It happened again
- hit me right in my heart
Silkeborg Dukketeaterfestival: Festival of Wonder 2007 - Myth, marionette and man
By Rebecca Arthy - Puppet maker, theatre designer and architect
Thursday November 8, I arrived by train in Silkeborg for the second time in my life, and along with my bicycle I checked into Silkeborg's youth hostel, ready to participate in Silkeborg's puppetry festival, Festival of Wonder.
I can not exactly say when, but I must admit that sometime during my second Silkeborg Festival of Wonder, 2007, it happened again - after 4 days with the most fantastic people and their world of puppets, I felt as if I had come home.
Maybe that is because puppets are so honest, as Neville Tranter from Holland describes them. Or maybe because the human body is a universe in itself, according to Ines Pasic of Peru. Or because there are people like the puppeteers and musicians in Cinerama from France, who travel with their wordless theatre, creating an atmosphere full of life. At any rate I had decided to participate in this festival two years earlier, the first time I was hit right in the heart.
Taking the chance of overloading my senses, I participated in the workshops of all of the above artists. Besides techniques and helpful tips for manipulating puppets, the artists generously shared their knowledge and experiences. Perhaps the puppeteer as a magician should not unveil all the tricks of the trade, but no matter how many tips and tricks we saw, the biggest 'secret' was the importance of experience earned by years of training in order to perfect a puppet's movements and bring it to life.
That was the case in all three workshops: Neville Tranter, who uses human-size hand puppets, showed us on day 1 how challenging it can be simply to give the puppet a movement or gesture. Day 2 we learned to count to 10 and by the end of the workshop we had accomplished the ultimate challenge of combining movement and speech. Something so simple but so amazingly difficult.
Within a few hours Hugo Soarez and Ines Pasic showed us the possibilities of the human body, using simple exercises based on principles of mime theatre and using puppets made with their hands, they proved that there are infinite numbers of possible characters within one's own body. Because of our enthusiasm and because there were so many participants, the workshop became a showcase for examples of the couple's touring performance 'Short Stories', which demonstrated the sublime in simplicity.
My final workshop at the festival was a headlong ride with the puppets from Teatre Cinerama in their very charming circus-like theatre trailer. We were paired up to manipulate their puppets - one on top and one on the bottom. Just as in the previous workshops, we were demonstrated the importance of tempo and rhythm in puppetry choreography.
As Theatre Cinerama's own tempo was quite high - maybe because the French performers were trying to keep warm in the Danish autumn - we were quickly practicing various crazy ways of walking our puppet across the low, wide stage floor. Our exercises were steered strengthened by the accompaniment of four musicians, supporting the various moods and situations we were attempting to illustrate.
The artists at all of the workshops managed in a very short time to tell about and demonstrate their methods and their puppet universe, and though they were quite different, there were several overlaps in techniques and methods, which made my 4 days of workshops very eventful and educational.
I also managed to see many performances, but that is another story. Never the less, I would wish for all who have their imaginations intact that they come to Sillkeborg Puppetry Festival of Wonder, a weekend visit every other year, where specially chosen puppet theatres from all around the world bring their impressive and evocative performances and workshops for youthful souls of all ages.
I can only say thanks and I will be back again.
This article has been published in Nyhedsbrev from Dansk Unima.
Article by Rebecca Arthy
Festival!