Taking Your Puppetry To The Next Level

[davidmartiste]

Andrew - I hope you didn't misread my post. I'm all for putting in long hours for your craft. I agree, it is the best way to succeed. If anything, I have been consistent with working in the performing arts since I was 12. I'm sure you'd agree that anyone can benefit from a workshop/ class/ or apprenticeship with a master. I think that's all Stacey and I were referring to. I don't think anyone is looking to puppeteer for Sesame Street tomorrow just because they want to. I'm happy where I am and cherish the journey.

peace & puppets - David

...and let me just add a big THANK YOU for running the most consistent puppet blog out there. When others don't update for days/ weeks/ etc., I can always turn to Puppetvision for something fresh.

 

[staceyrebecca]

that's awesome news about your brother, Buck. You should brag...that's awesome.

I've had similar experiences. I mean, just working at our local theater, when I was first rehearsing our show, I had everyone I could watch & give me notes. The director is very matter-of-fact about things and at one point when she turned to walk away after giving me pages of notes, I just started crying. I felt like I'd never get it. I felt like I'd disappointed her. Just a rush of emotion and none of it positive.

Last Friday the head puppeteer came to watch me do the show, and while there were things for me to improve (there should always be), the majority of the things I struggled with before had improved so much. (hooray!) And I'm noooowhere near from perfect with that show, its just so far from where I was.

You always hear about that "____ teacher/director who was so hard on me, and I hated it then, but..."

But I somehow wonder about the gentle teachings that we get...if they're just as valuable, but less memorable, or possibly even sometimes overlooked because we didn't have a flood of emotion attached but rather it was just slowly ingrained to how we do things? I had a Tae Kwon Do instructor in HS, whom I visited last summer & sat in on a class. I was in awe of how he treated his students & remembered how kindly he taught us. There was a great amount of patience there that I don't often see from people in theater (or people in general....). I'm willing to bet that if the same diligence was applied to puppetry, as in teaching a firm & gentle Tae Kwon Do class, given time (10,000 hours?) we'd all be ninjas. Or something like hat.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

Andrew - I hope you didn't misread my post. I'm all for putting in long hours for your craft. I agree, it is the best way to succeed.

My last post was just what I said, some random thoughts. I wasn't specifically responding to anything anybody said.

I really liked what you wrote Stacey about "gentle teachings". It reminded me of another quote I've always liked, "the quiet ones change the world, the loud ones take the credit".

In that book I mentioned, Outlier, another thing the author writes about is that new research suggests that you can take almost any two people and give them same opportunities and if they work equally hard chances are they'll end up having the same level of talent. So everybody can be a puppet ninja with enough practice.

 

[dwmckim]

Actually that "gentle teaching" has existed in pupperty: Jim Henson.

He passed his craft down by techniques very similar to what you described...there's enough stories out there about like how he would spend take after take with a new-to-the-Muppets Steve Whitmire on some scene when the union guys were on set looking at their watches wondering "what the...?" when he could have just as easily had someone else do the scene or be much more harsher with stating what wasn't working. I think it's safe to say that Steve (and others) have subsequently become Puppet Masters under the guru.

I'd be interested to hear how much of this still exists in today's formal Muppet workshops that new Muppeteers go through...if it's more Jim-like or has evolved into a more "Boot Camp" style (somehow since Richard Hunt was initially in charge of a lot of them i'm guessing a lot of the latter with elements of the former found here and there)

 

[staceyrebecca]

I don't think anyone was suggesting that gentle teaching isn't available in puppetry, there is quite a bit of that. I think what I was saying at least is that we often look back on our lives & tend to put value on the people who gave us harsh or difficult lessons. However we, as humans, don't really tend to look back on the gentle ones simply because they just don't stick out as much. Something learned gently is usually just something learned.

So I guess if you want to be a memorable teacher, ride your students' patooties like there's no tomorrow.

 

[ShiveringCactus]

The way they've done it is to write and record music non-stop. It's not all they do, but it's the biggest thing in their lives. They are not afraid to throw away work they love or stop playing songs their small fan base loves because they don't want to get stale and stop pushing themselves. And they've done this for 11 years. Before even recording an album. I think that's very hard to do, but it's very necessary.

Thanks for posting about that, it really is inspirational!

Lately I've been really trying to just keep practising and keep making videos, even though they're very very far from perfect. Whenever I start worrying too much about trying to get everything 'right', I end up not really doing anything at all.

I do appreciate the constructive criticism I get, of course, but I think it's important to keep doing what we can, because we love it, rather than constantly worrying about what people will think and whether it will get massive ratings on youtube. I dunno, maybe that means that I'll never produce anything really good, but I think my videos have improved somewhat so far, so hopefully I'll get there in the end (and if not I'll have had plenty of fun at least!)

Deb

 

[CBPuppets]

I have been taking that to consideration myself.

 

[staceyrebecca]

I for one, plan to continue to produce really crappy videos.

(sorry...I couldn't fight the urge)

 

[CBPuppets]

I for one need this kind of information to make a pitch tape for Inside the Cube.

 

[ShiveringCactus]

I for one, plan to continue to produce really crappy videos.

(sorry...I couldn't fight the urge)

staceyrebecca, now you KNOW that's not what I meant!