We were introduced to the first steps of producing a piece of puppetry theatre by Jimmy Grimes the resident War Horse puppeteer.
We were introduced to the company that created the War Horse puppets, Handspring Puppet Company based in Cape Town, South Africa.
Whilst learning about Handspring and the making of the first ever War Horse, we learnt about the top 6 rules to puppetry:
-You must develop a language to show the different feelings and expressions of the puppet through a technical language
-You must keep focusing on the puppet to tell the story clearly
-Focus on the how the puppet breathes to relate to physical states, this will then reflect the emotional and psychological states of a horse
-Emphasise breathe through vocal sounds by puppeteer
-Stick to a fixed point, to suggest the state of gravity to communicate physical tensions to your audience
-You must create muscularity and the skeleton of puppets through your source of gravity and movement
You can see in this video clip how the puppeteers have captured the breathe, movement and physical tensions of a horse rearing, here is Joey in action:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McTUioNARgg
We began to look at the difficulties Handspring went through to create such a large puppet with such difficult movement to study. When handspring were creating their first horse, they came across many different issues, for instance, to make the horse's movement when walking look natural and effortless. Handspring studied the micro movement's of a horse and adapted these to the puppet to make it look and sound realistic for the audience.
After a brief introduction to Handspring, we met Joey as he entered onto the stage through the auditorium of the Mayflower Theatre.
Whilst Joey was on stage, we were taught exactly how Handspring created and controlled Joey. After the introduction to Joey's puppeteers, members of the public got to go up on stage and meet Joey for themselves.
Here's what just a few of our students thought of the day:
"I really enjoyed the War horse opening- it allowed us all to experience a professional theatre event. I was fortunate enough to go on the Mayflower stage and interact with Joey the horse. Seeing three puppeteers performing live showed the true demands the performers. They had to all work together to not only remember cues on stage but react as a real horse would.
Seeing the long process Handspring Productions went through to get to the final horse design was inspiring. The small details showed hard work and the reality of show production.
Going on stage was my favourite part of the day. The opportunity to share the stage with such craft work and talented actors was really inspiring and I can not wait to see the show."
- Kate Downer, previously Oasis Mayfield student.
Kate in action on stage with Joey:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-tELmUx8064
"The war horse launch was incredible learning how “The GreatJoey” works and being able to interact with the great animal was an experience Iwill never forget. The determination and great deal of work to make beast likeJoey come to life as if a real horse is something that only great people wouldbe able to do. Having the opportunity to work with the national theatre hasbeen awesome and something has given me the opportunity to work with morepeople within the performing arts industry."- Jasmin Urqhuart, previously Bitterne Park student.
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| Kate, Jasmin, Jimmy Grimes and Joey on stage at the Mayflower Theatre |
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| Jasmin feeding Joey |
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