CHAPTER IX

Training Your Puppeteers

The stage is set. The play has been chosen. The puppets are ready. Let us gather around the table to talk about our parts. There should be a copy of the play in the hands of each puppeteer. Begin by reading the play, each pupil reading the part that he has chosen. After the reading, discuss and analyze each character, his appearance, his disposition, and his voice.

For instance, Captain Peggoty in _The Childhood of David Copperfield_ would have a rough-and-ready seaman’s voice that would boom from his deep chest, but his words would show generosity and kindness. Alice, in _Alice in Wonderland_ would have a little girl’s voice, one that would suggest wonderment, sometimes impatience, and a quaint dignity when she tried to appear grown up. The White Rabbit’s voice would be high, nervous, and impatient. The Caterpillar would have a slow, full, dignified voice, while the voice of the Duchess would be gruff and peppery. Deacon Bowman, the faithful old servant in _Men of Iron_, would have the trembling, wavering voice of extreme old age.

How shall the right person be found for each part? One of the most satisfactory ways is that of trying out for parts, with the group acting as a jury. The judges must keep in mind that the voice is very important in interpreting character and they will do well to choose the voice that is best suited to the character. If each puppeteer takes the same position at the table at each rehearsal, you will soon associate each voice with a certain place. This will make it much easier to address your lines to the proper character. The lines should be reread slowly for the sake of better understanding. In this way, each in turn soon comes to read the lines of his character with real appreciation. Do not hurry over the little words. Every word should be clearly spoken. Lift your eyes as often as you can from your manuscript. “Talk” your lines. In almost no time you will know your lines without looking at them. When you can speak your lines so naturally that any of your friends, with his eyes closed, could imagine the character you are interpreting from your voice, you are ready to take your puppet in hand.

Manipulation of your marionette is the second step in your training as a puppeteer. You will be surprised at the amount of time this requires. Some of the greatest puppeteers have spent months learning to manage a single puppet. In all your practice work, avoid careless motions of your hands, with your thoughts elsewhere. Be wholly absorbed in what you wish to do.

[Illustration: [Marionettes]]

[Illustration: [Marionettes]]

Your puppet in the making has been so weighted that when you hold your controller you will know the very second the puppet’s feet touch the floor. This delicate position must be held. Hold your controller steady. If you lower your controller after the feet have touched the floor your puppet will sag. Behold the sagging puppet! Begin gently. Do not jerk the strings. The least motion of the hand brings a quick response from the puppet. In fact, puppets are just like ourselves, if handled skilfully they will do almost anything you may wish them to do. As your skill grows so will your pleasure in your puppet grow. Its many almost human movements and gestures will delight you as they have delighted all those men and women who have been its friends. If you can hold your marionette before a mirror and practise with it, speaking your lines, as you pull the strings, you will be surprised to see how lifelike it becomes. You will discover that a slight movement may indicate very strong feeling.

A whole chapter could be written about the movements of the head. Let us see how the head may show thoughtfulness. When you are thoughtful, how do you hold your head? Release the head strings and your puppet’s head will drop forward as yours has just done. If you wish to turn this thoughtful pose into one of discouragement, let the shoulders droop forward as well, so that the chest becomes hollow. How would you stand if listening? Release the head strings and slant the controller so that the head falls a little to one side and a little forward. How near to this and yet how different is the attitude of craftiness and cunning. To the listening pose you simply add a forward thrust of the head and a hunching up of the shoulders. For the proud, erect bearing of a king, hold your controller horizontally. If your puppet is a charming young lady, her head will make many quick, graceful little turns. This may be done by releasing the head strings and tipping the controller back and forth.

We now come to the movements of the shoulders and the waist. The center string controls the movements of the waist and is used whenever you want your puppet to sit down, kneel down, or bow. As you know there are a hundred different ways of sitting down. The young and old, each has his way. So, too, have the proud and the humble, the gentle and the boisterous. When you make your puppet sit down, unless he is very stiff and proud, let his body settle a little. You will notice that most people do this. When you pull the center string you must at the same time lower the controller slightly to keep the feet from swinging off the floor.

There are quite as many ways of bowing as there are of sitting down. A courtier would bow from the waist, his head slightly bent; the little princess, in her full skirts, would courtesy gracefully with her head tilted backward.

