The Mind Creative March 2014
While the horses in “War Horse” were manipulated by up to 3
puppeteers per horse, bringing the 6 metre tall King Kong to life
required a minimum of 14 people including direct contact with the
puppet, puppeteers working very complex animatronics controls and
at least one person controlling the automation (a complex computer
driven structure that acted like a marionette control for the cables
attached to King Kong).
However, while these
shows were playing in
large
theatres
to
thousands of people there
has also been a plethora
of puppetry activity in
Australia. Some of this
activity
has
been
generated by the 3 funded
puppetry
companies
(Spare
Parts
Puppet
Theatre in Fremantle,
Terrapin in Hobart and
Snuff
Puppets
in
Melbourne). Much is being
generated by independent
puppetry artists as solo
performers,
duos
or
occasionally
larger
entities. While some get
to perform in theatres,
most of these groups have
to tour carrying their
stage, lights, sound and
puppets with them.
Spare Parts Puppet Theatre's adaptation of
Shaun Tan's Tales from Outer Suburbia
Photo by Jessica Wyld
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