Magic

On Thursday and Friday, we had our full day TSD workshops with ACJC and TPJC. The first day was about set design and the second was for puppetry! 

I enjoyed the second day better than the first, but I did learn lots from the entire workshop in general, so I'm glad I didn't give up half way through.

The set design course was informative, though difficult to plough through. The speaker for the day was designer Hella Chan, from the School of Technical Arts (Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts) who was knowledgeable and approachable. We spent about four hours going through slide show after slide show of the nitty gritty technical stuff. That being said, I was still quite intrigued, though stunned, by the sheer amount of technical detail we went through, from reading floor plans of the Drama Centre to counting fly bars and cargo lift dimensions. She went into details about the tools to use when crafting 3D set models, which, naturally got me really excited. We were even shown photos of an oriental production of Volpone that she designed.

The second half of the day was spent working on our white card models for either a themed production of our own choice or the design for our set texts. I was off for PW OP filming for the first half of that so I wasn't involved in the tension that (supposedly) erupted, but I returned to my classmates making sets for a story about rats. The entire idea of that activity was for us to learn about scales (we had to use scale rulers to build everything in proportion), perspective and staging. 

Hella showed us some of her hand-made white card models:

She told us she even measured the dimensions of bundles of real newspapers and made tiny ones by scaling down the proportions.

In every white card model, there has to be a scale drawing of a person, so everything can be seen in relation to the person. After all, these sets are to be used by real casts.

Evie, Dhiraj, Peiling and Ally did a set for a creepy venture into the forest. Meanwhile, the rest of us did a rat's perspective of an alley. It looked really lame because we didn't know what we were doing but Jolyn managed to talk about some universal theme of Happiness in Despair... you know, because rats and trash and contentment... 

Brenda's group did this for their set of Death of a Salesman. 

Yi Shan, Gordon, myself, Jolyn, Evie and Hao Jun. If you look carefully, you can see our campbell soup, milk carton, the rats I drew and the pipes I painted. I'm not bad at painting slimey-looking water pipes, I must say. 

MOE gave us all the materials we needed, cutting boards, penknife, colour pencils, paints and drawing paper and we got to keep them ^ ^

The next day, we were greeted by The Finger Players , who put on an excellent puppet show called Angels in Disguise. I was amazed by the technique they had when manipulating the puppets. Looking beyond the stereotype that puppets are for kids allowed me to see the skill with which the puppeteers worked, multiple pairs of hands moving one puppet, voices and identities switching from puppet to self. Multiple puppeteers might sound clumsy, but the grace with which they moved was fascinating. 

It was the first time I was exposed to puppetry in theatre and it was such a pleasant experience because the facilitators from TFP were so nice! After the puppet show, we learnt about all the different types of traditional and modern puppets: Wayang Kulit (traditional shadow puppet), Wayang Golek (traditional rod puppet), finger, hand, string (marionette). 

The live demo of puppet manipulation was incredible! Watching the puppeteers passionately bring the various puppets to life brought me so much joy. It was like they were performing to a room full of wide-eyed five year olds because we were simply awe-struck by the mechanisms and trappings in some of the puppets. They were so amused when we all fawned over a furry blue marionette. 

I would like to thank Hao Jun for these comic images:

Once, Beng Tian told us that puppets were magic, that they could do so much that a human could never do. Then she looked at us intently. "Remember Ah Girl (puppet from Angels in Disguise)?" she asked. "Did you know that when she came around to hug all of you, you guys were not looking at us puppeteers? You were all looking at her. And you all gave her a hug."

She paused. And I felt like the air in the lecture theatre went still for a moment, with that heaviness that comes with understanding.

+++

After lunch, we were split into groups. Peiling and I ended up with the AC and TP kids along with Beng Tian! We did warm-ups and lots of coordination games because puppet manipulation is not just about the hands, it's also about isolation (for example, having the toes pinch and pick up props from the floor behind the raised stage while manipulating multiple puppets) and the puppeteer pulling in and out of puppet-character. 

Then we were supposed to develop a short puppet skit for a mini showcase! At first, we were all hesitant and had no ideas, but then somebody suggested we do a story about a puppet who was really upset about not getting the girl because he was bald. It worked well because we had three bald puppets hahah.

So the story went a little like this: 

Momo (three person modern puppet) is bald, wants Girl (traditional Chinese hand puppet) but is told by Evil "Dude" (traditional Wayang Golek) that he is too bald for the girl. Ben (His name is now Ben okay. I named him. He's made of newspapers and masking tape and looks like a spoopy skeleton. A modern puppet controlled by three people. I controlled Ben's arms and voiced him) tells Momo that he's "bald and proud" but knows of a "wise old man... bald... but wise!" who lives on a top of the hill and might be able to help.

They make their way to see the Wise Man (Modern puppet, two people. He's an old man puppet with really really long eyebrows) who gives Momo a coupon for hair extension. Ben goes "Woah woah hold up! You're not going in that are you? Look, I may not be wearing clothes, but I know a thing or two about clothes".

Momo then undergoes a makeover and becomes Little Prince puppet (after we switched him to a better dressed modern puppet from Prague controlled by three people), complete with shaggy hair, a scarf and a rose. Evil Dude asks for Girl's hand but is rejected. Little Prince/Momo tries, but is also rejected. Girl then confesses she has a thing for bald guys. And so Ben gets da girl.

The end. 

(I came up with all of Ben's witty lines clap for me)

Some of the other groups' performances. The photos are a bit blur because I was trying not to be rude...

Above: Traditional Chinese hand puppets and a modern rod puppet by one very competent puppeteer who also sang and rapped. 

Above: Ally and her traditional hand puppet on the massive modern puppet controlled by three people

The best part about devising our piece was that suddenly we were all hooked on an idea and everything grew organically. People were just picking up puppets that gave them certain impressions, throwing out plot elements and twists, random lines and directions. It was a seamless process and it sure felt like things just fell into place to produce a solid piece of work. I was so amazed at the enthusiasm and cohesion with which we worked. We all felt for what we were doing, and giving it our best, even though we were just a bunch of strangers devising a piece of theatre.

I was amazed, time and time again by the magic that happened when people were brought together by the puppets.

There are two or more elements to puppetry: one, the puppet and the rest, the puppeteers. But if you are good at what you are doing, most of the time, the audience only sees the puppet. 

Top: TSD class, or the TSD class that managed to join us for the wonderful puppetry workshop.

Bottom Left: I look so cute + friends that went for dinner with me to end off a good day

Bottom Right: Beng Tian, Peiling and myself. Peiling and I were the two VJ kids put into Beng Tian's group! She's such a genuine lady, patient, approachable and very well-versed in her craft. 

Top Row: Jolyn, Kian Sin, Hui Bin, myself, Evie
Bottom Row: Beng Tian, Peiling, Ally, Gordon

Over the course of the two days, I got inspired by artists who spoke with passion in their eyes and love lines in their hands, every calloused finger shaped by the building of sets or puppets. "It's difficult, out there, but it's worth it," they said. Over the past two days, I witnessed lovely people genuinely sharing the art and spreading the magic. It's so heart-warming and heart-wrenching to watch artists, talk about how it's not easy to survive yet stick to the only way they now how to, through their craft.

How is it possible for me to swell with pride and shrink in fear at the same time?