TiPs

Just like in all puppetry you cannot take the puppeteer completely out of the picture in shadow puppetry: there will always be a stick or a hand in the shot. And in fact you don't want to take the puppeteer out of the picture - that is a film, not puppetry. So how do exploit the puppet-puppeteer relationship in shadow puppetry? The thrill of shadows for the audience is the confusion of 3d and 2d images: A 2d "cut out" can seem as substantial as a real 3d object, or even a person, in shadow, and vice versa. So for Little Match Girl, our puppeteers acted as if they were cardboard cut outs, and treated the cut outs as if they are real 3d. The result is beguiling and amazing. ​ An in fact we want further. We drew around our own shadows and made cut outs of them so that we could have multiples of ourselves in shadow. Shadows are not direct silhouettes of the image, they distort in a unique way. They eye recognises it but is also confused by it. (MD, Jan 2016)

The magical thing about shadow puppetry is how it cleans up the puppet to make a beguiling sharp image. You can tear something out of an old cornflake packet, sellotape some things onto it, bend it about, poke a hole in it... and when you put it in the light it will form into a completely real shadow of a duck. Or a cat. Or a man or a plane or a rabbit or whatever. An insubstantial two dimensional flimsy contruction can seem as solid as a building as a shadow. And one of the payoffs of that is that details sharpen exquisitely too. Belt loops, laces, the hairs of a moustache, sweat on the brow, eyes blinking, a breathing chest, eyelashes... They acquire such eloquence in shadow. (April 2016, Fiona Clift - Puppeteer)

This is self explanatory I suppose, but still I think it's worth talking through a bit. In this way of rehearsing you begin by sketching the speech/ scene/ show as roughly as you can as soon as possible. When you do this you get it on its feet and make it exist in the room. You mark out the parameters and get an idea of your journey through the scene/ show/ speech, as well as letting the director see it. Then you begin to work on it. Tweak things here, adjust things there, and repeat the sketch. Each time you repeat the sketching it will come a bit more into focus. Most things will work themselves out but some things will come up that will need specific attention. Some bits that you need to practise. You can do these separately. Note, tweak, and then repeat again. One advantage of working this way is that it can continue in front of audiences. I think it's crucial that the last steps of the rehearsals happen in front of the audience so that they help you shape your performance, script. There are things you can't know until you have an audience. (May 2016, MD)

This isn't my note but I can probably say something about it. I like it. I think I understand it. I think the point is not to get too hung up on the technicality of holding a puppet, but to think of the puppet acting. Prioritise the puppet rehearsing as an actor, prioritise getting hold of the storytelling, character, atmosphere, needs, wants - all the acting stuff. On the whole the puppet technicalities - mechanisms, holds, breathing, fixed point, focus etc - will work themselves out. And for the ones that don't, the technical wrinkles that persist, put aside some time near the end of rehearsals and focus on them. The important thing for this to work is to remember that the puppet is the actor, not you. You are the puppeteer. You are trying to make the puppet do the performance. Focus on that and the puppet-actor will show you what to do. (June 2016, Adam C J Klein - actor)

If you concentrate your focus on the head (ie look at the head) and allow the puppet to look at whatever it wants to look at, you will find you can "see through the puppet's eyes". There is no need actually to see what the puppet is looking at. Remember performing is make believe. More than likely the puppet is not actually looking at anything at all, it is only pretending to. For example what if the puppet is looking for it's mother who is offstage? The puppet is actually just looking into the wings. How is it going to help your performance by looking into the wings as well? It isn't. It's just going to make you take your eyes off the head of the puppet. As soon as you do that the audience will do that and then it doesn't really matter what you do because noone will be watching. You have lost your audience. The performance is the looking, the seeing, the taking in, the processing by the puppet. It is not the looking into the wings. But, people say, how can they check the eyeline? "How can I be sure of where it is looking?" they ask. Often they want to do this by looking from behind the puppet's head like you would if you were using the sights of a gun. It seems logical but actually it isn't. Why does the eyeline need to be right? So that the audience knows what the puppet is looking at. How do the audience know that the eyeline is right? Well to be absolutely honest I suppose I don't know how they know really, but I can tell you 100% that they do. That when I am in the audience I do. They are not doing it by looking along the eyeline. They are doing it by looking at the puppet's head and seeing what the puppet sees. Seeing through it's eyes. The eyeline only needs to be right for the audience. The audience is the judge. Your judge. Your only judge. No one will come in and look over the puppet's shoulder like a gun. They are all doing it from different seats all over the house. And on the whole they will all agree if the eyeline is right or wrong. I've tested it in theatres with groups of people and they are always sure. So the best way to get it right is to do it the same way the audience is doing it, by looking at the head of the puppet. And seeing through the puppet's eyes. (July 2016, MD)

