new wave puppetry

thinking about making a marionette puppet this spring. feeling like I haven't seen a puppet show in a long time. What happened to puppet shows?

Puppet Works, a park slope institution

As a child in Brooklyn my parents took me to Puppet Works. I will go back soon. I remember the walls were decked in scary marionette puppets --I never knew if they were used in the shows or not. I saw a Christmas puppet show and maybe also a Peter Pan show. currently they are showing Aladdin. someone in Brooklyn go for me and tell me if they've still got it. 

I know the Puppet Works audience consists mostly of children. It may hinder the experience of the puppetry. However after doing thorough research, I have found a number of puppet theaters in new york city. many of them put on shows that are a Human-Puppet coalescence of actors which will just have to do.

I am interested by the Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre in Manhattan. The puppets and puppeteers are both characters. in this linked performance, the puppet and the puppeteer are even the same character, moving through 2 different spaces in unity. I will have to go see a show there.

Czechoslovak-American Marionette Theatre

I appreciate how many types of puppets there are, big and small, strung and gloved, papier-mâché and wood. I aim to make a traditional stringed marionette puppet with as many strings as I care. there's actually a lot of helpful puppet information online. I think the hardest part is the joints of the puppet -- not sure how to do that yet. depends what I make my puppet out of .. paper? wood? fluff? cardboard?

The Puppet Store - Brown Horse Marionette and Robot Finger Puppet

the reason I started thinking about puppets was because I ended up (I'm not sure how) on a lovely website called thepuppetstore.com. 

Will be watching much puppet content to enrich my puppetry. My puppet will come to fruition. The end goal of course is to stage a puppet show with it. #Bring back puppets

   

the possibilities seem endless

this post is dedicated to pinocchio

titling doodles

 

"spring picnic" pen on lined paper, during russian class

"Anthropos" pen on notes of Herodotus, during greek class

"Hug me" pen on printer paper, while doing my cogsci reading

 "Column of beasts" pen on notebook margin, during ancient civ

 

these are both from my russian class as well. It helps me focus !

top: "Something is coming" 

bottom: "geometric frieze"

doodling should never be frowned upon. your best work comes from pure boredom and lack of stimulation! let it take you away

this post is dedicated to the guy in my russian class who sketches portraits of our professor during lectures

grand theft hamlet and my hopes for machinima

grand theft hamlet (2024) is about 2 unemployed british actors trying to stage a production of Hamlet in GTA during the covid 19 quarantine

In short, i wasn't a fan of this film. but before i explain, let me say this: you will enjoy this film much more than me if you played a lot of GTA during the pandemic (nostalgia factor), if you like performing shakespeare (niche humor), or if you can suspend your belief (i could not).

I can admit i wasn't the target audience of this movie. I've never played GTA nor read Hamlet.. maybe i would be a fangirl if it was about julius caesar staged in animal crossing. I was compelled to watch this movie because of the filming style, something i had never seen before except in youtube lets-plays -- this film is shot entirely in game. so in that way , i feel like a targeted audience member. i wanted to see something new. 

i think i would've liked this movie more if I had known what it really was. my expectations were that this was a recording of a Hamlet production in GTA. i thought it was as fictional and staged as any shakespeare feature length film. but this film is a documentary, documenting the trial and error of staging Hamlet in a virtual environment. but much like the world of GTA, the world outside the game didn't feel real at all. 

Sure, the overarching story of the documentarians was relatable and reflective of the pandemic, but it didn't feel real. it was as staged as Hamlet. *without saying too much*, i honestly don't believe that this project of theirs compromised any relationships. why would they have these in-game conversations when they live in the same house and can actually just talk face to face? and simply put, i don't think Hamlet was the only script they were reading off of.

i was really enchanted by the prospect of making a movie inside a video game. i feel like there's a whole new, but daunting, realm of possibility there, and staging and recording a play would be a good start to experimenting with this unfamiliar reality. but GTH did not care to explore those possibilities, which is what i wanted out of this movie. with the lack of realism in a "documentary", I would have preferred if it was considered a "mockumentary".. but even still it doesn't fit the genre. in truth, the genre it most resembles is roleplaying youtube lets-play -- not bad nor good, just not what I was set up for.

the scene i most enjoyed were the actual stagings of Hamlet. i also can see the point the film makes about finding community online during quarantine, and I like the parallels between GTA and Hamlet (aka violence). i liked the other characters/actors a lot more than the documentarians. i can also admit that there were some genuinely beautiful and interesting shots in the game -- which is exactly what i hope to be explored more in the future of video game filmmaking ("machinima" professionally).

my letterboxd is @w0rdgirl if you prefer short reviews

this post is dedicated to my online friends and DanTDM