I speak with a student who is studying performance arts at the Central School of Speech and Drama. One of the new discoveries she’s made since starting at Central is puppetry - she’s really by its possibilities.
Two theatre companies producing puppetry that she particularly admires are Blind Summit and Faulty Optic. Both companies are based in London.
She was very excited recently to find that her class was being taught by Sarah Wright of Faulty Optic. It turns out that Sarah’s brother is Joe Wright, director of the film Atonement. She thinks Atonement is a visually stunning film. An additional connection – without realising it, she’d been working for the mother of Sarah and Joe, at the Little Angel Theatre. She learnt from Joe's mother that his background in puppetry has directly influenced his approach to film directing.
She’d really like to be able to take her parents to see some puppetry of the type that excites her. Whenever she discusses it with her parents they can only relate to one of two types of puppetry – traditional (South East) Asian puppetry or puppetry in the style of Sesame Street.
For her, puppetry has a magical quality, that can’t be translated into language – it has to be experienced. She is looking forward to learning more about the medium and maybe even to revealing a little of its magic in her own work.
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