Well this is fixed point isn't it? And centre. A good exercise for this is "arm and fish". Move your arm like an arm, then move your hand like it is a fish. When you move your arm like an arm it moves from the shoulder and your hand flies around at the end of it, when you move your hand like a fish, your hand moves on its own and pulls your arm after it. Exaggerate the difference so there can be no doubt which you are doing and practise going from one to the other. If you are doing this with a class you can shout out "arm!" and "fish!" and everyone has to change from one to the other. There are several centres in puppetry. Your centre - the centre of the puppeteer, a puppet centre - the centre of the puppet structure, and the character centre - the centre of the character that the puppet is representing. When you are doing "arm" your arm is moving around your centre (the centre of the puppeteer), when you are doing "fish" you are moving your hand and arm around the fish centre. (Sept 2016, Fiona Clift - puppeteer)

Sort of obvious but you'd be surprised how many puppets there are out there that are too heavy! Traps include the weight of clothes - they are surprisingly heavy. Also remember the leverage of rods and handles that you are going to use to hold the puppet up. And weight and size also affect movement. The bigger something is the more inertia it will have making movement wobbly and difficult to control. A good way to make big puppets is to build them directly on the puppeteer or in the puppeteer's hands. Make prototypes by taping rods and puppet parts directly to the arms and legs of the puppeteer and let them try it out as you go. You can use bamboo sticks, cardboard, gaffer tape and hot glue to quickly sketch-build a puppet around the puppeteer. You can take it apart and restructure in different ways and try it out as you go along. The key to the success of any puppet is the way it moves. By sketching in 3d on a puppeteer you can build the movement into the structure. (December 15 - Oliver Hymans, Puppeteer)

I love this tip from Tom. Working with a puppet is a collaboration with the material and structure of the puppet. It may or may not move in the way that you want it to. It will have its own ways of moving. Rather than imposing your ideas on the puppet, let the puppet lead you and show you how it works. Let the puppet teach you. Explore how it hangs from your hand. Explore how it drags, how it jumps, swings, spins, throw it around (carefully!). Spend time with it. If it is a multi-person puppet have a go with it on your own and feel the need of the other people rather than struggle with the challenges of working in a group. Embrace the accidents and oddities of the puppet you are playing with and work out how to make it more itself. Imagine what it feels like to be the puppet. What it feels like to move the way it moves. Play what it feels like to be the puppet. And if a joint bends the wrong way, play the pain. (Nov 15, Tom Espiner - Puppeteer)

In a script this means action. Action being something that progresses the story. In puppetry it means that there needs to be some puppet action that the audience hasn't seen yet. Something visual. This can be the introduction of a new kind of puppet, a new way of working the puppet, the introduction of more puppeteers, more puppets, a new piece of scenery, a new colour, a new feature, a different size of puppet, or a new action. It could be a new rule about what the puppets do, or a new way to break a rule. In a puppet show the visual story of the puppetry needs to progress as well as the story. (Oct 15, (Daz Mayhew - Puppet Director from Citizen Puppet)

Puppets turn the world on its head. Text becomes subtext and vice versa. The meta narrative is the narrative for a puppet. The most truthful thing a puppet can say is "I am a puppet". Everything else it says is transparently false, invented, simulated. What is always in the back of your mind when you are performing is "this is all fake". If you said that when you were acting it would break the illusion that you are creating. But if a puppet says it, it is ringingly true. (September 15, MD)

There isn't much to add to this. Except to say that you will still be late, but you will be ready to be late. You will run out of time but you will have the resources to deal with it. Check everything twice. Expect to do things again. It's self explanatory. But very good advice. (August 15, Stephanie Wickes - Exec Producer)

