theatre

Shadow puppets for Jigsaw’s Wendy

Posted by hil

peterpan

These are some of the shadow puppets I made recently for Jigsaw Theatre Company’s production of Wendy, a new musical re-imagining of J M Barrie’s Peter Pan. These and others can be seen in more detail in my portfolio set. The play had a public season at the Street Theatre and performances in schools, and received a good review in the Canberra Times.

One of the Peter Pan puppets is above. There were two crocodiles. This big one needed a handle as well as the jaw rod.

crocodile

This is John flying and some set elements for the flying sequence.

shadowpuppets

Unfortunately I didn’t get photos of the puppets in action,  because they look so much more attractive and bright on screen. The only screen shot I have is this blurry one of the Marauders Rock mermaid scene, taken without proper lighting behind. I like the water in particular.

mermaid shadow puppet scene

Saving traditional crafts and records of them

Posted by hil

On FriendFeed today Amy today pointed to a British House of Commons debate about trying to save traditional crafts. I rather fear it is a lost cause. The upsurge in crafting and making in the last few years driven by the web is great in many respects, but I suspect probably can do little to help the traditional crafting skills of the sort referred to in the debate, as economies of scale are lined up against them.

But the article did remind me of some lovely images of traditional craftsmen by printmaker Stanley Anderson. Here are three:

Coppicing:

Coppicing

Chairmaking:

chairmaking

Basket weaving:
basket

These are from Country Bazaar, a 1970’s book about country crafts.  (I’m not sure about copyright here – please let me know if it is an issue). You can find a few more if you google, for instance The Violin Maker, but wouldn’t it be cool if it were possible to see the whole series?

Desirée, my dear dead manta ray

Posted by hil

Manta ray

This is the big dead manta ray prop that I made for the Street Theatre’s production of Jacques Brel is alive and well and living in Paris.  Sadly Desirée – my name for her  – was cut from the final production, but I loved making her.  Manta rays are such awesome creatures!

Because she had a wingspan of over 2 metres, I decided chalk on the floor was a good way to start drawing up a pattern. I also bought myself a little plastic model of a manta to refer to, which turned out to be useful.

Manta ray

From this I traced a pattern onto butcher’s paper and from there onto sheets of polystyrene which were then built up and glued into a block.

Manta ray

I also decided to insert a strip of thin plywood into the underside right across the width of the wingspan, so that the wings would be protected from breaking, especially at the tips. I also did that with the fins that I added.

Then much shaping with a really sharp knife, a narrow power belt  sander, and sandpaper. I decided to keep the surface a bit rough, which often makes it easier for an audience to read.

When I use polystyrene that will just have a painted finish I skin it with muslin first. Here you can just see some of the muslin draped over the spray adhesive can on the right.

Manta ray

I usually add a little bit of latex to the first coat of paint to help make everything stick to the styrene.

Manta ray

Then it’s on to colouring; for the final shading I used spray paint so that the colours merged softly. It was tricky to seat in the eyes (painted and glossed wooden door knobs) and get the shape of the upper eyelid right.

Manta ray

There are a few more in-between photos in my photoset at Flickr.

Fantastic new His Dark Materials puppets!

Posted by hil

snow-leopard-3

I noticed a flurry of searches on my blog recently for puppets from Philip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials but only realized that there was a new production by Blind Summit Theatre when I read on Stitches and Glue that Paul Vincett was one of the makers of the new puppets, along with the puppet designer Nick Barnes, and Billy Achilleos.

I’m really excited by the exquisite aesthetic of these puppets. Take a look at the showreel slide show or the album of stills. They suggest the essence of the creatures with the simplest of lines – just beautiful!

Blind Summit Theatre was founded in 1997 by Nick Barnes and Mark Down to make new plays with puppets for adult audiences. His Dark Materials is on at Birmingham Rep: 13th March – 18th April; and then at the West Yorkshire Playhouse : 28th May – 20th June.

There is some great puppet making information on the Blind Summit site, too, though not specifically for this kind of puppet.

The Promise

Posted by hil

Little elephant and boy puppets

Remember the little elephant and boy puppets I was working on last year? Here are some pictures of how they turned out. They were for the Flying Fruitfly Circus production The Promise, which premiered at the Sydney Festival about a month ago. The build for the show was quite big, and largely undertaken by Tim Denton and Annie Forbes in Melbourne, but I was asked to make these little ones and a life-size elephant trunk (more of the trunk soon in another post). The designer was Richard Jeziorny, whom I really like working with.

Little elephant and boy puppets

Little elephant and boy puppets

It’s part of the business that directors sometimes need to alter significantly or completely cut scenes and props, and in this case the elephant was altered or remade in Melbourne so that it could have more head movement than the original design. I was given the opportunity to do it, but couldn’t take it on at the time. It looks from this picture as if it was covered and the head possibly remade completely.

promise_rev

The production received great reviews such as this at the Australian Stage Online. I’d like to see it one day if they tour up this way.

Previously:
A little heffalump
Playing
Studio pics
Nearly done

Messy

Posted by hil

Studio

This is what my studio looks like at the moment. I’m making a large dead manta ray out of polystyrene. I wish it wasn’t so messy and that I didn’t have to wear a respirator all day, but it works nicely.

Disfarmer

Posted by hil

Mimi mentioned seeing Dan Hurlin‘s tabletop puppet show Disfarmer when she was in NYC recently.  It’s described as

a puppet theater inspired by the life of American portrait photographer Mike Disfarmer (1884-1959). Something of a small town “Boo Radley,” Disfarmer operated a photography studio in Heber Springs, Arkansas, where for years locals and tourists lined up to have their picture made.

In the press kit one gets more of an idea of how Hurlin has interpreted the character, and why he chose the medium of puppetry: because both the photos and puppets are ‘inanimate objects whose inner lives are supplied by the insistence of the audiences imagination’.

I love the detailed movement and expressions in the behind-the-scenes video above, and the way in which you very naturally accept the puppeteer’s hands as the puppet’s at times. And the way the things like the clock just appear when they are needed.

Update:

Here is a cool work-in-progress excerpt which allows you to see the puppet’s construction, to a degree:

Kenny Koala

Posted by hil

Kenny Koala

Kenny Koala

Constable Kenny Koala has been working out over summer and is looking like a new koala! Do you like his spiffy new jacket and cap? Kenny is a much loved community liason officer with the Australian Federal Police, and has been educating children in Canberra on a range of crime prevention and child safety messages for the last 25 years or more.

Kevin Rudd glasses

Posted by hil

Kevin Rudd glasses

Eight pairs of sparkly Elton-John-sized Kevin Rudd glasses made for Shortis and Simpson’s lastest political satire, Three Nights at the Bleeding Heart, currently at the Street Theatre.