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KnuckleandJoint

June 02nd, 2016

2/6/2016

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new hands and new handles!

The nature of the show is that THE puppets ARE seemINGLY made from old foam and cardboard, whICH is true, however beneath these materials are proper joints and mechanisms. This was the case FOR EVERYTHING EXCEPT from the hands of the puppets which were carved purely from foam. We constantly found that they tore during the performance and would only last a limited number of performances. To ensure this does not happen again we gave the hands armatures. These armatures consisted of a small piece of 5mm plywood with wire to maintain shape and webbing running through to ensure strength. These were then sandwiched with two layers of thin foam giving the same aesthetic. For the puppet, Ned, we went to town a little more giving him individual fingers as his hands were a bigger than the others. We used exactly the same process: creating the armature with wood and wire, then sandwiching with two layers of thin foam and then trimmed to shape. 
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June 02nd, 2016

2/6/2016

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INTO CONSTRUCTION WEEK...

Due to performing the show over the last two years we have got to know our puppets very well. Their strengths and weakness, how they move and also what can be improved. Tabletop puppetry ideally works with 3 puppeteers; one on THE feet, one on THE HIPS and ONE LEFT/RIGHT hand AND FINALLY one on head and RIGHT/LEFT hand. With just 2 of us in the show sometimes it's difficult to get the full range of movement as with 3 puppeteers. One of the most difficult elements in supporting the hips and shoulders wAS GROUNDING THE PUPPET AS Our puppets had rods out the back of their heads. Therefore we changed the puppets that had these to a mechanism which sits underneath the shoulders. This meant the head puppeteer could control SIMULTANEOUSLY THE HEAD AND the shoulders giving the puppet more stability all the way down it’s “spine”. We then added a trigger linked with piano wire rather than string to the head to ensure its stability due to most our puppets being thrown around during the show.
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June 02nd, 2016

2/6/2016

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‘The Black Hoods Cabaret’ gets a deep clean from Will
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The 3rd collaborator joined us in rehearsals today, Will Aubrey Jones, who is very familiar with the show has seen it develop over two years and witnessed many audience reactions to it. So it is very beneficial to get him involved as he observes what works best with audiences and what works least.

We began by running through the show and stopping at any point where the puppetry needed tightening up again. From performing the same show many times we had become slightly lazy/tired with some areas of puppetry and it had lost it’s precision. So we went back to the beginning blocks and found the breath, weight and focus of the puppet. This was incredibly helpful in maintaining high quality of puppetry.

Will also focused on the visuals, physical comedy, transitions and timing/pace of the piece. ‘The Black Hoods Cabaret’ is chaotic and loud however we want to make sure it has a dynamic narrative coloured with moments of both bedlam and serenity. As both myself and Peter perform and puppeteer it is difficult to see what imagery and visual we are creating. We film a lot of our rehearsals but you really can’t beat having someone else in the room to watch your work. Will was able to direct add details to the physical comedy, slapstick, quality of puppetry and use of space.

A full day of cleaning , tightening and polishing the show!
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June 02nd, 2016

2/6/2016

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Finally seeing the light…
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Ines Minkiewickz, our 2nd collaborator and lighting designer saw the show for the first time today and she quickly got to scribbling down in her book a rough lighting plan, brainstorming lighting states, rifling through gels all over the table and looking up gobos to use. This was all very exciting for us as this is an area that we haven’t previously been able to explore as we usually just used what was available to us at venues so we found it hard to create a lighting design that could be transferable to all different venues.
Ines’ initial ideas were:

​-         Using gobos* to cast interesting shadows across puppets and add further detail to set/scenery adding new layers to our simplistic table and black curtains.
-          Using gels enhance the tone of the and specific pink gels on Pink Lady puppet to bring out the colour of her foam body
-          Using birdies* to provide front and back light on Pink Lady in hoop creating a spectacular silhouette as the opening image of the show
-          Using white side light when the Robber character is running away from Police to represent activity offstage that the audience can’t see but can imagine the headlights of a Police car on the Robber. This makes the world of the show much larger than what the audience can just see.
-     Using 3 lighting states; 1st state of just the table, 2nd state includes table and us, 3rd state will include all of the stage.

After discussing what we could achieve it was then about how we can achieve it, which was one of our objectives from this R&D period was to create a flexible lighting plan that can tour to many different venues ranging low to high technical specifications. We ordered birdies, plugs, cables, gels and materials to build 2 T bars. This lighting equipment will enable us to tour to more venues with lower tech specs but still can have front, back and side lighting with no worries. This will enable the show to tour to a larger variety of venues and reach more audiences.

‘The Black Hoods Cabaret’ set is a table with a black curtain and the title of the show in bright orange letters and a black back drop as well as two puppeteers all in black. The brightest things going on are the puppets pink foam or brown cardboard bodies. So the lighting can bring added detail with colour, shadows and lighting from different angles to change the audiences’ focus across the space and even offstage.
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Table top puppetry can usually happen in just a small area of the stage but we’ve found with sophisticated lighting design that you can create activity not just in that small area therefore widening the world you are presenting in your production.