What the puppet is looking at tells the audience what the puppet is thinking about. It doesn't tell you what the puppet is thinking, but what it is thinking about. If the puppet looks at you it is thinking about you, if it looks at the floor it is thinking about the floor, if it looks at its feet it is thinking about its feet. Of course the puppet looks with its eyes but the nose is easier to see than the eyes. Where the nose of the puppet points tells the audience where it is looking. It is also easier for you to see as a puppeteer than the eyes. Easier to be sure of. Puppets with big noses can play big audiences. (Sam Dutton - Puppeteer)

Let the puppet lead you. Make it think first, breathe in, open its mouth, and then when it needs the sound of words, make the words for it. It is crucial to do it in that order or the illusion that the puppet is talking will not work. If you want the puppet to move its arms or legs while it is talking then the movements should come directly before the mouth opens. The movement of the arms/ legs/ body is the thinking. The movement of the body leads to the opening of the mouth which leads to the sound of the voice (from you). You can even let the puppet think for you. Watch what it does and then let it say what you saw it think. With some practise the puppet will make you speak. (July 15, MD)

The puppet imitates a performer, the puppeteer is the performer. The puppeteer goes into character "as a puppeteer" to bring the puppet alive and make it perform. This means that when you watch a puppet is a copy of performing. The puppet only looks like it is doing something because it is copying the way an actor would do it. To give you an example. Though an actor may pretend to eat in performance, they can actually eat. So the way they choose to represent eating is a choice of realism with allusion at one end and actual eating at the other end. The point is that they can eat. A puppet on the other cannot eat. Does not eat. Never eats. Has no reason to eat or need of eating. A puppet performing only eats to imitate an actor pretending to eat. So what you are watching when you watch a puppet is a copy of a copy of life. An imitation of imitation. It is two layers removed from reality. Each layer reveals the inverse of the other layer. Acting reveals the artificiality of life. Puppetry reveals the artificiality of acting. The artificiality of artificiality. Or something like that. (June 15, MD)

Suppose this creature existed: this miniature person, this life-sized horse, this living pencil. Suppose this furniture was watching you. Suppose it could move around you. Puppetry is a thought experiment. A supernatural suggestion. The joy of watching it is to indulge in the belief that this thing that can't be moving, that isn't alive, is moving, looks alive. It asks you to consider if it looks alive, if it moves like it is alive, is it alive? Why is it not alive? Why is life like movement not life? And the challenge is to do something with that. To tell a story that explores this proposition to a conclusion. And if this creature existed, then... (May 15, MD)

In the script is says that your character says "hello". How should it say it? Quickly? Slowly? Loudly? Quietly? With an accent? With an insinuation? With irony? These are often the questions we find ourselves asking when we are rehearsing. How do I do it? How does it do it? And it'll drive you mad. Because there is no answer. It isn't even a question if you think about it, it's lots of questions. And lots of answers. It could say it in any of these ways. In all of these ways. It would really make no difference. The question you should ask is why does your character say hello. Now you can answer it. And that answer will tell you how the character says it. For example if they are saying "hello" to greet an ex-lover they haven't seen for a long time then they would say it one way. Or if they are saying "hello" in an empty house to find out if anyone is there they will say it in another way. Or if they are saying "hello" to introduce themselves a lecture hall full of people they will say it another way. In order to work out how your character says what it has to say you should think about why it is saying it. What does it need to achieve? What outcome are they looking for? What do the need to know that they don't know? The answer to "how?", is "why?" (April 15, MD)

Which begs the question what are necessary movements? I think the point of this tip is that often people find themself underlining the puppet's movements. They want to mime an action. Or to put an accent on a movement. Or to exaggerate the preparation before a movement to lead the other puppeteers. Or make the puppet do a charade, trying to spell out the message to the audience. These are unnecessary movements. Necessary movements are the movements that a performer would do in the puppet's place. What you need to understand as the puppeteer is what movements the performer would do. If you do that well audiences are smart enough to understand what the puppet is doing and thinking. (March 15, MD)

