Look Out! There are Puppets in Melbourne.
26th August 2008
By Sean Bryan
 

Naomi Guss and her Puppet Company ‘Sticky Apple Legs’ has performed at both the Melbourne Fringe and Melbourne International Comedy Festivals. She’s also a keen puppet blogger, keeping Australia up to date with all sorts of puppetry news. Here we get a little insight into the exciting world of Puppetry and a very passionate artist.

So Naomi, how did you get into theatre and puppetry?

I started out the usual way – doing theatre through school. By accident, I got my first tech role during year 10, and it occurred to me that I liked tech more than I liked acting. Well, after school I wanted to do a theatre course. I’d actually never seen a puppet show (live theatre I mean, not TV), and by coincidence became very good friends with a Korean puppeteer. Through her, and the puppetry component at Uni, I became much more interested in the craft.

What exactly is it that you do?

Well, that’s a bit more complicated. Like the rest of the art world, I work in ‘normal’ jobs most of the time. But the rest of the time, I like to be involved in theatre, whether it’s producing my own work, or helping others produce theirs. In terms of puppetry, I’m currently creating a range of puppet products to sell, including patterns for making puppets at home, or more complicated designs that I turn into handmade puppets. I also have a great website, where I’m trying to include information about Australian puppetry (and puppetry in general), because it’s very hard to find info on our local industry.

You mentioned making plans and patterns, does that mean anyone can make puppets?

It’s kind of like that saying in “Ratatouille” – Everyone can cook! Or in this case, make puppets. Although I have to say that to make really great ones, you have to improve and learn different techniques. But this is the reason why it makes a great classroom project – even young children can do it and enjoy it.

You obviously enjoy the art, but why exactly?

As mentioned above, I’ve always been a person involved in making and building things. There’s a lot of design involved in making puppets, but a lot of the learning comes only from the building once you’ve finished. It’s also enjoyable to watch people as they interact with my puppets. In my last show, we had some audience interaction before the show, and people would literally talk to the puppet as if it were real. They couldn’t help themselves. It’s a great sense of achievement to see a pile of foam, fur, and glue turn into a beautiful puppet.

Why do you think puppetry is an important art form from an audience perspective?

Puppetry is like dance – it can explore and express ideas that go beyond the verbal. I’ve seen delicate performances done with marionettes that would literally have the audience breathless, but done with human actors, would have been quite uncomfortable or unbelievable to watch. I recently saw Diva in Perth. It was a one-woman puppet show that had miniature puppets, in a booth no wider than a swivel chair… honestly, it was indescribably deft and beautifully told. Puppetry in this case for me was about being able to do something on stage that couldn’t be done any other way. It’s often about making an audience perceive things in a way that seems fantastic – which is why it’s so popular as a performance for children.

Good puppetry is intended to engage the audience in a story, much the same way any other performance does. It just does it in a different way. I think perhaps it is lesser known in Australia than overseas as a true ‘art form’ merely because the puppetry industry is relatively young compared to other places. And because we’re a hybrid country (we pick and use different puppet traditions from around the world), rather than having our own puppet style, it makes it hard to get a sense of what the puppetry in Australia is particularly like.

So how are you helping to turn puppetry into an Australian ‘Art Form’?

Well, I started my blog about two years ago. Initially it was just a way to discuss my experiments in puppet building, with photos of how I made things and explanations. After a while, I realised that there’s practically no one in Australia who constantly and currently discussed the local industry. I think we haven’t caught up to the Americans, because over there, every single puppet company is now advertising online, posting videos, and even just running a totally virtual service. So I’ve been slowing extending my site to include local info (such as where to buy Audrey puppets, or finding shows in your area), as well as useful things on making your own puppet shows. It’s not only fun to share the information with everyone, but also remind people that puppetry is quite vibrant in Australia.

Where do you go to learn new skills and pick up new techniques?

In 2004, my friend Jeany and I attended the Puppet Festival Chuncheon in South Korea. She had signed us up as volunteers. Unfortunately, my Korean being incredibly non-existent, and everyone else not speaking English, I spent much of my time just doing nothing. Which was good actually, because I ended up seeing an average of four or five shows a day. Now, when you think of festival, you might think of the Melbourne Fringe, or Adelaide Fringe, or anything else just as big. But the festival in Chuncheon puts ours to shame. It’s *huge*, entirely government funded, tickets cost no more than $10 (AUD), and merchandise and food cost roughly the same. That was a really great experience, and I got to see a lot of things that were not only Korean, but also from other parts of the world.

And you attended UNIMA Conference in Perth earlier this year?

(UNIMA is the International Association of Puppetry, and is actually the oldest theatrical association in the world.)

I’d been planning and saving to attend this festival since 2002. So I built in 13 days of complete puppetry. There wasn’t a single day that I didn’t have a show, workshop, or event. Not only that, but I got to meet a lot of puppet people (some of whom I’ve known for a while, but never actually met in person) and do a lot of things that I will never get the chance to again. I purposefully planned my festival attendance to maximize going to see shows that were from overseas. I took workshops that aren’t available anywhere in Australia normally. It was absolutely invaluable, and lots of fun too. – So much so, that I’m already thinking about going to the next festival in China in 2012.

You seem so busy traveling and blogging-do you ever get time to do shows?

My last (self-produced) show was in April 2007. Although this was the second show with my puppetry company, my other founders weren’t able to participate, so I was entirely in charge of the performance. It was pretty chaotic – I designed and built the puppets, organised the puppeteers, did most of the production design, did a lot of publicity… but it was a lot of fun, and it really tested both my production skills and my puppetry skills. 

So I think we’re all interested in seeing some of your puppets, where can we see some of your work?

I wish I could say that I have a workshop or gallery space somewhere, but the truth is, I barely have room for my work desk at home. So I try as much as possible to showcase my work on my website, where there are videos of puppets that I’ve made or experiments in new techniques; pictures of my finished puppets and photos from shows; plus I use a lot of my puppets as the basis for some free tutorials. My trick teddy bear marionette for example, is one of my more popular free tutorials.

You can find out even more about Naomi and puppetry at her website www.puppetsinmelbourne.com.au where you’ll also find her regularly updated blog, puppet plans, tutorials, videos, links and more. I’m also sure she’ll be more than happy to answer any puppetry related questions you may have.

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