In working on puppetry, it has become apparent that there are many rules and techniques to follow in order to present a well crafted performance. Puppetry can be a theatrical device, or a theatrical form within itself. Many contemporary theatre companies such as Blind Summit, Wakka Wakka, and Kneehigh present full length work wholly within the field of puppetry and can keep an audience from an array of demographic engadged, for the duration.

Looking at technique, in order to get the best out of puppetry there are a number of compulsary rules that are key. Focus is something to stongly consider when working with puppets. As the puppeteer, where the focus is has a huge impact upon where the audience will focus their attention. A puppeteer must engage the audience through their focus on the puppet they are working with. To focus attension elsewhere from the puppet, would put the pupeteer in major, over the puppet. I have found it is also helpful to enable the other rules of puppetry, if you give compleat attension to the puppet, and what you are doing.

Another rule to consider would be to make the actions of the puppet as realistic as possible. Looking primarily at lip syncing and breath, it is important when using a puppet to activate a transition between the puppet being a lifeless object, to being a living character. It can be easy to forget or slip from the rules of lip sync and breath, however to keep this rule consistent will help ensure a better performance. In the case of lip syncing it has been noticed that the puppet must open and close its mouth on every syllable (as a real human would), and sometimes on the more stressed syllables there must be emphasis on the way the puppet opens it’s mouth. Breath, is a lot more simple, in that the puppet must move as if inhaling and exhaling (again, like a real human being) the trick with breath is to keep it constant, and to make it dynamic.

One thing I have found is that while puppets must take on a life of their own, they can also use their ‘non-living’ ability to their advantage. Puppets do not neccisarily need to walk on a hard surface. In the likes of popular west end show ‘Avenue Q’ puppets walk in mid-air. This is because, as with the fact that the audience are suspending their dis-belief in believing that a puppet is alive, they can also suspend their dis-belief in beleiveing that a puppet is walking on a surface, when it is infact not. In puppetry this can be used as a device within the show, for example in ‘The Table’ by Blind Summit, the puppet stops mid air. This use of puppets doing, what a human cannot do allows for the form of puppetry to have an ability over real life actors, and it’s a good opportunity to be taken advantage of.

While working on puppetry, I worked with an array of different types of puppets; Newspaper puppets, puppets made from inanimate objects, and lip sync puppets, which all took on different ways in which they required to be handled, by the puppeteer. While this was the case, all of the puppets despite the form they took, needed to follow the rules stated above. More so, all puppets have a face, while this is more clear with lip sync puppets (such as those found on the ‘Muppet Show’) it is also evident in inanimate objects too. How often have we put a face on a car, or a door handle? We need this face in order to have a point of reference to make communication with the audience. In the case of all puppets, especially with the inanimate objects, rhythm and the way of movement is key too. While working on puppetry, we also worked on mask, and with both forms, it became clear that for work to be clear and defined, it needed to be punctuated, via the use of breath and rythm.

On a final note, while on many occations only one puppeteer may handle a puppet, in types of puppetry such as Bunraku puppetry, up to five puppeteers can handle one puppet at a given time (This was the case in ‘The Table’). Puppeteers can handle different parts of a puppet, for example one pupeteer on the legs, one on the head, one for the arms, ect. A level of complicite and communication between the puppeters is required in order to travel the puppet around the stage and for all of the parts of the puppet to still act as one puppet within itself. This must be done while giving the puppet compleat focus, so techniques such as rhythm and tention are good ways to communicate with each puppeteer. It is always essential to rememeber, the puppet is the performer, not the puppeteer.