You know the puppet isn't alive. The audience knows it isn't alive. But when it moves it looks like it is alive. If it keeps moving, it stays alive. And as it moves and is alive the spectators will interpret its movement as thoughts, feelings and imbue it with meaning. It's really impossible not to do so. The puppeteers make the puppet move, but they don't make it live. The thing that makes the puppet live, is watching it. It is the watchers that do that. The spectators (which means watchers). Only in England we call them the audience (which means listeners). (Feb 15, MD)

Watch people talking and you will notice an odd thing. They don't move their hands and talk at the same time. The hands stop moving to speak a phrase, or a word, or a sentence. And then they start again. The hands move to help form thoughts, which then come out of the mouth as words. The hands work up the thought into a speakable form and then the mouth speaks them. The hands stop moving and the mouth starts. You will even see people who are excited to speak wave their arms about or even jump up and down and then when they are allowed to speak their arms go still. And when they get stuck with what they are saying their arms start waving again in frustration until they find the words. (Jan 15, MD)

They come from a puppet maker's workshop of course. But which puppet maker? Who's workshop? The audience assumes, when they watch a puppet show, that the performers made the puppets. Of course they don't really think about it very hard, and they would not be shocked to find out that you didn't, but the feeling is that the puppeteers have some sort of connection to the puppets. From this they make all sorts of other assumptions. That the performers like the puppets. Since you chose these puppets, or designed these puppets, or made these puppets, you must like these puppets. You must like these kind of objects. They make judgements about your taste. About the sort of people you are. (Jan 13, MD)

Hmm not 100% sure what I meant by this one. It probably does though. I guess you need to learn through experience but keep alive through instinct. Something like that? I'll think about it more and come back! (Nov 13, MD)

Yeah it is. Nuff said. Remember to be specific with the breath. It is always changing. We don't breathe all day at the same rate or the same depth, Our breathing changes all the time. Almost every breath is different. Make sure you allow the puppet's breath to change with emotion, thought, concentration, effort, to talk, to move... (October 13, MD)

That is to say they move without thinking. Without being conscious of our moving them. We don't need to think about how to walk in order to walk. We just need to decide to go somewhere. We don't need to think about twitching our foot while typing (as mine is now) - the foot twitches on its own and we notice it afterwards. Of course by "a mind" I don't mean that every part of the body is going to go to University or write a play, I mean that the parts of the body of the puppet can appear to think on their own. Can appear to be part of the thoughts of the puppet A tapping foot suggests that the puppet is impatient, or anxious. When a hand reaches for your phone it suggest the puppet wants to look something up. When the head looks around it appears to have heard something. Every movement your body part makes implies a thought to the audience. The audience sees movements are the result of thoughts. Every movement implies a thought or a series of thoughts to the audience. No movements mean anything on their own, only in relation to the thoughts that appear to lie behind them. As a puppeteer you need to know what those thoughts are. You need to learn to trigger those thoughts when you make the movements. To toy with them. To use them. You learn to "think like" the body part you are playing. (August 13, MD)

You can't do anything until you know what you want to do. You need to know what you want a puppet to do. You need to understand what makes it "right" and what makes it "wrong" in your opinion. You need to develop an opinion. You need a vision. Puppetry is a visual artform. And there are two points of view. The view from behind - the puppeteer's view, and the view from in front - the audience's point of view. Watching the puppet move on the stage makes the audience think things, understand things, feel things. They interpret the puppet's movements. As a puppeteer you need to learn how the puppet moves and how those movements affects you when you are watching. You need learn everything there is to know about watching it. You need to become an expert on the audience experience. Spend time watching as well as doing puppetry. Even spend more time watching if you can. Work out what you like and what you don't like puppets to do, and your puppet to do. And then do it. (July 13, MD)

Easy to say and hard to do. The point I think is that performing is a time limited activity. There is a moment rehearsals will begin, there is a moment when the show opens, and a moment the run is over. And then it is too late to try something. So you need to get on with it. You need to be ready. Do everything you can think of when you are preparing to start rehearsals. Don't wait for someone to tell you what to do. And then in rehearsals jump in and look stupid. You will look stupid anyway at some point so there isn't any point in avoiding it. It's not a question of whether, it's only a question of when. So bring it on and be in charge of it. One way to think about rehearsals is that it is a chance to make all the mistakes you can think of as quickly as possible and learn how to avoid/ manage them so that you are in control of your performance by the end of rehearsals. Much better than looking stupid in front of an audience. (June 13, MD)