Next, we come to that small but important thing, the hand. When one knows how to control it, it can do such wonderful things. It can show force or gentleness, harshness or kindness, nervous excitement or shaky old age. It is possible for a marionette to draw a sword, practise at the pells, engage in fist fights, and hammer at a forge. When a marionette must hammer at a forge, as in _Sigurd, the Volsung_, and in _Men of Iron_, be sure that it makes a heavy, steady stroke. The hammer must be of iron. If the armorer sings a jolly rhythmic song, he can keep time with his hammer. Suit your gestures to your words. It is the fault of inexperienced puppeteers that they make all gestures alike. Experienced puppeteers suit their gestures to the ideas and to the feelings which they wish to convey.

It is when a puppet is called upon to do some unusual thing, such as dancing, climbing a wall, fighting a duel, riding a horse in a tournament, that difficulties appear.

Let us take the first of these—dancing. The Bear in _Men of Iron_ danced. Dainty little Lady Alice in _Men of Iron_ danced. Fat jolly Tweedle Dee in _Alice in Wonderland_ danced. The surly old cook in the Duchess’s kitchen danced. But imagine the differences in these dances! Each dance expressed the character of the dancer. The Bear danced to a lively jig whistled by his trainer. His steps were carefully worked out in time with the tune, and when once learned were never varied. Little Lady Alice, with dainty step and charming courtesies, danced to the tune of a medieval love song. Tweedle Dee danced to a rollicking tune played on an accordion. His steps were lively and when he danced across the stage on his right foot, kicking out his left in time with the music, he made everyone laugh. The cook’s dance was an Irish jig.

Puppets are versatile. To them belongs not only the interpretation of the spoken word but they are equally at home in the world of pantomime, music, and dance.

The illustrations in this book show how puppets can even perform a ballet. Here you can see their interpretation of the colorful and dramatic Russian ballet, _Petrouchka_. The cast of twenty-one puppets included four principal actors, the manager, the Moor, the Ballerina, and Petrouchka and besides these, a showman and a trained bear, an organ grinder, and bands of gypsies.

A ballet or an opera will naturally require a different procedure than a play, because the character analysis comes from the music. Here are the steps by which the _Petrouchka Ballet_ was worked out:

1. The story was told to the pupils.

2. The musical score as a whole was played to them.

3. The motif for each character and incident was played to them.

4. The musical score as a whole was again played and the pupils listened for the motifs.

5. Each character was analyzed and his probable actions upon the stage were discussed.

6. The puppet was taken in hand and the interpretation of the music with it was begun.

There are four scenes in this ballet. The first scene is a street fair in a Russian village. A little theater occupies the center back stage in which the stage manager exhibits the Moor, the Ballerina, and Petrouchka. The scene closes with their lively dance and Petrouchka’s declaration of love to the Ballerina.

Scene II is in Petrouchka’s box and shows his despairing love for the Ballerina.

Scene III is in the Moor’s box and shows him playing with his ball. The Ballerina enters and they dance together. Petrouchka rushes in and in a jealous rage tries to kill the Moor. The Moor chases Petrouchka out of his box.

Scene IV is again at the fair. There are gay dances by gypsies and nounous. Petrouchka runs in, chased by the Moor who stabs him. The people draw away and the Ballerina kneels beside him. The manager comes in, the Moor, the Ballerina, and all the people depart. The manager drags poor, lifeless Petrouchka toward the little theater. Suddenly up over the little theater appears the spirit of Petrouchka, mocking and gesticulating. The manager stands aghast.

So that you may understand how this ballet was produced, let us take the second scene and work it out together. The scene opens with a crashing chord as Petrouchka is thrown onto the stage. (No less than thirty times did the puppeteer rehearse this entrance with the music.) He lay in a motionless heap. At a few plaintive notes he lifts his head, then drops it again. To the quick notes that follow he beats the floor with his hands. As the music grows in volume, his despair increases, and he leaps to his feet and rushes wildly about the room, beating frantically upon the walls. As the music changes and becomes soft and reminiscent, Petrouchka thinks of the Ballerina and stretches out his arms, then sorrowfully drops his head. The motif for the Ballerina announces her entrance. She comes in gay and light as a bird. Petrouchka, overcome with emotion, drops on his knees before her. She continues her gay little dance and leaves as lightly as she entered. Despair again seizes Petrouchka, who dashes himself against the walls, then finally falls to the ground. The curtains close.

