Does your puppet have a life of its own?
by Anna ~ July 15th, 2009. Filed under: General.I’m an MA student studying set design and my dissertation is on puppetry; specifically puppets as aspects of the puppeteer.
If you have any thoughs on the following, your comments would help with my writing:
* Do you ever find that your puppet does or say things you never intended, do you find it/they sometimes have a life of their own? Examples would be great.
* I remember a humourous tv clip where Rod Hull’s puppet attacked Michael Parkinson. Are there any other funny instances like this where the puppeteer appears to be a separate entity from the puppet?? There’s the film Dead of Night for example, where the dummy eventually takes over!
* I’ve found an internet site by Tova Ackerman regarding puppets/marionettes as metaphors for aspects of the puppetteer. If anybody knows of books or articles along these lines, I’d love to hear about them.
Any thoughts at all would be most appreciated.
Many thanks,
Anna - MA Production Design for Film and Television,
Kingston University
London
July 28th, 2009 at 5:56 am
Hi Anna,
Great to see people using the site.
I was working with Roadworks puppet Company back in the 80’s and they were performing a show called’ Ghosts’ A string marionette falls in love with the puppeteer as part of the show which the puppeteer did very well .On one occasion the puppet string got stuck behind a shirt button and the marionette swung her hand round to touch the puppeteers leg, the puppeteer was rather alarmed until he realised what had happened.
When one operates a puppet there is a recyclic notion of believability and manipulation, we call this a state of anima/animus. This would be an area to look into further into for your dissertation.
All the best
S
September 1st, 2009 at 12:14 pm
Thanks for that. Apologies for the slow response…I couldn’t log on until now.
Yes - I wonder if oftentimes the puppeteer, like many performers, gets slightly mesmorised/lost in the performance itself. So much so that the object/puppet feels as though it has a life of its own.
I know a little about anima and animus in Jungian terms. I’m looking at how puppets can be used (in film) to convey aspects of one’s self (usually the puppeteer) that one isn’t totally conscious of, but can use the puppet to help explore more fully aspects of one’s inner self.
I’m looking at Jung’s ideas of shadow, and I think anima and animus may fit in here. There’s something very interesting about being able to take on the role of the opposite sex, to be able to fly, to be or do many things one couldn’t necessarily do in every day life.
In terms of shadow, Jung states that it often comes out when one is drunk, ill, tired etc, and we may do or say things we wouldn’t do normally. Perhaps when one gets lost in the character of the puppet, a similar process occurs - things that are kept in the shadows start rising to the surface.
I love the incident you’ve described above. I would have jumped too!!!!
Best wishes,
Anna