(April 13, MD)

Or to put it another way, as the story goes along, we dig deeper into the characters. The plot unfolds, the characters are revealed. Story reveals character. As you go through the story the character is challenged, and as they are challenged they discover more about themselves, and we (the audience) find things out about them. They "dig deep", they "find new depths", they understand new things. Whether a character "grows" or "changes", or is "formed", or if it is only revealed to themselves and to the audience is arguable. The point is that story and character work on different axes. As the story goes along (X axis), our engagement with the character deepens (Y axis). "The plot thickens". (February 13, MD)

In many ways jobs in theatre are the same as jobs anywhere else. Specifically relevant jobs, that is jobs in theatre, show your interested in theatre, a knowledge of the theatre world, pay rates, language, and expectations. On the other hand non-theatre jobs on "civvy street" demonstrate that you can turn up on time, you can apply yourself, you are disciplined, you know the world of "work". You may also have knowledge that is transferable - accounts, the law, health and safety, human relations, marketing... A non theatre perspective is also valuable - audiences after all don't work in the theatre. But remember that you are applying to a job in the theatre, so express your enthusiasm for theatre! (January 13 , SH)

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Or is that a hippy? (Dad joke) There are two kinds of movement that a puppet is able to do: extrinsic movements (movements of the puppet around the stage) and intrinsic movements (movements within the body of the puppet). Extrinsic movements tell us where the puppet is in space, where it is going, where is coming from. For example it may move away from something it is afraid of, or towards something it loves. This is the "blocking" of a puppet scene. They are done by the puppeteer moving the puppet around. Intrinsic movements, the movement of one part of the body relative to another part, change the shape and posture of the puppet and imply thoughts and feelings and attitudes. The puppet may turn their head away from something they are afraid of, or breathe heavily in the presence of something it loves. These movements are only possible because of a joint, or joints. The simplest jointed puppet is perhaps a head and body. In other words a puppet with a neck joint. A huge range of attitudes and intentions can be implied and created with just these two moving parts. You can have more complicated puppets with more moving parts and joints, but you will need more hands or mechanisms to control them. And you can puppet even simpler objects of course, even single solid objects with no actual joint at all. In this case you will need to "imply" joints in your manipulation of it so that it can move, have posture, look at things. To do this you invent other "invisible" parts that your object moves against. (March 12 - MD)

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Breath has four parts - you breathe in, short pause, then breathe out, pause. Think of the breathing machines in hospital drama scenes. At rest we take about 12 breaths a minute. Most action occurs on the suspended in-breath, or if you prefer in the controlled exhale: speaking, signalling, starting to walk. The in-breath is literally the inspiration for action, or the intention. The exhale acts as brakes for the movement, and the suspended out-breath is when we assess the action and the results. When the breath pauses, the action is suspended. The scene pauses, but it does not stop. (MD)

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This is about devising and improvising. Improvisations always have a certain magic quality that makes them seem better than they actually are. There is a charge of excitement that comes from genuinely not knowing what will happen next. When you come to repeat it you have to recapture that magic and often you find yourself chasing it down and it keeps getting away from you. Do it badly and see what is left there. If something works when you do it badly then it probably is something - if it needs to be done well to work at all then it may well not be. Laughter is involuntary and you can rely on it as a marker of truth. It is not the be all and end all, but it is truthful. Once you know that some thing works when it is done badly you can concentrate on making it better. (Sep 09 - MD)

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Each part of the puppet is a "character" and a "role". The feet obviously can see or hear or taste. They get information from two places - from sensory receptors in the feet themselves and from commands from the brain. Sensory receptors in the feet include proprioception (joint position), touch, pain, heat/cold, pressure sensation. These may result in a reflex arc that only goes to the spinal column and back but also send some information up the brain. The brain sends commands to stop the feet doing things and to make them do things. These impulses result from what the brain is sensing from it's own experience. So the feet is bathed in sensations that are coming, sort of second hand, from the scene, mixed with it's own experience, the experience of being between the body and the ground and bearing the load. (Jun 09 - MD)

