Table-Top Puppetry Workshop and Scene Building

Document Overview	This document was developed as a guide for a Puppet Workshop Intensive that will result in a performance of scenes created by the participants
Facilitators of the Puppet Workshop:	Ronald Binion
Document Prepared by:	Ronald Binion

Table of Contents

Puppet Workshop Introduction.............................................................................................. 2

Introduction to Table-top Puppetry........................................................................................ 3

Examples of Table-top Puppetry............................................................................................ 4

Puppet Workshop Outline..................................................................................................... 7

Team Building Exercises........................................................................................................ 8

Table-top Puppetry Manipulation Training............................................................................ 10

Scene Building..................................................................................................................... 12

Combining Elements and Final Presentation.......................................................................... 15

Summary............................................................................................................................. 16

Puppet Workshop Introduction

Overview

At the end of this workshop participants will be able to: · Perform a table-top puppet character. · Create short scenes relevant to the topic. · Perform scenes in a final presentation.

Importance

Using a puppet in as part of a presentation has these benefits: · Builds instant rapport with the audience. · Creates a memorable drama and interaction with the audience. · Safely deals with difficult material creating an imaginary world that is one step removed from the human world. · Creates a human dimension to the scene or story. The audience empathizes with the emotions of the puppet character and the drama.

Why use a puppet in a presentation?

v Using a puppet in a presentation can instantly create a “Puppet World” and engage the audience’s imagination. v The use of a puppet memorably reinforces the messages of the subject matter. v Puppets have the ability to believably transport the audience to any location and enact a wide variety of dramatic situations. v Puppetry is a visual language that can often bridge gaps of culture, language, and different perspectives and bring understanding. v Puppets are a joyful and child-like with the ability to express a wide spectrum of emotions. It is safer to use a puppet if the drama requires the enactment of negative emotions. v Using puppetry empowers the presenter to communicate their own stories as well as scenes developed in the workshop.

What is a puppet?

A puppet is an inanimate object that is given life by the performer. In this case we are using Table-top puppetry, but may also incorporate other styles like shadow puppets and found-object puppetry. A puppet can be any object that the performer breaths life into in order to express a state of emotion and/or thought.

Introduction to Table-top Puppetry

What is Table-top Puppetry	Table-Top Puppetry is a style of puppetry where the puppets can be seen full-bodied standing on top of a table or playing area.  Table-top Puppetry is a style of puppetry that has many origins, most notably the Japanese style of puppetry known as Bunraku.(figure 02) Table-top puppetry frequently requires a team of puppeteers working together  to create a single puppet character. Often a character requires three puppeteers but can also be used by two or even a single puppeteer.
How else is Table-top Puppetry used?	The use of a full-body puppet utilizing more than one puppeteer has been on the rise both in theater and in film and television. Fully-body puppets are any puppet that can be seen from head to toe. This style has been used in television shows that use green screen or blue screen technique in order to erase the puppeteers from the final image. Table-top puppets have also been used in theatrical production on Broadway in recent years, most notably in successful productions like Julie Taymor’s Lion King.
Why use Table-top Puppetry?	Table-top puppetry allows the artists to enact scenes in a satisfying hands-on manner. The use of a Table-top figure also allows the table itself to become a world that is transforms into the landscape of the “Puppet World”. Table-top puppetry is powerful in creating other powerful elements of human gesture. For example: Walking, Crouching, Jumping, Dancing, etc.

What are the benefits of using Table-top puppets?

Table-top puppetry empowers the artists to go from idea to performance with an efficiency of time and resources. The use of Table-top puppets increases the dramatic presentation of the scene by incorporating the instant play area of the table. Table-top puppets increase team building by increasing focus and sensitivity to their fellow performers as well as the character and the scene. Table-top puppetry has an aesthetic quality that has a tone of artistic sophistication and can project a wider variety of issues and emotions. Especially issues with a broader and more complicated dimensions of human drama. The figures can be crafted without the need for specialized technology.

Examples of Table-top Puppetry

Examples of Table-top puppetry Figure 01

From the Disney Channel televisions show “Book of Pooh”

Figure 02

Traditional Japanese Bunraku

Figure 03

From the Comedy Central television show “Crank Yankers”

Figure 04

Scene from Eugene O’Neill puppetry Conference 2007 Manipulation intensive.

