Ingeniously floppy skeletons made of conduit boxes, wooden dowels, bits of twine and brass brackets will soon be transformed into magical marionettes for the Guild Theatre’s first foray into puppeteering.
Showing the Daily Dispatch the first prototype of a puppet that will appear in The Jackal and the Wolf, Amanda Bothma said she was “very excited” about realising her dream of bringing a puppet show to the Guild stage.
“I’ve been waiting to do a puppet show for years,” said Bothma, who based her script by adapting several of Aesop’s Fables and plans to stage the production in July.
Once she had written the script, Bothma turned to set builder Tertius Mattheus and wardrobe mistress Merrylees Burgess.
“The puppets have to be light and flexible, so Tertius came up with this design by using items from a hardware store. The skeletons will then be covered with batting to shape them before being dressed with costumes made by Merrylees.”
The three main characters – a man, a wolf and a jackal – will have beautiful large heads fashioned from papier-mâché. “They will be larger than the bodies and I am looking at commissioning one of three Eastern Cape artists to make them.”
Creative solutions have also been dreamed up for the rest of the puppet cast. Pillars from the set of Bothma’s 2012 production of Evita are being sawed up to form the trunks of sheep and buck, and mop heads are being considered for the sheep.
“We have to do things as cheaply as possible and so we are recycling,” laughed Bothma.
The accomplished director and Guild Theatre board member said she was still looking for “agile and enthusiastic” puppeteers to bring the puppets to life.
“Everyone (who applies) will be invited to a workshop and that will be the audition.”
The show’s form of puppeteering will be loosely based on the traditional Japanese Bunraku style in which the puppet operators appear on stage in full view.
In Bothma’s adaptation of the style, puppet manipulators will be attached foot-to-foot to their puppets, while arms will be operated with short sticks.
Well-known East London singer and actor Kerry Hiles will record soundtracks, source music and write one or two songs for the 30-minute-long shows which will be aimed at primary school children and are a collaboration with the National Arts Council of South Africa.
The puppet show will be a Guild first and will also be created in Xhosa and Afrikaans versions.
“We were going to do it in English, but then I thought that was a waste and so the script is being translated into Xhosa and Afrikaans by the East London Language Institute and these shows will travel to schools.”
Bothma has also hit on the idea of setting up an open-air stage in the Guild Theatre parking lot so that school groups visiting the East London Museum next door can enhance their trip by also enjoying The Jackal and the Wolf.
l To audition as a puppeteer please contact the Guild at (043) 743-0704. — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
Guild pulls strings for puppet show
Showing the Daily Dispatch the first prototype of a puppet that will appear in The Jackal and the Wolf, Amanda Bothma said she was “very excited” about realising her dream of bringing a puppet show to the Guild stage.
“I’ve been waiting to do a puppet show for years,” said Bothma, who based her script by adapting several of Aesop’s Fables and plans to stage the production in July.
Once she had written the script, Bothma turned to set builder Tertius Mattheus and wardrobe mistress Merrylees Burgess.
“The puppets have to be light and flexible, so Tertius came up with this design by using items from a hardware store. The skeletons will then be covered with batting to shape them before being dressed with costumes made by Merrylees.”
The three main characters – a man, a wolf and a jackal – will have beautiful large heads fashioned from papier-mâché. “They will be larger than the bodies and I am looking at commissioning one of three Eastern Cape artists to make them.”
Creative solutions have also been dreamed up for the rest of the puppet cast. Pillars from the set of Bothma’s 2012 production of Evita are being sawed up to form the trunks of sheep and buck, and mop heads are being considered for the sheep.
“We have to do things as cheaply as possible and so we are recycling,” laughed Bothma.
The accomplished director and Guild Theatre board member said she was still looking for “agile and enthusiastic” puppeteers to bring the puppets to life.
“Everyone (who applies) will be invited to a workshop and that will be the audition.”
The show’s form of puppeteering will be loosely based on the traditional Japanese Bunraku style in which the puppet operators appear on stage in full view.
In Bothma’s adaptation of the style, puppet manipulators will be attached foot-to-foot to their puppets, while arms will be operated with short sticks.
Well-known East London singer and actor Kerry Hiles will record soundtracks, source music and write one or two songs for the 30-minute-long shows which will be aimed at primary school children and are a collaboration with the National Arts Council of South Africa.
The puppet show will be a Guild first and will also be created in Xhosa and Afrikaans versions.
“We were going to do it in English, but then I thought that was a waste and so the script is being translated into Xhosa and Afrikaans by the East London Language Institute and these shows will travel to schools.”
Bothma has also hit on the idea of setting up an open-air stage in the Guild Theatre parking lot so that school groups visiting the East London Museum next door can enhance their trip by also enjoying The Jackal and the Wolf.
l To audition as a puppeteer please contact the Guild at (043) 743-0704. — barbarah@dispatch.co.za
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