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Even if you are ambidextrous the audience reads the continuity, so think about what you want to say. Contrawise changing hands gives the character a break and allows the audience to relax a bit. Like a character going offstage. Keeping a continuous unchanging hold will build intensity, keeps the character alive, and connects the puppet character to the performers. A particular bugbear of mine is when performers change hands out of convenience - to suit a closer handhold or to untwist their arms. For me the twist in the arms, the contortions in the performers are interesting. They are the result of the narrative and they record a cumulation of the events so far. How they get untangled is part of the story and I want to see it done beautifully. It helps me to understand why the puppeteers go where they go. In A Dog's Heart we swapped a three man puppet between four puppeteers throughout the performance partly so the audience could see the puppet, but it also supported the idea of a deconstructed narrative. In Butterfly on the other hand we kept the same configuration on the puppet throughout to create a silent character that could hold it's own amidst the intensity of the sung characters. (Mar 09 - MD)

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How does the puppet walk? How does a puppet sit down? How does it kneel? How do you know where to make it look? How do you make it look real? Look as if it's really looking? Really thinking? There is no simple answer to these questions posed in that way. A puppet can walk in many ways - fast, slow, quietly, on tiptoe, nervously, badly, strutting etc. A puppet can sit upright, slouchily, comfortably etc. It can kneel on one knee, on both knees, up, down, yoga style, Suzuki style. It can look where it's going, or in the opposite direction, or at the person it's speaking to, or at their feet, or in their eyes, or at their mouth. You get the idea. It can look at something and not see it, it can look at something and see something else, it might be looking at something but listening to something else. It might be thinking about something else, it might be thinking about what it's looking at. It might look at what it's thinking about. So how to do it? The answer to "how" is "why": Why is it doing whatever it's doing? Why is it sitting? Because it's tired, because it's on best behaviour, in order to concentrate on something, in order to have an eyeline with someone else who's sitting, to comfort someone, to wait for something, because it's been walking around all day etc Now you know "how" to do it don't you? The puppet isn't sitting, it's sitting to "have a rest". The same is true for everything the puppet does. It kneels to pray, or to stretch, or to engage with some children... It looks at something because it hasn't noticed it before, or because it isn't sure what it is, because it is trying to make a connection, for example with the audience, because it finds someone attractive, because it is actually looking away from something else and so on. Why is it thinking about whatever it is thinking about - because it heard a noise, because it's partner left him/ her this morning etc. It isn't complicated or magical. Keep it simple. It doesn't all need to relate to childhood trauma (although it might do!). Why is the puppet thinking about oranges? Because it saw an orange. (Sept 2017, MD)

(Aug2015, Fergus Waldron, lighting and sound design)

(Oct 15, Stephanie Wickes, Exec Producer)

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(June 2017, Ed Elbourne, Lighting Design)

(May 2017, Stephanie Wickes Exec Producer in her final month at Blind Summit!!)

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(Mar 2017, Johana Vavrinova, Drak Puppeteer)

(Feb 2017, Joseph Krofta, Czech Puppet Legend)

(Jan 2017, MD, after Klee)

Have a look at Moses's head from The Table and copy it or make your own. Or cut them out to make shadow puppets. Or make hands and feet to stick on your fingers to make a figure. Or... or... or... Go for it. (Dec 2106, SW)

Audiences love to see the smallest movements. They love to see subtlety. Details. Movements that are almost invisible. Might be accidental. Movements that they might have been the only one to see. The smallest movements, when they are right, are magical. Such movements come from focus. They don't come from planning the movements, or practising them, or doing them, or even thinking about them, they come from focus. Someone in the audience might remember the moment for the rest of their life. (Nov 2016, Humanish)

Should probably be the "furnace" of emotion. Throw more coal on and light that damn thing up. Burn them emotions, power that body. (Oct 2106, MD)

I'm not sure if this is literally physically true, but what I think I am refering to is that the relationship between the body and the head, tells you the most about what a character is thinking. In simple terms the body tells what the character feels, and head what it thinks. They are alwyas slightly out of alignment: if the head is looking at someone but the body is facing away it means probably that the character wants to get away but thinks it should stay. On the other hand if the body is facing the person and the head is looking away, then the character wants to stay but thinks it ought to go. And all variations in between... But don't take my word for it, try it and see what you think. (Aug 2016, MD)

(Jan 2018 - Tom Espiner, puppeteer)