Figure 05

Conquest-Monkey Experiment. Note: Puppeteers play the role of lab technicians as well as puppeteers.

Puppet Workshop Outline

What are the components of the Puppet Workshop?

§ Performance and Manipulation Training § Scene Building § Creating a final presentation

Schedule

The daily plan typically calls for a daily Puppet Workshop session of about 4 hours, broke up by a 15 minute break. The trainers will spend the session do a mix of both Performance/Manipulation Training and Scene Building. Each session will start with a Warm-Up. After Warm-Ups time will be spent with Performance/Manipulation exercises followed by a break and then returning to focus on Scene Building Exercises. Example: Daily Schedule 1. Warm-ups 2. Team Building Exercise 3. Puppet Manipulation Drill 4. Scene Building-script writing 5. 15 minute Break 6. Scene building-scene rehearsal 7. Performances of all scenes 8. Critique/Analyze 9. Final Puppet Drill

Team Building Exercises      

What are Team Building Exercises?

Exercises that are not strictly performance or puppetry exercises, but give participants their first experiences working with each other. Exercises that enable participants to work together to create team solution to a structured challenge. Non-competitive exercises that give participants a feeling of team success. The proposed exercises are: 1. Paper Tube Exercise 2. Corn Pellet Transfer Exercise

Paper Tube Exercise Overview

An instructor led exercise that requires participants to work together to simply coordinate their bodies to hold a paper tube horizontal and then slowly bring the tube to the ground while still keeping the tube level.

Corn Pellet Transfer Exercise overview

An instructor led exercise that challenges participants to transfer corn pellets from one metal can to another using only the provided tools and adhering to specified parameters. (see figure 06)

Figure 06

Corn Pellet Transfer Team Building Exercise.

Team Building Exercise follow up questions.

ü What was learned or observed during the exercises? ü What was the dynamic in terms of how the group came up with solutions and tested them? ü How do these exercises relate to developing scenes, or puppetry?

Table-top Puppetry Manipulation Training

Overview

This training is conducted with a Subject Matter Expert on Table-top puppetry. This section outlines the principles communicated in the physical drills and exercises taught by the Subject Matter Expert. These Exercises are physical exercises that are guided by a Subject Matter Expert. They are intended to build the strength and muscle memory skills needed to perform a hand puppet.

Features

Table-Top Puppetry has these features: a) Puppets can be seen from head to toe. (see figure 07) b) Puppets perform on a Table or flat surface. c) Black Suits, Hoods and Gloves for the puppeteers to make them unobtrusive (commonly black, but can be another color) d) Puppets are often performed with the puppeteers positioned behind the puppet. e) Puppets are often performed with three puppeteers, but the number of puppeteers depends on the puppet and the use.

Figure 07 Figure 08

Puppets can be seen from head to toe. Note the number of puppeteers.

Warm-ups

Key features: § Facilitated by a knowledge expert familiar with the disciplines of yoga, Pilates, or equivalent training and knowledge of the physical strains of puppet performance. § Conducted to prepare the participants bodies to comfortably participate in physical drills that will put unusual demands on their body. § Transition participants from their familiar world to the physical demands of puppet manipulation, § Comprised of stretches, and breathing exercises.

Puppet Manipulation Exercises

The following are instructor led exercises and drills to teach the physical skill necessary to work as a team to manipulate a puppet: § Getting into performance position. Participants learn the performance roles of a table-top puppet and learn how to get into a natural performance position. The roles of table-top puppeteers are: 1. Head Puppeteer 2. Arm Puppeteer 3. Foot puppeteer § Standing up straight. Participants learn how to center the puppet and find  a neutral position for the puppet and instinctively return to this position after the character does any movement or gesture. § Walking. Participants learn to work in their various performance roles to create a believable walk for the table-top figure. § Dancing Participants will create a choreography and a dance with the puppet figure.

Quality Measures

Each exercise can also be used as a quality measure. ü Is the puppet standing up straight? ü Does the puppet have good eye focus? Is the puppet looking where it is going? ü Does the puppet have a believable and natural walk?

Scene Building

Overview

Participants will learn the process of creating brief evocative scenes for use in a  presentation.

