1

An investigation of sustainable operational traits of

building-based puppetry theatre

This paper addresses the general theme of sustainable

operational traits in the puppetry field from an oblique

angle- via social psychology lenses - by examining the basis

of the influence between puppet theatre that is housed in a

dedicated building for puppetry and the communities that

support it. Much of the writing about puppetry is centrally

concerned with these three areas; the people, events, and

settings as the key resources in the ‘ecological system of

communities’ (Hawe and Reiley 227). My case study will look

into two building-based puppet companies out of five in the

UK1; Little Angel Theatre2 (LAT) in London and Norwich Puppet

Theatre3 (NPT) in Norwich, to examine the operational model of

these companies and theorize an ecosystem in sustainable

operational traits of building-based puppet theatre. I will be

examining the survival factors of the selected building-based

puppet theatres, predominantly drawing attention to their

supporters’ commitment level and the causes that govern it.

It will be my research areas to generate new knowledge not

only for the puppetry organisation in general, but

specifically draw attention to the coherent aspect which may

1 Five buiding-base puppet theatres are Harlequin Puppet theatre, Little Angel Theatre, Biggar Puppet Theatre, Norwich Puppet Theatre, and Upfront Puppet Theatre2 LAT is a building-based puppet theatre founded by John Wright in 1961 in London UK.3 NPT is a building-based puppet theatre founded in 1979 by Ray and Joan DaSilva in Norwich UK. The theatre first opened to the public on 1st December 1980.

2

aid the development of traditional puppetry bodies in

Southeast Asia.

For generations, puppetry found ways to express new ideas,

and ensured its survival in spite of adversities (“History”,

n.d). Puppeteers have found strength in a collective voice

and growth, they have planted the puppetry seed in many

different fields in the arts such as dance, theatre, object

animation, playwrights and beyond (Prior et al. 2). One of the

most extensive and oldest organisations in the puppetry field

is UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette) - the

international association of puppeteers. It survived the

Second World War and continues its mission of promoting the

arts of puppetry and strives through time and evolution.

Currently, UNIMA is linking 96 countries and providing

funding, training, information, and resources, for the greater

cause of puppetry.

Entering the 21st century puppetry penetrates different genres

and spreads across vast spectrums, it can be found in every

sort of the contemporary performing arts including the mass

media (Meinhof and Smith 43). In theatre, film, celebration,

ritual, education, and healing, modern puppetry has directly

and indirectly become a means of bringing peoples closer

together and of promoting world peace (“Unima Australia”,

n.d). While puppetry has been in the minority in the UK

performance art forms, it has been preserved in the theatrical

communities for centuries (Jurkowski 193). An investigation

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into the operational procedures of these organisations may be

helpful in collating the factors that promote resiliency in

puppetry bodies.

In the UK, many national organizations have been established

to promote puppetry in one way or another prolonging this form

of art, the names of which are shown below (Allen and Shaw

12). The British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild, Puppeteers

UK, Punch and Judy Fellowship, Punch and Judy College of

Professors, and British UNIMA, have been established to ensure

this unique form of puppetry is reaching out to puppet

communities, creating organizational linkages to support

dialogues between the communities of puppeteers and share the

love of puppetry collectively. At the social level, Puppet

Central Trust in the UK funded by the Arts Council has served

as an agency to provide a centre for mentoring and resources

to the new and emerging puppeteers since 1974.The ideas of

spreading and protecting the interest of puppetry in a

collective manner as these organizations uphold, are echoed in

Norris’ writing of building resiliency in communities; ‘to

build collective resilience, communities must reduce risk and

resource inequities, engage local people in mitigation, create

organisation linkages, boost and protect social supports, and

plan for not having a plan, which requires flexibility,

decision-making skills, and trusted sources of information

that function in the face of unknowns’ (Norris et al. 127).

The building-based puppet theatres which I investigated in the

UK went through respective financial crises that threatened to

permanently close them down. The revival of NPT and LAT in the

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UK could be a strand of case study for drawing analogy from

Norris et al. the theory of collective resilience in a

community. Moreover, as Jill Gross explained, ‘“Resilience”

theory is growing in use amongst policy makers and analysts,

dealing with crisis management and disaster mitigation natural

and human’(35).

Investigating the ‘bounce back’ factors of these two puppet

theatres might help to shed lights on operational traits to

build a more sustainable operation model for the puppetry

theatres.