Write a nice email, pick up the phone, apologise, offer a solution, get creative. People will take your call when there's a problem. You have their attention. It's a good excuse to talk to them and get to know them better. It's a chance to show off what you can do. And to show that you care. That you are serious. To demonstrate resourcefulness. Even something simple like making an appointment to meet someone. And if you solve the problem together they will look forward to dealing with anothe problem with you again. (Feb 2018, MD)

Allow the puppet to pull you, and be pulled by you. Go before it and make a space for it to move into. When you push the puppet the performance can seem unnatural and forced. Pushing looks like pushing, and feels "pushy". Pulling the puppet (and allowing yourself to be pulled by it) looks fluid, and feels alive, independent, free. Pulling is invisible because it is counterintuitive to the audience. We imagine that the puppet, being smaller, will be pushed around by the puppeteer. That seems obvious. We think that is what puppeteers do. The idea that it is pulling you seems very unlikely, so when we see it it surprises us. And surprise is our main weapon.

There is another part to this of course and it is "know what is happening... and pretend you don't." That might be all there is to performing really. Pretending not to know what you know perfectly well. Pretend that you are improvising. Pretend you aren't improvising. Pretend that you don't know that you are performing. Pretend that you don't know how to be the character you are being - none of know how we are ourselves. Pretend noone is watching you. Pretend you're pretending noone is watching you etc etc etc. At the same time you need to pretend you do know what is happening when you really don't. The only way the audience knows if something has gone wrong is if you tell them by looking like something has gone wrong. They only see the show once and don't know the lines, the blocking, anything, so it you behave as if it is right, even when it is wrong, they may think there are some odd choices, but they won't think it is wrong. At least they won't think you have got it wrong. As long as you behave as if whatever happens, was supposed to happen, then they will believe you. Why would they not? (MD, August 2018)

Put most simply subtext is when someone says one thing but means another. In other words lying. Lying to oneself, or literally lying. We do it all the time and it is the driving force of drama. Without subtext there is sort of nothing. The text is flat. There is what is going on in the scene, and there is what is really going in the scene. Subtext is what is really going on in the scene. Subtext is what actors are talking about when they talk about their motivation. The scene might be a tutorial, but the subtext might be flirtation in for example Oleanna by David Mamet. Actors are able to do it because they are make us feel like they are making up the lines even though we know they are written. There is a separation between the writer and the actor that admits doubt. They might be doing what they are told, they probably are, but they might not be. It is at it's best when they are doing lines that we know are written for example Shakespeare. When an actor looks like they are making it up in Shakespeare it is truly exhilarating. Puppets however cannot lie. They may be able to pretend to do subtext, to look like they are pretending to lie, but they can't really do subtext. Because they cannot tell the truth. They can only do what they are made to do. The puppet can only do what puppeteer makes them to do. The puppeteer is seen by the audience sort of as the writer. So there is no separation. So you have to look for it somewhere else to create subtext. One way you can create subtext is through irony. Irony introduces doubt as to whether the performer means what they say. Maybe the puppeteer isn't serious. Irony introduces doubt. Maybe what the puppet is saying isn't meant to be true. And so there is subtext.

You leave Enlgand in the rain and fly off and then sometimes there's a pool at the hotel. Or hot springs in the town. Or a sauna. I've had to buy so many emergency swimming costumes on tour. Now I keep a pair of trunks pre-packed in my case. MD, July 2019

Audiences want to laugh, that's why they go to comedy. And you want to give them that - that's why you're about to go on stage. But when you get up in front of them it feels like its the last thing they want to do. And they don't think you're funny. So what's going on? What happens is that you are tackling the problem head on. Quite often literally: performers go on stage and look at the audience directly. To begin with perhaps you look at them hopefully, then friendly, then desparately begging, then defiantly, then furious and red eyed with hatred... Why aren't they laughing? The audience on the other hand is wondering why you aren't any good. They only wanted to laugh. They only wanted you to be good. But well, it's too much. They feel raped. It's like they're supposed to fake an orgasm. The performer is too needy. Actually audiences often will try faking a few laughes to try and get you going. Give you confidence. They know that they are part of the solution. But if the performer continues to go after them they soon get tired. They don't want to be made to laugh. Enough already. They want the performer a good time but not at their expense. They want to have a good time too. Now they are confused. Why is this guy trying so hard? It's exhausting and slightly disgusting experience. Somehow like being molested, being harrassed, dry humped by a dog. Now they just want to shake you off their leg. It is very controlling. Trying to make people laugh and failing very quickly becomes creepy and wierd. So what do you do? Try doing the opposite. Look away from the audience and do something silly. Give them permission to laugh at you. Trip over. And when they do start laughing don't whatever you do let on that that's what you wanted or expected. Don't looked pleased. Look upset. Look pissed off. Pretend you weren't expecting it. Pretend to object to it. Get cross even. They may laugh more. Let them laugh. Just let them. MD, Dec 2018

