British artists such as William Symmonds and Olive Blackham continued Craig's theatrical thought process, approaching the puppet as a theatrical alternative, but they were behind the scenes of a much louder, more domestic form of puppetry. Becoming an 'artist', however, and not just a showman or performer, was and is a far more complex procedure, largely dependent on how one discovers puppets and perceives one's role as a puppeteer. Long before, and after, people from all walks of life would design, craft and perform with puppets for that same autonomy. Theoretically, puppets offered Craig the potential for complete autonomy and control over the creative process of theatre. Craig was in fact protesting against the actor's ego the puppet represented a utopian alternative for the director, no longer would they have to struggle against the habits and emotions of the living breathing thespian instead the director would have complete control.Ĭraig approached puppetry with a 'theatre optic'. The piece was hyperbolic and many of his contemporaries thought Craig wanted the actor gone with a puppet in its place. In 1907, nearly fifty years before our story officially begins, Craig wrote an essay and called it the 'Actor and the Ubermarionette'. The first twentieth century English artist, says Speaight, to tempt theatre with the wonders of puppetry was Edward Gordon Craig. Puppetry traveled from hobby into theatre, but struggled to become adult along the way. This thesis is a continuation of that history, plotting British puppetry's reintegration within a world of theatre, amongst those with a 'theatre optic'. But in it he traces a period of fifty years, in which English puppetry transitions from art into hobby. Fifty years earlier, however, at the turn of the century, puppet theatre had been on the verge of extinction "the voice that called it from the shadows was that of the artist." Speaight's final chapter is only five pages long. In 1955, when George Speaight published his 'History of the English Puppet Theatre', the aspirations of its enthusiasts had been quite different.Īccording to Speaight, who dedicates the final chapter of his book to the twentieth century, in 1955 puppetry was "a wide spread activity in many thousands of homes and workshops", primarily a hobby for the "common man". Since 1974 puppeteers and non-puppeteers alike had wanted puppetry to belong within the 'arts' as a legitimate form of adult theatre. By 1992, puppetry was embroiled in a language and network of fine arts and human theatre, elements it most certainly lacked at the beginning of our period. Keith Allen, a previous employee of the PCT, carried out the enquiry, concluding that puppetry was one of "contemporary theatre's best kept secrets", taking for granted that puppetry was indeed a form of theatre, however secretive. Entitled 'On the Brink of Belonging', the report was an attempt to chart and describe the working lives of puppeteers in the 'United Kingdom', questioning when and why puppetry had earned its low artistic status. The ACGB's decision to take puppetry seriously was triggered by a report, written in 1991. By plotting a journey from hobby into theatre this thesis examines the communities and individuals behind a half-century of British puppetry, 'discovering' moments of cultural appropriation, negotiation and adaptation along the way. This thesis begins a half-century earlier, in 1952, when British puppetry was primarily the hobby of enthusiastic craftsmen. Twenty years later, in 2012, the stage adaptation of Michael Morpurgo's War Horse provided the National Theatre with a quarter of its annual income. British practitioners of fine art and theatre were quietly 'discovering' puppetry and Francis wanted to trumpet their work.Īs a result, in 1992 the Arts Council of Great Britain (ACGB) decided to make puppetry a 'priority funding area'. Inspired by the work of a few pioneering puppeteers, Penny Francis, the 'non-puppeteer', helped found the PCT in 1974. As I sat and listened, London, the home of Penny Francis and the Puppet Centre Trust (PCT), felt a long way away. Huddled over an electric heater, in the small foyer of his purpose built puppet theatre, Chris Somerville spoke at length about his life as a puppeteer in Wales, Colwyn Bay. "Penny Francis is not a puppeteer, she's nothing to give to puppetry apart from things she can invent." Chris Somerville (24.
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