In a gymnasium there are certain exercises that bring all the muscles of the body into use. Likewise there are times when the whole body of a marionette must come into action. If you want a marionette to climb a wall, your audience must feel that the marionette is actually pulling himself, with effort, up and over the wall. This requires a great deal of patient practice. To make your marionette climb a wall, he must first appear to catch hold of the wall, then to draw up one knee, then to strain up as you would, then to throw an arm over the wall, then to pull his body up until he can throw a leg over the wall. If this is well done, the audience climbs the walls with the puppet.

Sometimes, puppets must appear to assist each other. For instance, when Myles was thrown on the ground by the bully, Walter Blunt, Gascoigne, his friend, got down on one knee beside him, threw his arm around his shoulders, and apparently helped him to rise.

There are certain little tricks which are very effective, such as crying, or dropping off to sleep and snoring. In the _Childhood of David Copperfield_, Mrs. Gummage frequently lifted her apron to her eyes and wept. As one corner of her apron was sewed to her hand, this was an easy thing to do. Can you see her, shoulders shaking, her apron to her eyes, sniffling, “I am a lone, lorn critter and everything goes contrary with me?”

In the illustration, page 130, you can see how a puppet may appear to toss a ball. This is the way it was done. One puppeteer held the Moor’s controller while his assistant held the end of a string attached to the ball. Through practice, these puppeteers were able to make the Moor’s hand and the ball rise at the same moment, thereby giving the impression that the Moor tossed the ball. When the Moor stopped playing with the ball, the puppeteer who held the string attached to the ball let it fall to the stage. The audience felt that the Moor was tired of playing and had tossed the ball aside.

In this same ballet, an organ grinder appeared. The handle of the organ was fastened to one of his hands. When the puppeteer pulled the hand string up and down in time with the music, it seemed to the audience that the organ was really being played. A marionette can be made to play a flute. The flute is fastened in one hand, and a string from the flute passed through the mouth of the marionette up through the top of its head to the controller. When the puppeteer pulls the flute string, the flute is raised to the mouth of the marionette.

All these effects and many others can be accomplished when you understand the manipulation of your strings. Sometimes you may wish to use birds, bees, butterflies, or flying dragons. If you keep the wings in constant motion you can make your audience believe that these winged creatures are really flying. Of course, bees and butterflies move their wings more rapidly than birds and dragons. The more you observe flying birds, the better you will be able to imitate them.

You have made the puppet look the part, now see that it acts the part. You have made your hero look like a hero, now see that he acts like a hero. You made the king look like a king. Can you make him act like a king?

The third step in your training as a puppeteer comes when you have acquired enough skill to manage your puppet. Then you are ready to join your fellow puppeteers on the bridge. At first you will probably feel that the bridge is not large enough for you alone, not to mention four or five others. Experience will show you, however, that you can do a great deal in a very small space. This means good management and practice and consideration for your fellow puppeteers.

Now that the puppet is on the stage, imagine what a shock it would be to your audience to see a great hand coming down below the proscenium arch. To prevent this, always keep your hand, even during rehearsals, close to your control.

While on the stage, every motion must have a reason behind it. Puppets cannot move aimlessly about the stage any more than real actors can. Every gesture, too, must mean something.

Now the time has come to show yourselves as real artists. Your stage is your picture and though you change it with every move of your puppets, you are always making it the picture. This means that you should know what artists speak of as arrangement or composition.

[Illustration: [Stage]]

Let us suppose that you are sitting in the audience and saw two puppets standing like this: “Oh, how stupid,” you would say. Imagine them standing like this:

[Illustration: [Stage]]

[Illustration:

_Upper: Marionettes from "The Adventures of Alice."_

_Lower Left: Bear and Trainer from "Men of Iron."_

_Lower Right: Marionette from "Petroushka."_ ]

“How interesting.” But why interesting? The first spacing was equal, hence it was monotonous. The second was varied, therefore, more interesting. Again you are sitting in the audience looking at the picture and this is what you see:

[Illustration: [Stage]]

Two small figures on one side and one large figure on the other side. How satisfying! The reason is balance. You can see by these two simple illustrations how necessary it is to keep in mind not only the movements of your puppets, but the positions of all the puppets on the stage. If each puppeteer understands this and considers the relation of his puppet to every other puppet, the audience will always see an interesting picture.

