Tag Archives: puppeteer

Fred Fettler’s “Pony 3000” is universally well received & The Mad Hatter’s Tea Party crashes the Queen’s prize giving!

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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Well, such a lot has been happening since my last post!  I thought I had better leave it till now to tell you all about it, as I hope everyone has been having a good time in the real world rather than hunching over computer screens.  There are those people, of course, who, like my husband, feel the need to give the world a minute by minute account of their impressions of the Jubilee concert via their smart phones, but each to his own.

Anyway… Since I got the go-ahead for the mechanical horse project I have, pretty much, been in a state of stress and anxiety.  It turned, in my head, from a fun cool idea that would be exciting to try, to a project involving lots of things I was unfamiliar with and had never done before and was, therefore, very scary.  The reason I wanted to do it was because it was different and therefore a challenge, but I am never completely happy until a project is completed and there are no more opportunities for something to go wrong.

When the mechanical horse was incomplete I worried about getting it done; when it was finished I worried about it breaking.  I also worried about the performance part.  We attempted to do some rehearsal and work out some basic routines and phrases/jokes we could use.  We did get a lot of things thought through and practiced and down on paper, but the lack of an audience to play off seemed to restrict us as to what we could rehearse in advance.  Tim, (playing the inventor of the machine Fred Fettler) was very good in coming up with several car related jokes and visual gags such as the “environmental controls” – a blanket.  I came up with the Monty Pythonesque tin can hoof noises and the birdy noises etc.

Ali Jones, (who was the organiser of the My Last CARnival event) was far from sure whether there would be many people to play to.  But I had my trusty traffic cone loud hailer and one of my main jobs (as Mr. Otto Maton, mechanical M.C.) was to pursue people with this and entice them to come and look at the “Pony 3000, the transport of the future”, and have a “ride” on the back.  In the event, we were busy almost non-stop from 9.30am to 4.00pm and my fellow performer Tim Austin was enjoying himself so much I had great difficulty in persuading him to take an hour’s lunch break and one tea break in the afternoon.

We were so busy I did not get a chance to have a go in the “Astronaut’s Caravan” but we did get a look at the great shadow film Tom Lloyd & Dreamtime Film had made with the Ingleton Primary School children.  We also saw the fantastic “My Last Car” performance in the town hall.  Comments I heard from other audience members implied that it was a real treat to have such a top quality piece of modern performance in Bentham.

From the point where we put the horse in the shop window up until several days after the performances with the horse, I have received nothing but positive glowing feedback.  The horse has now retired from the window and disassembed for storage.  It seems a bit sad, but we intend to promote it as a street show and expect to get it out for more performances in the future.  If the situation requires it, we could even convert it so that it actually travels down the road for processions etc.  So if you are interested in having “Fred Fettler’s Pony 3000 – The Transport of the Future” at your event, please let me know!  We will be creating a show page for it on the main Rough Magic Theatre website soon.

And speaking of existing creations got out of storage for new events, Rough Magic Theatre’s Mad Hatter’s Tea Party, from our “Alice in Wonderland” show, was let loose on the unsuspecting public having their D.I.Y. picnic teas after Bentham’s own Jubilee Flotilla had paraded through the streets.  I was pleased that we had considerably better weather than the real Queen did as, despite the constant moaning of the TV commentators, their event was NOT spoiled by the weather and I think ours would have been.

The Mad Hatter and the March hare seemed to inspire smiles all round and together with the excellent band contributed a lot to the party atmosphere.  He had been told to keep away from Bentham’s own Queen, (played by Lizzie Star a local artist who is also keen on amateur dramatics) while she was judging the boats and giving out prizes but despite this managed to get himself a medal later in the proceedings and was dubbed Sir Mad of Hatter.

Having got this over with I was able to completely relax and enjoy the Elderberry and Redcurrant jam I made the previous night with our scones (shop bought but quite nice).  Later that day I finally got the chance to try out the meths burner and camping cook set that I bought a while back for our trip to “Masquepony” – the camping street arts festival on 17-19th August.  We are going to watch other people on the 18th, camp overnight and I’ll be performing “Edward Lear’s Nonsense” on the 19th.

