Friday, April 21, 2023
How the Life of Pi Puppeteers Bring a Zoo to Life on Broadway
Playbill: Backstage, in the rehearsal room, the animal puppets for Life of Pi hang on rolling racks. They are impressive to look at. The interior is a skeleton made from wood and aluminum, with joints made out of bungee cords to allow movement, and trigger mechanisms to manipulate ears or mouths. The exterior is crafted from a type of foam that is light, easy to carve, and able to take paint without melting. These puppets, co-designed by Nick Barnes and Finn Caldwell, are works of art.
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Before Life of Pi closes on Broadway I want to go see it. I am a huge fan of shows that have puppetry in them because I love seeing the story come to life through a different art form which is not often used in a theatre unless to use it to describe something that is magical. I am in awe of the fact that these puppets are made out of aluminum and bungee chords. There is a sense of magical realism that is present with these puppets because of how realistic they are and how the actors use their bodies to create existence, thought, and presence within the puppet. Reading about how these puppeteers bring these animals to life is so inspiring because they use their acting techniques as well as learning how to physically put themselves into the body/mind of this animal or puppet to make it seem as realistic as possible. In order to be a puppeteer it seems as though you need to be adaptable and able to jump into a character and instead of finding that character in your body and mind, you have to find that character in a puppet that’s stuffed and a wooden frame. I am so hopeful that I will be able to see this show on Broadway and get to experience the magic of the animals coming to life.
I’ve only recently gotten a taste of puppeteering with my imaginarium project, and it is no easy task. I have so much respect for artists and performers involved with puppeteering, especially live puppeteering. As far as building a puppet, it's so much more complicated than building regular costumes. You have to engineer it based on how it will be controlled. Is someone going to be inside it? Or will they be hiding behind it? Maybe the puppet is a marionette and it will be controlled from above? On top of that, you have to worry about the structural integrity of the puppet, it can't just flop around after all. For the performers behind the puppet, The movement has to be rehearsed so carefully and precisely, especially if there is more than one person controlling it. The Life of Pi puppets look so beautiful and the entire team behind them deserves all the recognition.
Every time I read something about the life of pi, I’m always fascinated by the crafts that has been made for that show. It is always so fascinating to me in how people came up with the idea and thoughts in creating these objects in the way that they are existing now. Through this article, I got a closer look into the structure of the puppets and how they are being used on stage. The detailed muscle structure of the animals is so incredibly scary and fascinating. It allows the skeleton to be moving freely while looking realistic and telling the story in ways that it has been made into. In addition, the choices of the color that has been painted on the animals allow them to be the focus on stage while telling the story clearly. This is such a fascinating and scary form of art that has been presented to the audiences.
Honestly puppetry is something that I've always been pretty skeptical of but I've also had somewhat of a curiosity towards. the whole reason that I got into theaters because I appreciate human movement on stage and the fact that I got into lighting was because I think that manipulating the movement of human bodies with other elements such as light and vmd and sound is something that's really cool and elevates a performance from what it was before the technical aspects to what it can become with the addition of technical aspects. working with puppets for imagination was something that was completely new to me but something that I also thought was really really cool. since the puppets are pre-made I was able to see how the light worked in correlation to the object which was something that was really really cool to watch. moving forward I think it'll be cool to get to work with inanimate objects again, but I honestly think that working with real people is something that I'll probably stick close to
Learning how to construct these puppets is something that has always seemed rather interesting to me, simply because I cannot really comprehend it on its own, I feel like it would take creating one to really understand the inner workings of it. It seems like a tedious puzzle to have to put together and to create in the first place, but that sounds like the fun part. These pieces have become so recognized on stage and are known to be beautiful and complex. I do hope that I one day get the chance to learn more in depth about how these go from concept and design to reality. I absolutely love seeing performances where puppets are involved, and one can really see the art that goes into it from all sides, including the performer’s actions and choreography. I imagine the rehearsal process with these puppets is also a rather creative time to get used to existing with the puppet as a character.
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