Having written a lot of letters myself I know how painful they are to write. Both cold calling letters and applying to advertised jobs. But having read quite a lot of them, I have some idea of what I want to read. Someone told me recently, "interested is interesting" and it's a good principle. I don't so much read letters as scour them for clues. "Interested" is not the same as "enthusiastic". Enthusiasm is a wonderful thing, but it can be too general. The things I look for is some specific understanding of what they are applying for. Do they mention puppets? Have they any experience with puppets? Do they know my work? Have they seen any of my work? Of course there is a good chance they haven't, which is not a problem, but have they done some research? Did they look at our website? Have they watched some of our videos? Did someone talk to them about us? Have they done some work like it before? Do they see a difference between this show and other puppet shows? Do they understand what I am looking for? I'm not looking for an in-depth analysis or great insights and I am not looking for flattery or fan mail, I'm just looking for interest. It doesn't mean that you'll get the job of course, but it will get my attention, it may lead to an audition or a meeting, and I will definitely look forward to meet you. Which is the first step. MD - Sept 2022

A puppet does not exist on its own, it requires puppeteers and special staging. Shadow puppets need a screen, string puppets require a floor, glove puppets appear in booths, and rod puppets on tables. These puppet stages present the puppet to the audience and "hide" the puppeteer. They help the audience see the puppet and understand what it is doing. As a puppeteer, when you are rehearsing or performing with puppets, you have to learn not just how the puppet works, but also how the stage works, and how the two work together.

Puppetry is visual. And therefore must be visible. The audience understands what is happening by seeing it. It cannot be invisible. The puppeteer changes visibly, in front of their eyes, between three states: person, puppeteer, and puppeteer performing. And the audience, or rather spectators, see them change between these three states. A puppeteer without a puppet is just a "person". There is no visible clue that they are a puppeteer. You would not know they were a puppeteer. On stage or off stage you would not know. Even if they were wearing black you might think they were a stage hand or just someone wearing black. With a hood and gloves they might be more likely, but still there could be another explanation: Cat Burglar, Ninja... In other words, you cannot tell, without more context, that they have anything to do with puppetry. They are in the state of "person". A puppeteer holding a puppet on the other hand clearly has something to do with puppetry. They have a puppet in their hands. Only puppeteers carry around puppets. Ok yes, they could be a puppeteer's assistant, or a puppet maker or a puppet carrier of some kind, but the point remains: they are no longer "anyone", a "person", they are something to do with puppetry. They are in the state of "puppeteer". When the puppeteer brings the puppet to life they go into the third state, the state of "puppeteer performing". In this state they become "invisible" because the audience looks at the puppet. The audience thinks of the puppet as performing, but of course, as I hope we now see, it is actually, the puppeteer that is performing. The puppet does not actually change when it comes alive, it is the the puppeteer changing into the "puppeteer performing" state that brings the puppet to life. Actors act, dancers dance and singers sing, but puppets don't do puppetry. Puppeteers do puppetry.

When you are improvising, and maybe you don't know what's happening, but you feel tension building in the room, perhaps you feel uncomfortable, the room feels uncomfortable, the room is quiet, don't be scared, don't try and reduce the tension, instead lean into it. Make it more uncomfortable, more silent, more strange, more tense. When the tension eventually breaks it will be exciting/ funny/ moving. Interesting. Tension is increasing concentration. The audience leans in. Focuses more and more. Tension, however you create it, is your friend in improvisation. Almost anything that breaks it will be interesting. Donald Trump anyone?