ derives from the Middle Ages when little figures of the Virgin Mary, or ‘small Madonna’ were made to move using strings.

There is a distance between the marionette and puppeteer, giving a feeling that the puppet is moving of its own accord. This effect is strongest when the human operator is not visible, but even when the operator can be seen, the only connection is the strings, and the longer these are, the greater the effect of independent movement will be. If properly lit, against the right colour of background, the strings of a marionette can be completely invisible.

The marionette is one of few three-dimensional puppets that one puppeteer can fully articulate on their own, moving legs, arms, body and head. The puppet can do a full 360-degree spin, as there are no rods sticking out of the back of the puppet, and can fly and float without visible support. This freedom of movement is unique to the marionette.

The Little Angel Theatre’s production ofPhilemon and Baucisby Haydn. Strings from the operator’s ‘hat’ and over his shoulders control the puppet’s head and body.

Simple marionettes are often made as toys, while the most complex ones take years to learn to control. The marionette is considered by many to be the most difficult of the puppet forms to master, in both making and performing.

There are references to marionettes in ancient writings and illustrations from many countries, including Egypt, India, China, North America, Greece, Italy and Britain. Marionettes have performed ritualistic ceremonies, dramas, folk tales, variety acts and operas. There is a long tradition of marionette shows used as miniature versions of human theatre, capitalizing on the universal fascination of seeing small creatures moving ‘on their own’. These productions can achieve the lavish scenery and lighting of human theatres, at a fraction of the cost. Special effects, like flying and being cut into pieces are simple to achieve on the marionette stage, as is having animal puppets performing alongside human characters.

Monkey Kingfrom the foremost marionette makers and performers in China, The Quanzhou Puppet Troupe.

So popular were marionette musicals, that Joseph Haydn, the great classical composer, wrote five operas for marionettes, for performances at Esterházy Palace, Hungary, during the 1770s and 1780s.

In China, puppet operas tell epic tales of the character Monkey, blending folk tales, history and religion. These puppets are the most complex of any traditional string puppet, with up to thirty-six strings on a single character. The puppeteers have a seven-year apprenticeship to learn to bring these most challenging puppets to life, singing as their voices, while manipulating the handfuls of strings. This is a form of puppetry that has a 3,000 year history. It has even influenced the human opera, with the movements of the puppets being mimicked by their human counterparts.

A Victorian juggler marionette.

Another popular type of puppet, that still endures, is the ‘trick’ marionette. Widespread across Europe and Britain from the 1770s on, they became a firm favourite with audiences. Puppets are able to perform the impossible: necks elongate; limbs fly off and then re-assemble; a large puppet breaks apart to become a crowd of smaller puppets; a juggler performs gravity defying tricks. This tradition lives on today in the performances of cabaret acts and buskers.

A scene fromThunderbirdsshowing puppet characters Scott, Lady Penelope and Virgil.

The puppet of John Cusack dressed in monk’s robes fromBeing John Malkovich.

Nowadays marionettes are not as widely seen as in the past. This is a general trend with all types of puppet around the world, as the popularity of the puppet has been usurped first by books, as more people became literate, and then by TV and film.