What is Scene Building?

Scene building is the process of working in groups to generate ideas, write scripts and then quickly rehearse the script and present the scene as an exercise.

Importance

Scene Building Training: · Allows participants to work in small groups with other participants to develop scenes relevant to the subject. · Runs the process of creating a dramatic presentation from a simple beginning idea. · Allows participants to tell their stories.

First Scene Building Exercise

Participants will form groups of two or three and work to create a scene. They will: · Write a script · Rehearse a script · Enact the scene for the other participants · Critique the effectiveness and clarity of all the scenes.

Writing the script

Participants are asked to form groups of 2 or 3 individuals and produce a script. Groups will have only 15 minutes to complete this task. The script must have these features: · The scene starts with an action that helps to illustrate the location of the scene. · The scene has two characters with at least one character engaged in some action. · The script will have an exchange of dialogue of  two or three lines per character. No more. · The script can be about any subject or set in any location. · The idea of the scene must incorporate the idea of something being revealed during the scene. This can be in the dialogue or the action.

Rehearsing a script

Once the 15 minute time limit has been reached, all groups must stop writing. The scripts they have written will then be handed to another group to enact. Each group will then rehearse and enact a scene written by another group. Each group will be given another 15 minutes to cast the scene, learn the script and create action appropriate to the script. At this point it is important to reinforce the following concepts: · The scene must start with a character engaging in an action to illustrate concepts like location, and tell us who the characters might be. · The scene must reveal something, or have a surprise. · The dialogue is only part of the scene, the length of the scene and what happens must be more than a simple exchange of two characters talking.

Performing the scenes

Each group will take turns performing their scene. It is important for the ones viewing the scenes to show respect and behave in an attentive and generous manner while others are performing. All groups will perform their scenes in quick succession.

Critiquing and analyzing the scenes

After all groups have finished performing, the trainer will mediate a discussion on the effectiveness of each scene going in order of the scenes as they were performed. All scenes will be analyzed based on very basic questions: ü What was the location? ü Who were the characters? ü What were the characters doing? ü What was revealed, or discovered during the scene? ü How can the scene be improved to make these points more clear?

Scene Improvement Note:

Scene Building training should persuade participants to illustrate an idea with actions, and behavior of the characters. The common pitfall is an over reliance on words. These exercises should demonstrate the wide variety of choices performers can make in acting out a scene without relying solely on dialogue. Discussions on improving the scenes should therefore generate discussion on how to better illustrate the idea of the scene visually rather than focusing on the text of the script. This will be important later when the puppet is incorporated into the enactment of the scenes. Additionally, it can be emphasized that characters do not need to be standing in one place and delivering lines to each other. They can move around the space, and get closer to each other, or move apart. This creates a more dynamic and visually interesting scene.

Combining Elements and Final Presentation

Using the puppet in a scene

Workshop time will be spent on the skills of manipulation however these skills take years to perfect. We will begin to use the puppets in the scenes with respect to the fact that refined puppet manipulation is not a requirement for performing an engaging scene. Given a limited time, most of the critical feedback will simply be in how effective the characters tell the story. Initially the performances of the puppets will have to “crash through” the manipulation, and then time will be spent refining and re-rehearsing for a final presentation.

Final Presentation

A final presentation will be created with the following elements: 1. An introduction to the collage of vignettes possibly introducing a theme if one has developed. 2. The Dance Choreography that was created from a performance exercise. 3. A selection of the best scenes created in the scene building workshops 4. A Final Tableau that echoes some of the moments in the scene and reinforces the theme. 5. A reprise of the Dance Choreography for a curtain call.

Quality Measures

The scenes and performance will be measured on objective quality measures. Were the scenes clear in their intent? Did the images and puppet dynamic evoke an emotional response? Were there moments of unison, where the puppets came together? Were there surprises?

Summary

Summary

This Workshop should enable participants to write their own stories, develop scenes, create images and puppets and work with others to craft an evocative performance.

Further skill development

All of these exercises are foundational skills needed to instinctively create a puppet performance. To master each skill a performer must invest their personal time in practicing on their own and with their colleagues. It is advised that participants help provide feedback for each other, or find a partner who can provide feedback from that vantage point of the audience for continued skill development.