The burner eventually lit, (it is very difficult to tell as it burns with an invisible flame) and I managed to cook curried veg to go with our microwaved mung beans using the frying pan and the sauce pan.  It turned out very nicely and didn’t taste methsy at all, (I have a memory of previous meals cooked on stoves like this tasting a bit funny, but I think it must be the smell of the meths that does it).

Not counting the Pirate Party that Tim has coming up the Beverley Puppet Festival is the next big event to look forward to on the 15th of July which is the sister festival to Skipton Puppet Festival that I have already been involved with in the past.  This is the first time we have done this festival and it is organised by Anna Ingleby of Indigo Moon, and I’m hoping we’ll get to see their “Aladdin” show at last.

Bye for now!

Final Filming of Hansel & Gretel Finished at Last!

Posted on by Collette Knowles
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Due to various other commitments the filming of our Toy Theatre show Hansel & Gretel has been dragging on over quite an extended period of time.

Indeed, this time last year we would have been creating it ready for performance at the Vischmarkt Papierentheater Festival in the Harderwijk, The Netherlands.

There were various technical issues that we encountered in the process of doing the filming that made it quite a lengthy process.

Any of you toy theatre practitioners out there who use LED strip lighting for their shows like we do will know that it can cause the recorded images to flicker and strobe.

The flickering rate of the lights is what allows you to dim and raise the light level.  A low light level is created by a slower flickering rate, which is undetectable to the naked eye and all looks great during a live performance.  In addition, levels of light which are fine for a live audience could often “white out” the colour and detail on figures and scenery, so everything had to be adjusted to appear correct for the filmed version.

Getting the show filmed at all was a real treat for my co-performer and husband Tim and myself, because we had never seen the show from the audience’s point of view before.  It was quite hard from a directing and performing point of view to know what to do and where to position the puppets (I call them toy theatre puppets, other people don’t but that’s their business) on the stage.

When I designed the show I worked up a storyboard, like a cartoon strip, for every scene. This included descriptions of the action, vaguely what characters would say and what sound and lighting effects and music should be where.  Then from that I made a separate breakdown of all of the puppets and scenery that would need making and vaguely what they would look like.  After that Tim wrote the script and I did a rough mock up of all of the puppets and scenery and performed the play in a smaller Toy Theatre.  Then going on to make up the best quality full size scenery and puppets.

So from the beginning, I had a visual idea of how I wanted it to look, but the filming was my first real opportunity to see what it was really like.  I’m glad to say that I am pretty happy with it and the dynamic, exciting script and (if I say so myself) the excellent voice performances project real power and emotion into the real issues that affect Hansel & Gretel, their parents and ourselves today.

What Parents at the moment aren’t worried about how they are going to put bread on the table to support their family?  Who isn’t affected by the gap between the super rich greedy people, (like the witch) and the poor, (Hansel & Gretel’s family)?

But, don’t get the idea that the show is all serious and doom and gloom.  It has funny bits, scary bits and of course, (the bit that everyone loves) the nasty greedy witch gets pushed in the oven and the brave, good children triumph at the end.

To those that say that a story like this is unrealistic wish fulfilment and in the real world bad people go unpunished and prosper in their lives, I say it is a story to aspire to and teaches real values.  Little people, like Hansel & Gretel can make a difference if they try hard and support each other in adversity.  Good people who do nothing allow evil to triumph.

But that’s enough moralising; I was telling you about the filming!

In the end we had to use alternative lighting to what we use in the live show, to eliminate the scenes with the worst strobing.  We used the LED lighting rig where possible and as a result there is a tiny bit of flickering on some of the scenes, but we think it is not so bad as to be a problem.

I’m afraid to say the video will not be ready for a little while yet, as there is still a lot of editing to do and we have lots of other commitments to deal with.  We are working on the automaton horse for the “My Last Carnival” celebration to accompany the visit of “My Last Car” to High Bentham.  We will be working on that tomorrow and I will have more news of how it is going, later in the week.  Tim is coming to dread the phrase, “I’ve had another idea…”.

Also, I have been booked to do not one, but two of my Shadow Puppet Suitcase Shows, (“Jabberwocky!” and “Edward Lear’s Nonsense”) at Beverley Puppet Festival on Sunday the 15th of July.  Please look at the “Where to See Me” page for up to date details of all forthcoming performances and workshops.