NPT, which was on the brink of closing down in 2008 due to an

unexpected funding crisis (BBC News, 2008) has proved its

resilience traits through a series of events and strategic

planning by the trustees, and physical and emotional support

from a group of devoted puppetry communities. In 2007, after

hosting the 2nd International Festival, NPT took an unexpected

and challenging turn with the receipt of the notification from

Arts Council England (ACE) in December 2007, that NPT was one

of the organizations across England that was being recommended

for removal from the regular core funding. The core funding

from ACE which had supported NPT for the past 27 years was

stopped on 1st April 2008. The confirmation of this shocking

news led to possible redundancy of NPT. Nonetheless this

unforeseen circumstance has provided an opportunity for the

puppet theatre to identify their strengths and weaknesses in

their business operational traits for future planning (NPT

Trustees’ Report).

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Upon receiving the threatening news, the community in Norwich

and beyond joined together intending to reverse the decision

of ACE on the withdrawal of funding. Norwich Evening News 24

reported;

A spokesman for the theatre said; “We are naturally

disappointed at the receipt of this news as this will

potentially lead to the loss of a Norwich, Norfolk,

national and internationally renowned and a well-loved

venue and organisation.” They said they would now be

looking to win funding from other sources including

Norwich City Council and Norfolk County Council. The

Evening News, backed by council leaders, MPs and members

of Norwich's vibrant arts scene, launched a campaign in

January to urge ACE to reverse its proposal. More than

2,000 signatures were collected and nearly 600 people

emailed online to petition against the proposed cuts.

(“Puppet Theatre loses funding”, 2008).

Within 2 months of the receipt of such news, the communities

of NPT were showing their support physically and emotionally

even though the decision of ACE was not reversible.

This removal of funding had plunged NPT into a ‘survival’

mode, where many strategies were executed to keep the

theatre’s doors open. The annual trustees’ report and

financial statements of NPT stated, ‘pay freeze is instigated,

staff hours reduced and the difficult decision was taken to

make the post of artistic director [who has held this post for

6

17 years] redundant’ (2009). The 3 years (2008-2011) of core

funding cuts and lack of an artistic director did not

demoralize the NPT committee and the people who were connected

to this building-based puppet theatre, instead it proved its

‘bounce back’ quality and the support from the communities was

even more apparent. The theatre managed to secure a

transitional funding for the financial year of 2008/2009 from

its local councils, for example Norfolk County Council,

Norwich City Council, and Norwich Town Close Estate Charity

(NPT Trustees’ report financial statements). NPT’s 2009

financial statements submitted to Companies House4 also stated,

‘Lutkovno Gledalisce Ljubljana, a Slovenian puppet theatre

provided performance at NPT on a no-fee basis against the time

when NPT was able to restart touring…other companies also

performed on a reduced fee basis to help maintain cash flow

that would make the Theatre sustainable’. This form of support

continued in the following year by consent of the puppetry

community. LAT presented ‘Cindermouse’ in NPT to support NPT’s

continuation of upholding its tradition of a Christmas puppet

show to treat the local school groups of Norwich. Lyndie

Wright, the creator of Cindermouse extended her tangible

support by waiving the royalties on the performances that held

in NPT from 14-24 December 2009 (NPT Trustees’ report).

4 * All limited companies in England, Wales, Northern Ireland and Scotland are registered at Companies House, an Executive Agency of the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS). http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/about/functionsHistory.shtml

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To further investigate the meaning of building resiliency in a

community, John Paul Lederach a sociologist described in

Fetzer Institute- Wilson Center Seminar;

Perhaps most significant is the basic notion found in the

idea of resiliency that ‘community health’ may not

exclusively nor primarily be found in comparative

quantitative advantage but correlates with the less tangible

dynamics of how people and communities locate creative and

pro-active capacity of response to challenges based on

character, interaction and space found locally.

(“Resilience” 25)

The less tangible dynamics of how people and communities

locate creative and pro-active capacity described by Lederach

could draw analogy from one of NPT’s fund raising events.

Besides receiving physical aid and consent from local people

and other puppet theatres, NPT’s supporters organised a number

of high profile and increasingly creative fund raising events.

A successful auction of celebrity-endorsed puppets was carried

out by one of the theatre trustees, Debbie-Lee Pinching.