*Gobo: A gobo (or GOBO) is a physical stencil or template slotted inside, or placed in front of, a lighting source, used to control the shape of emitted light. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gobo_(lighting)

* A birdie is a miniature lantern that’s ideal for hiding in small parts of a set or along the downstage edge of the stage. It provides a surprisingly bright soft-edged pool of light. Although the beam is sometimes unevenly spread, the benefits of having a punch of light where no normal lantern can go are massive. (http://spa.exeter.ac.uk/drama/tech/lighting/typesoflantern.pdf)
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June 02nd, 2016

2/6/2016

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When you shove the puppeteer into the spotlight how do you then pull focus back to the puppet?
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The rehearsal space had the luxury of chalk board walls and we took advantage of this rare occasion, that we could draw and write all over the walls in the name of ‘The Black Hoods Cabaret’. It sounds silly but when using the space and resources around you in a different way (a rebellious way) you can kick start your playfulness and open up pools of creativity. 
Picture
 out
​It’s day one of rehearsals and we are very excited to be working with our first collaborator, Yuldosh Juraboev. With Yuldosh, we wrote out the whole show and analysed and explained every choice we had made previously. We were able to identify areas that needed strengthening and clarity in the objective of some scenes. So we put the show into a long wash cycle and extra high temperature of the dramaturgical washing machine. Don’t worry, the high temperature didn’t shrink any of the larger than life characters you find in ‘The Black Hoods Cabaret’ but what did come out in the wash were the relationships between the puppeteers and puppets.

We make a very bold choice to involve the puppeteers not just for their function to bring life to an inanimate object but for their own agendas which is an interesting complication to watch. This choice came from our decision to poke fun at the puppeteer who strives to remain hidden so not to pull focus from the puppet and when they don’t, it ultimately all goes wrong. However, in our efforts to create humour, we have lost definition in the relationships between puppeteers and puppets. Yuldosh focused on finding more moments of physical comedy between the puppeteers to reveal their downward spiraling relationship without interfering with the puppetry too much. Then we turned our focus to the puppetry observing the quality of movement of each puppet and finding another layer of details in presenting to puppets communicating with each other.

When watching puppetry, I always acknowledge that there is a puppeteer but can easily just focus on the puppet as most people do. However, when making the decision to include the puppeteer as character in the production where they have to swap between playing a role and puppeteering it is harder to maintain highly skillful puppetry and being clear in what the relationship is between that character and that puppet. We found it very useful to ask the following questions:

1.       Why are we using puppetry in this moment?
2.       Why are we revealing the character of the puppeteer and does this affect their relationship with their puppet?
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December 31st, 1969

2/6/2016

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WHY DOES A SHOW THAT ALREADY EXISTS NEED ANOTHER R&D, WHY PUT ‘THE BLACK HOODS CABARET’ BACK INTO REHEARSAL?


The Black Hoods Cabaret started in 2013 as 15 minute cabaret act, then developed into 45 minutes and finally to a 60 minute touring production. It has:
-          been performed over 30 times
​-          been seen by over 1,100 people
-          sold out at Edinburgh Festival Fringe
-          sold out at International Youth Arts Festival
-          won Canterbury Festival’s Made In Kent
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So why put it back into rehearsals?
We are about to take ‘The Black Hoods Cabaret’ on it’s first national tour and since it’s successful 2015 we have listened to and analyzed both audience and professional feedback and there still a few things that need developing. But not just by Knuckle and Joint. Over the 2 year development of the show it has mostly been directed, produced, performed and built by just myself and Peter. At times, playing all roles can be very stressful and you can lose focus of the details so we wanted to bring new artists on board to work on narrative structure, technique of puppetry and lighting design. We are working with:

Yuldosh Juraboev – runs a central asian theatre company in the UK and work as a director who had seen the show in Edinburgh and wanted to work with us and produce a tour of the show to Uzbekistan where they have an ancient and rich heritage of puppetry. Yuldosh will bring new techniques of devising with puppetry that enabled us to define the relationship of the puppeteer and the puppet. In addition he will direct a new version of the show for the Uzbekistan tour as we need to translate the dialogue into Russian, and include cultural, political and social references to current jokes.

Ines Minkiewicz – a lighting designer who will completely redesign the show and create a sophisticated and exciting lighting plan that is flexible to tour to venues with differing levels of technical specifications.

​William Aubrey Jones – a director and puppeteer, Will will direct on movement of puppetry, focus on the visuals created, physical comedy, transitions, pace of the show and re work the finale for a more spectacular end.

With this extra time for R&D with brand new collaborators we can prepare ‘The Black Hoods Cabaret’ for a National Tour where it will be the same show in many different venues regardless of limitations.  
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