Adult and Children Puppetry

So I set out to find a youtube video that demonstrated the relationship between adult and children's puppetry.  came across this and it is a super cool shadow puppet show that I just had to post but I wasn't sure if it applied to this blog topic. But the more I watched it I considered a few things. It talks about adult issues, things that little kids have no knowledge of but it is a commercial that I'm sure was on tv at some point and kids probably were entertained by the show itself even though they didn't know what it was about.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_HL2JSzYyo&feature=related

And then I found another link with shadow puppets that I thought was really cool as well. This one can be enjoyed by both adults and children. It's pretty clear whats going on and the cute characters they make such as the elephant and the giant head thing is funny and puts a smile on your face. But I think to some extent adults would appreciate them even more because they are able to understand just how they make them and how much work goes into the collaboration of bodies.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcvpYnvwW-I&feature=related

Jackboots on Whitehall

Ok, so I was surfing the web when I came across this. Before watching the video is looked interesting but after watching the video I wasn't sure if it was funny or just plain stupid. A spoof on WWII. A group of farmers from Kent saves Winston Churchill and take him to a mysterious haven known as Scot Land after Germany invades Britain in 1940. Like I said I don't know how I feel about this so watch it and decide for yourself.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2uspRqElks

The Devil's Violin

After reading chapter four there were many unique puppets I could choose from but the one that stuck out to me the most was the Devil's Violin. This is a traditional puppet from Gdansk Poland. It came about when the avant-garde "discovered" a new device in the puppetry world: the visual-pun puppet. If hadn't guessed already ths puppet is made from a wooden violin using the string-tightening screws as eyes, the bow as a second leg, and boer's hair as a beard. This puppet was used to represent the evils of secular music. Obviously the puppet was meant to be an antagonist and seeing as it represented evil it was the ultimate antagonist, we don't like it at all. So the character traits of the Devil's Violin are evil, mischeivous, and just in general bad. I found this puppet intriguing because the violin has always had it's place art musically but it's cool to see it have a part in the theatre world and not just as an instrument in the pit-orchestra. I've also found it intresting to see how society sneaks in these "what's socially acceptable" messages into art. In this case, secular music was evil and unacceptable and therefore took on an evil character in the show.

President Mubarak Puppet Show

The scene is set in President Mubarak's lavish lving room. All the finest paintings, sculptures, and other works of art west of the Taj Mahal. President Mubarak is pacing back and forth, clearly he is not well.  Coming from the window we can hear shouts of protest against the presdent.With every shout he becomes more and more ansy. He decides he's going to take a nap to try and calm his nerves. He takes a sleeping pill and drifts away. We then cut to his dream world where there is a tea table set almost identical to that in Alice in Wonderland. The president s confused at first but sits down anyway and starts chomping away at a crumpet. Out of no where appears Loui V, a once over thrown leader of France. He sits down without a word and observes President Mubarak. Then once again out of no where appears Hitler, also a bad egg leader. He sits and observes just as Loui. A few more puffs of smoke and Marie Antonette and Sadam Housain appear and sit. Marie is much hefter than she was when she was alive. And she can't seem to stop stuffing her face with rasberry cake. Finally Che Guevra appears and sits at the head of the table. He pours tea for all his guests and then begins to speak. He tells the president that he is a bad egg. "Everyone at the table are bad eggs whose people betrayed them and they paid for it. Mare Antonette paid a horrfying penalty forced to eat cake the rest of her afterlife until she explodes. The others won't even discuss what their punishments have been. Just give up the fight, give the people what they want. Learn from our mistakes. Nobody likes the stench of bad eggs. Well, since we got that out of the way, let's have a nice sit down dinner and forget our troubles, now that the gang is all back together."

It's short but sweet. You get the gyst of it.

Blog #1 Puppets Seem Alive

     I haven't really seen a ton of puppetry performances but of the ones I've seen I do have a favorite. I assume most everyone has seen the movie version of The Sound of Music. They have a puppetry performance in that movie where they perform "The Lonely Goatherd." It is the cutest puppet show ever and everytime I watch it I find myself laughing.
    I suppose to some extent it would be easy to keep track of the fact that those puppets aren't real and are being manned by people considering every few shots they show the actors manipulating them. However, they added quaint detail movement to the puppets that would easily help you lose yourself in the show. They have eyes shfting back and forth and batting eyelashes as if the lover puppets were really flirting, goat tails wagging as if they really were happy as clams, and the eye brows of the clarinetist moving up and down as if he really means the music he's playing. Not only are these details comical but they help relay the different personalities of the characters. The clarinetist really enjoys his music, it makes him happy, this convey through the subtle movement of hs eyebrows up and down. The lovers really desire love because they are flirting up to the wazoo with ther batting eylashes.All these little details make the puppets seem more real.
     I think if the show would've been live rather than in a movie, it would've been more amazing. And I'm sure the puppets would come to life even easier. The great thing about theatre is that it's live and there is this relationship between the audience and it's actors. The performers get feed back from the audience and the audience gets to feel like they're apart of something, that they are interacting with the performers. If the puppet show was live then the puppets would feel more alive. The audience easily gets lost in this audience/performer relationship and believes the puppets to be like actors. This would be especially true for comical shows.
     None-the-less, I enjoyed "The Lonely Goatherd" and found myself lost in the puppet's show. Yes I meant to put puppet's show instead of puppet show. When they come to life it's their show, they make it real for us.


Watch it for yourself, ten bucks says you'll love it. :-D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWaMJ331oYM