Pinching said in the news that the idea was from a birthday

party she had for her son in NPT, during which she put blank

puppet gloves in the party bags for children to draw on, ‘…

[Peter Blake] did one sitting in front of me, and I thought if

I could get Peter Blake to do one, I could get anyone to do

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one’(BBC Norfolk, 2010). Celebrities who had supported this

fund raising event were Terry Gilliam, Jan Constantine, Sir

Paul Smith, Cath Kidston, Wayne Hemingway, Sir Terence Conran,

Quentin Blake, Rolf Harris, Sir Peter Blake, Bill Oddie, Sir

Derek Jacobi, Michael Palin, David Gray and Tony Robinson. The

celebrities’ fund raising news appeared on BBC news, which

definitely boosted NPT visibility on a national scale, and

thus boosted its social support even more. The auction event

was a happy marriage of creativity and eagerness to save NPT

from disappearing. The creative way of approaching a solution

in the case of NPT’s fund-raising could shed light on what

McKnight explained in his article Generating Community; ‘the

proliferation and development of community associations which

allow for the flowering of creative solutions’ (56), and

showing the capacity to tackle crisis creatively (Lederach,

“Resilience” 25). In times of crisis like this, it reflected

the strength of NPT’s reliance on its supporter and the

commitment of its supporters reflected the works of NPT has

done in the communities. It was a two-way street, the

community reflected NPT’s strength in engaging local community

in mitigating in the events of the theatre, in turns the

people become one of the biggest resource of their survival in

time of crisis.

As the Bible stated ‘…but we also rejoice in our

sufferings, because we know that suffering produces

perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.

(NIV Rom 5. 3-4).’ NPT survived the 2008 funding crisis which

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mainly due to resource inequities especially in funding

revealed the strength of its employees as well.

Joy Hayes, current artistic director of NPT commented on the

values of the team of NPT;

During the period subsequent to losing our ACE funding in

2008, the Theatre developed a broad range of workshops to

engage the local community and offered a rich programme

of visiting puppet companies - I think it is testament to

the strength and resilience of the team at NPT that the

theatre has remained open through such difficult times.

(MacDonald, 2011)

Denise Hargrave has been working with NPT for 17 years. She

started as a volunteer who helped with making costumes for

puppets and is now an enthusiastic and skilful puppet maker

who runs puppet making workshops for children and adults in

NPT (Hargrave).

Another team member of NPT, Ian Woods, current general manager

of NPT has been working with the theatre for 16 years. He

claims that NPT is home to many puppeteers in the UK and a

centre for resource and excellence for the puppetry industry

(Woods). Ian basically deals with everything in the theatre

except making puppets and creating performances for NPT.

Although Ian is not directly involved in the artistic process

of puppetry, he is administratively supporting the artistic

team even during the 3 years of funding crisis as Joy Hayes

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described it during the 3-year period where no appointment of

artistic director, staff and volunteers continue their work

for the genuine support of this art form.

The commitment of NPT’s volunteers are very apparent, some of

the volunteers like Sandra Shanks, 69 years old who has been

volunteering in NPT since 1982. She brought her grandchild

Alice Folkard to the theatre since 1993, and now Alice brought

her daughter Sophie Ralf who is a 6-year-old to the theatre as

a volunteer. Shanks said in an interview, ‘I used to bring

[Alice and her sister] down here when I’m [volunteering] here.

I used to train them, I think it has done good, they were

taught how to speak to people and how to serve them, which is

good’ (Shanks). Alice Folkard supported the benefit of being a

‘helper’ in the theatre had reaped many ‘good works’ for

herself, she brought her own child Sophie to ‘help out’ in the

theatre as well, ‘[Sophie’s] imagination has been much clearer

since coming [to NPT]. She used to be very shy and now she is

interacting with people and telling stories of the Red Riding

Hood to other children’(Folkard). Shanks and her granddaughter

mostly volunteer at the snack and merchandise counter,

ushering, and helping at the backstage and preparation of

workshops, where Sophie plays with the little children

audience at a kids’ corner before the house is opened. NPT is

not just a place for puppet shows, but a place where 3

generations of family members interact, learn, and contribute

their ‘gift’ through this puppet theatre.

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Peter Butler, worked with NPT for 28 years, as Joy Haynes

introduced Peter as the longest standing member of

NPT(Haynes). Peter was brought along as a volunteer by another

volunteer who was then helped in building NPT. Later, Peter

became the technical manager of NPT. Even when he left as a

technical manager, he came back to help 3 days a week as a

volunteer. He has retired from his fulltime work but he has

never stopped volunteering his skill as a model maker of

puppets in NPT since 1986 (Butler). Daren Taylor, one of the 3

fulltime employees in NPT who stayed through the crisis, has

been with NPT for more than 17 years. He started as an intern

in NPT and stayed on ever since. Taylor claims that during the

three years of crisis, “I was working flat out” (Taylor).

