Around 60 puppeteers, including four members of the Clowning work group, met from 10 to 12 March, to talk about humour and imagery.
Before the conference started, the Schreinerei auditorium slowly filled with puppet theatres and a mobile stage. The gradual setting up and later taking down showed the amount and variety of materials needed before a story can be imaginatively presented: props, backdrops, fabrics, coloured lighting, puppets, etc. Ten performances and opportunities to look behind the scenes revealed how individually the puppeteers design their production or even create a special stage for it.
Expressing humour
Since this conference was about humour and imagery, the glimpses granted were full of humorous elements. The way the puppets are handled can create contrasts, such as between the calm movements of the figures in the tale of Rumpelstiltskin and the quick, small movements of Rumpelstiltskin itself, accompanied by Kalimba music. We heard many surprising onomatopoeic calls or evocative names (Wolf Rolf). Unexpected storylines can also be humorous, for instance, the donkey falling in love with a goose and being deeply unhappy because he cannot speak her language. After a wood fairy turns him into a goose he sets out to look for his beloved but only finds a donkey girl at the lake because the goose had gone to the wood fairy, too, and asked to be made to look like her lover. (There is a happy ending for both eventually although they cannot regain their original form, but they can both be turned into humans.)
During the eurythmy and speech exercises it also became clear how any exaggeration, when consciously grasped and shaped, will have a comic effect. But is that the same as humour? That depends on the inner attitude. Humour requires us to be able to look at ourselves from a distance. It aims at our own weaknesses or one-sidednesses, but is never about showing someone up.
Practicalities
Artistic expression looks for independent ways of implementation and we were therefore able to witness great artisanship and ideas. Someone had built a stage out of a cardboard box, including curtains, lights and props. Hand-painted light bulbs provided just the right light for a shadow play. One person showed how the movement of a puppet’s head can be enhanced and another announced a puppet-making course.
Other practical questions were more general, regarding equipment and backdrops. Plays are performed in all kinds of places. If it happens to be a gym hall, it is important to optically divert from the wall bars, for instance. Based on his experience, Stephan Teuber, a travelling puppeteer (Fantasia Kulissen) had developed a module for mobile stages which he presented and explained. It includes a backdrop, curtains, lights and non-iron fabrics, needs hardly any storing space and can be set up and taken down without tools.
Including representatives of related art forms seemed natural which is why members of the Clowning work group, who are also puppeteers, were invited to give talks, lead workshops and provide insight into how hand-puppets (like Punch) or objects such as a child bagpipe or balls can become figures in clowning.
Debora Kleinmann explained the similarities in the attitudes of children, clowns or people on a path of development: the sense of wonder, devotion and reverence. Adults need to consciously take hold of the ‘I’ in order to be able to look from a distance and reflect on what is happening. She visits elderly people in homes and spoke of moments when intuition made it possible to even reach people with dementia. Of course, there is always the risk that things don’t work out, but if one is wakeful, takes up a word that someone said, plays with it or imaginatively refers to an object like a walking frame, a door can surprisingly open.
One of the verdicts on this conference was that ‘the world would be a poorer and sadder place without puppetry’.
Photo: Kasper and René, Puppenbühne Karfunkelstein. Foto: Sebastian Jüngel
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Before the conference started, the Schreinerei auditorium slowly filled with puppet theatres and a mobile stage. The gradual setting up and later taking down showed the amount and variety of materials needed before a story can be imaginatively presented: props, backdrops, fabrics, coloured lighting, puppets, etc. Ten performances and opportunities to look behind the scenes revealed how individually the puppeteers design their production or even create a special stage for it.
Expressing humour
Since this conference was about humour and imagery, the glimpses granted were full of humorous elements. The way the puppets are handled can create contrasts, such as between the calm movements of the figures in the tale of Rumpelstiltskin and the quick, small movements of Rumpelstiltskin itself, accompanied by Kalimba music. We heard many surprising onomatopoeic calls or evocative names (Wolf Rolf). Unexpected storylines can also be humorous, for instance, the donkey falling in love with a goose and being deeply unhappy because he cannot speak her language. After a wood fairy turns him into a goose he sets out to look for his beloved but only finds a donkey girl at the lake because the goose had gone to the wood fairy, too, and asked to be made to look like her lover. (There is a happy ending for both eventually although they cannot regain their original form, but they can both be turned into humans.)
During the eurythmy and speech exercises it also became clear how any exaggeration, when consciously grasped and shaped, will have a comic effect. But is that the same as humour? That depends on the inner attitude. Humour requires us to be able to look at ourselves from a distance. It aims at our own weaknesses or one-sidednesses, but is never about showing someone up.
Practicalities
Artistic expression looks for independent ways of implementation and we were therefore able to witness great artisanship and ideas. Someone had built a stage out of a cardboard box, including curtains, lights and props. Hand-painted light bulbs provided just the right light for a shadow play. One person showed how the movement of a puppet’s head can be enhanced and another announced a puppet-making course.
Other practical questions were more general, regarding equipment and backdrops. Plays are performed in all kinds of places. If it happens to be a gym hall, it is important to optically divert from the wall bars, for instance. Based on his experience, Stephan Teuber, a travelling puppeteer (Fantasia Kulissen) had developed a module for mobile stages which he presented and explained. It includes a backdrop, curtains, lights and non-iron fabrics, needs hardly any storing space and can be set up and taken down without tools.
Including representatives of related art forms seemed natural which is why members of the Clowning work group, who are also puppeteers, were invited to give talks, lead workshops and provide insight into how hand-puppets (like Punch) or objects such as a child bagpipe or balls can become figures in clowning.
Debora Kleinmann explained the similarities in the attitudes of children, clowns or people on a path of development: the sense of wonder, devotion and reverence. Adults need to consciously take hold of the ‘I’ in order to be able to look from a distance and reflect on what is happening. She visits elderly people in homes and spoke of moments when intuition made it possible to even reach people with dementia. Of course, there is always the risk that things don’t work out, but if one is wakeful, takes up a word that someone said, plays with it or imaginatively refers to an object like a walking frame, a door can surprisingly open.
One of the verdicts on this conference was that ‘the world would be a poorer and sadder place without puppetry’.
Photo: Kasper and René, Puppenbühne Karfunkelstein. Foto: Sebastian Jüngel
More ...