Equally as important as the stage picture is the conduct of your puppets when on the stage. They should all show interest when another puppet is speaking. This may be done by turning the head to listen, nodding the head to show agreement, shaking the head to show disagreement, leaning forward to show interest. In a hundred small ways a puppet can show life. The point is, there should be no dead puppets on the stage.

But there is a danger here. Puppets must not divert the attention of the audience from the main character. For example, in _Men of Iron_ in the scene showing the great hall of Devlin Castle, the minstrel is singing before the king and his court. The jester, with his pranks and capers, could easily have taken too much of the attention of the audience to himself and away from the minstrel, but instead, he sat down on the floor near the minstrel and pretended to be playing a lute. He followed every gesture of the minstrel and when the minstrel finished his song, rose and bowed low before the king. The jester did likewise, to the amusement of the audience.

Good puppeteering is much like good ball playing, the interest is in the ball but the ball always moves. It goes from player to player. Any player who holds the ball is the center of interest, some longer and some shorter. Your skill and cleverness can keep this sense of movement and interest in your puppets and their play. This smoothness is accomplished by your quickness in watching for the last words spoken by the speaker before you, which is called your cue; and also by your cleverness in planning ways to help out a puppeteer and his puppet who has difficult things to do.

When the bear trainer, for example, commands his bear to stand on his head, the boy who is holding the bear’s controller must have time enough to make the difficult manipulation of the strings. If the puppeteers who manage the squires make their puppets lean forward and call out in surprise to each other, “What? A trick?” “The bear can do a trick.” “Look.” “Bravo!” “Bravo!” (as the bear succeeds in standing on its head), they will be of great assistance to the bear puppeteer.

Here is an illustration of the way in which you can avoid awkward pauses. The Knave of Hearts, in the play by that name, steals some tarts and climbs out of the window. Now you can see that his puppeteer would need plenty of time in getting the knave through the window. Lady Violetta, who helps him steal the tarts, shows great excitement and cries to him to hurry, then she runs to the door, saying that she hears someone coming. Then she runs back again. She repeats this until the knave has made his escape. You can easily imagine how this clever trick excited the audience.

Getting your puppet off the stage is just as important as getting it on. Time your exits so that there is no awkward pause between the last word spoken and the exit.

You have imagined yourself sitting in the audience seeing a picture. Now can you imagine your disappointment when you cannot understand a single word the puppets say? Inexperienced puppeteers are apt to think that it is the high, loud voice that will reach the people in the last row of seats. Experienced puppeteers know that it is the clear, full, rich voice that carries. Address your words to those farthest away from you. Keep in mind that your voice must travel down and out through the proscenium arch. If your head is not lowered, your voice will strike the curtain, which will deaden it.

Sometimes it is necessary to make the voice seem to come from a distance and yet every word must be distinct. This can be done in a very simple way. Bend your arm and lift it to your face, holding your mouth inside your elbow. Now when you speak, your words seem to come from a distance. As you slowly lift your mouth from your arm, your voice seems to come nearer and nearer. In _Sigurd, the Volsung_, there is a scene where the dragon, who possesses a treasure of gold, comes, at twilight, out of the rocky crevice of a great cliff, to drink at a pool. Before he is seen, his voice is dimly heard calling, “Gold, gold, my gold, my gold.” The boy who spoke these lines used this trick so cleverly that his audience shivered as the dragon appeared.

Every person knows that the greatest charm of a voice is its naturalness. This naturalness comes to you when you let your feelings go down the strings into your puppet. Then it is that your puppet comes to life, is gay, sad, prankish, haughty, timid, bold, willful, cunning, sly, or lovable. When your puppet obeys your every feeling, you and your puppet are one.

[Illustration: [Marionette]]

[Illustration: [Stage]]