Regardless of long hour of working and pay freeze Taylor

continued to work in the theatre. Hargrave, Woods, Shanks,

Folkard, Butler and Taylor are the witnesses of the

repercussion of a collective love for puppetry and stayed with

the company for at least 15 years regardless of adversities

faced by the theatre.

Through the examples of its people who stayed in the

theatre even though there was a financial crisis, individuals

who instigated the fund raising, puppeteers who waived or

lowered the fees by consent, volunteers who helped in almost

every aspect of the operation of puppet theatre, it could be

shown that the longevity of puppetry is based on the

commitment of the people that support it. After the 3 years of

suffering in terms of striving to continue its survival as a

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building-based puppetry theatre, it shapes its distinctive

character for the future.

The new business model of NPT would be more flexible in

terms of dealing with unpredictable events in the future,

knowing who matters and what matters in their operational plan

in the future. The financial crisis seemed likely to close

down NPT, but through the work done by the supporters and the

administrative staff, the art of puppetry is still alive in

Norwich.

Today, the In-house programs conducted within the NPT

premises include Children’s Workshop (age 5 and above), Pre-

school Workshop ( age 2-5), MagiMation (age 10 and over),

Family puppet making workshop, Adult One Day Making Session,

Prince’s Foundation For Children & The Arts START Project,

International Summer School, Professional Development at

Norwich Puppet Theatre (age 18 and over), and other projects

for teachers. These programs are aimed at promoting awareness

of puppetry to the public, but not limiting their influence to

individual age-groups, particular social-groups nor even

particular parts of the puppetry processes. People may have

memories of watching a puppet show in their youth etc, but

through the NPT education program, the general public will get

a feel of the construction as well. I believe that this

inclusive attitude adopted by the NPT is an encouraging method

of promoting resiliency. As Joyce Haynes, said in an

interview, “It’s a bit of a package. It’s about developing

Norwich Puppet Theatre’s profile as a space which has a really

rich history but at the same time is vibrant and full of new

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ideas.” (Knight, Norwich Evening News 24). NPT continues to

strengthen its profile by creating space for dialogic

interaction for puppeteers and its local communities.

The Little Angel Theatre (LAT) also faced a similar funding

crisis in 2002, which forced the theatre to close down to the

public for 7 months and re-open its door in October 2002. The

withdrawal of Islington Borough Council revenue funding and

the death of a major benefactor had precipitated a serious

financial crisis (Griffiths, BBC News). The funding crisis was

overcome by the community with the launch of “Save the Little

Angel” campaign, reported by Judith Palmer, ‘[The LAT] tipped

over the edge by the death of a long-standing private

benefactor and the loss of its council funding. Following a

determined public campaign, it has managed to raise the

£180,000 it needed to keep going.’

The fundraising campaign was a high profile activity supported

by celebrities, ‘ “Save The Little Angel” campaign backed by

the likes of Clive Anderson, Juliet Stevenson and Zippy5 from

Rainbow’(LondonNet News Headlines).

The LAT Directors’ report stated, ‘in this year the theatre

received £110,783 from individual donations and also received

grants from Arts Council England (£25,000); London Arts

(£60,000); Harold Hyam Wingate Foundation (£25,000); Estorick

5 Zippy is a puppet on the British children's television programme Rainbow.Rainbow is a British children's television series, created by Pamela Lonsdale, which ran between five times weekly, twice weekly and once weeklyat 12:10 on Tuesdays and Fridays on the ITV network, from 16 October 1972 to 6 March 1992

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Foundation (£5,000); Cripplegate Foundation (£22,750); 1970’s

Trust (£3,000)’ (2003). The biggest fund came from individuals

who support the works of this building-based puppet theatre.

This campaign provided the trustees a significant ‘sign’ in

building long-term relationship with individuals in the future

operational planning. In the same financial year right after

the crisis, it established 3 new initiatives; Puppet Power,

Saturday Puppet Club, and Family Fun Days to promote bonding

between people and puppetry in a more intimate way.

LAT was creating a friendly environment to engage small

interactive groups for bonding and building collective memory

of the theatre. The co-founder of LAT, Lynette Wright said in

an interview, ‘the atmosphere [in LAT] is very friendly – we

don’t stand on any ceremony, it’s all very relaxed. So many

people came here when they were young and now they come with

their children or grandchildren. There is a real affection’

(Brannen, Islington Gazette). The crisis instigated LAT to

reduce risk and resources inequities by diversifying its

source of core funding from institutional bodies like Arts

Council of England, Cripplegate Foundation, Islington Council,

and Great Britain Sasakawa Foundation, to individuals’

funding. The emphasis of the business has diversified by

building educational activities reaching out to more people in

the area, for example the expansion of educational workshops

from 5 types of workshops in 2002 to at least 12 types of

workshops targeted at different age group from children to

adults in 2013(LAT Directors’ Report) and in different forms

to serve the children, individuals, and groups. The success of

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LAT Guardian Angel6 scheme has proved its loyalty in times of

financial crisis.

This economic impact from the people who supported this

building may leave an effect on the operational traits of LAT

from artistic-oriented7 to people-oriented8. Now that the

biggest ‘saviours’ of the theatre are the individuals rather

than an institutionalized body, perhaps investigating the

business settings of LAT would give ideas on how to build more

individualized relationship with their supporters.

LAT offered an extensive range of educational programmes to

its patrons. It generates all levels of puppetry works for

communities near and far. The building has become the ‘house’

of performance, workshops, rehearsal venue, puppet-making

workshops, and most of all interaction space for its people.

LAT programmes include Saturday Puppet Club, Crafty Kids,

Little Angel Youth Theatre, Puppetry & Writers Evening, and

festival including Suspense, Incubate, Firsts, and Hatch. As

Susan Elkin, a teacher and journalist wrote about LAT; ‘can

there be a more educational performing arts venue in London,

given that Little Angel provides education and training at so

many levels? … Learning and development at every level.

Deeply inspiring and something which many other small venue

could emulate’(The Stage blog).

6 Guardian Angel is a funding scheme set up by LAT to enable individuals tocontribute to the core funding of the theatre.7 Artistic oriented as focus on creating puppetry works for performance.8 People oriented as focus on educating people about puppetry through activities and workshops.

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Besides expending the educational programme, partnership with

other artistic forms was instigated to develop innovative work

by collaborating with artists from wide range of disciplines.

In 2004, LAT initiated new production in partnership with the

Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) and Improbable9 under the then

artistic directorship of Steve Tiplady. Review from the new

work created with RSC, Venus and Adonis, stated,

But the ultimate justification for the show is that it

uses puppetry to convey both the poem's masque-like

spectacle and sheer sexiness. Under the guidance of Doran

and the director of puppetry, Steve Tiplady, it offers

one of the most brilliantly original entertainments in

London. And at the end I felt like crying, like Ben

Jonson's puppet-prosecuting Zeal- of-the-Land Busy: "I am

changed and will become a beholder with you."

(Billington, Guardian News and Media).

The marriage of puppet and Shakespeare’s poem has opened LAT

doors to a wider audience base as well as the new creation of

work. The effort of reducing resource inequities on funding

also stipulated as a main strategies for the trustees, to

diversify funding sources by creating a new audience base and

potential growth of new supporters.

The effect may be reflected on the increment of funders. LAT

has grown extensively from 7 funders plus Friends of The

9 Improbable is a theatre company base in London led by Artistic Directors Phelim McDermott and Lee Simpson.

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Little Angel10 in 2001, to 17 funders plus the Company of

Angels’ Scheme and the Annual Fund in 2013.

LAT’s programs and activities brought many people to encounter

puppetry, be it performances or workshops all have the

possibility of transforming the participants to become friend

of LAT in the future as long as it keeps its door open. Below

is a table of statistics for performance and attendance

records for the past 18 years of LAT (LAT Directors’ report

and Potheinos Limited11 Financial statements).

LAT Statistic and Year-on-year comparisons:

Year No.

Resident

Company

Performan

ce

No. of

visiting

company

Performan

ce

Total no

Performan

ce in-

House

Total

Attendanc

e

%

capacity

filled

Shows

given on

tour

Attendanc

e on tour

2012-13 362 89 451 32,949 73 475 37,3862011-12 321 127 448 31,125 70 301

(82)**

30,006

(3,618)**2010-11 292 93 385 31,911 83 292 25,0852009-10 322 95 417 25,972 62 310

(58)**

18,605

(3,210)**2008-09 246 120 366 26,738 73 191 97972007-08 374 70 444 25,989 59 178 21,2532006-07 322 44 366 26,037 71 71

2005-06 301 12 313 23,900 76 112

2004-05 283 47 330 22,818 69 204

2003-04 249 56 305 18,955 62 147

2002-03* 190 22 212 13,407 63 281

2001-02 181 77 258 16,504 64

2000/01 172 102 274 18,375 # 67# 235

1999/00 179 105 284 18,183 64# 392

10 ‘Friends of the Little Angel’ is a funding scheme established by LAT in 2000/0111 Potheinos Limited was the registered charity name of LAT until 2001

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1998/99 199 128 327 20,466 63# 313

1997/98 144 106 250 15,434 61 269

1996/97 164 102 266 17,681 66 323

1995/96 119 126 245 17,373 70 200

*The theatre was closed to the public for 7 months

** Additional performances as part of SUSPENSE London Puppetry Festival are shown in Brackets.

# Show discrepancy in other reports.

Although the statistic is not a means to measure its

success,it is a quantitative record of activities that occur

in the theatre for 18 years through puppet performance alone.

This statistic may be a good gauge of potential ‘friends’ LAT

could make and bond through its unique all-age programmes

including more exclusive and intimate events like Family Days

Fun Days, Client Entertainment, and Employee Family Outing,

specially catered for small group of bonding, with up-close-

and-personal experience with puppets and puppeteers. The new

strategy instigated by LAT to tackle the crisis of 2002 by

increasing educational workshops in all levels, collaboration

with new disciplines, and involving family and friends into

the programme, has proved to engage more people in LAT, thus

expanding the community of puppetry. The all rounded

programmes which include watching puppet show, making puppet,

and performing puppet show, all these become an ecosystem of

the programmes offered by LAT. The new ways of engaging the

community showed an increase of attendance in LAT, this

further supports the idea that, when a building-based puppet

theatre engages with its communities in new ways, the

community responds to the new synergy.

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The financial crisis became a valuable lesson that

enables NPT and LAT to evaluate the importance of their

individual supporters, and had influenced their operational

traits which reflected on the increase of educational

workshops, programmes, activities, and catered performances

exclusively for different age groups from 2 year-olds to

adults, and established funding schemes toward individual

supporters, over the years. The survival through the crisis

would be an interesting venue to investigate what makes their

supporters more committed to them.

Research shows that participation in group activity can foster

a sense of belonging (“Sense of belonging”; Woodhead 3; Parr

162; Skudrzyk 250).

Ray Dasilva, the founding artistic director of the NPT also

emphasized the importance of having local people to support in

a recent interview, ‘I think the important point about the

success of NPT was to get the community backing. The

supporters club SNAP12 were very useful.

Not only did they raise money and help in the theatre but also

they were enthusiastic in spreading news about the theatre’

(Dasilva).

12 SNAP is a small loose organisation of persons living in or near Norwich, who value its traditions and share similar views on how to preserve traditions for a modern world (http://norwichwhifflers.webs.com/howwework.htm).

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The Norwich Puppet Theatre is one of 5 building-based puppet

theatres in the UK that is still actively producing high

quality puppetry since it opened its doors in 1980. The

building of NPT is strategically accessible to local community

and schools around the ring road, dedicated to puppetry housed

in the Medieval church of Saint James, in the city of Norwich

(Abbott 66). Establishment of the Norwich Puppet Theatre was a

result of community action. The local community raised funds

and awareness to set up the Theatre in the church building.

The process of getting the church converted to a puppetry

theatre was started in 1978, it was the dedicated local

community who rallied the whole town for the building and

funding of the project. The essence of community involvement

in the setting up of NPT was written in Abbott’s book:

A feasibility committee was set up with local people and

started meeting in 1978….Contacts were made with local

schools, an exhibition was set up in the building and

performances were given in this temporary space to

invited audiences consisting of city and county

councillors, heads of schools and industries,

representatives of local professional organizations, in

fact anyone the committee felt had influence.[These show-

case activities] headed by the committee chairman, Tony

Ede, who gave an enthusiastic talk on the subject of

puppet theatre being the jewel in the crown of Norwich,

had raised the fund and promised gifts of totalling

15,000 pound within 3 weeks. With this overwhelming

indication of support [from the local communities the

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Norwich Puppet Theatre was conceived]. Peter Codling was

appointed as architect and a [local] supporters club

(SNAP) was formed…

Much of the conversion work was done by unemployed

youngsters under the Youth Opportunities Programme [of

Norwich]. The Manpower Services Commission paid for the

three supervisors and 14 youngsters to work on the

[conversion of St James’ Church to NPT] for 40 weeks.

(66-67)

The building project of NPT was finally completed after 19

months of contributions and negotiations with the ‘whole town’

effort.

All in all 30 youngsters from the Youth Opportunities

Programme scheme were hired to convert St James’s church to a

puppet theatre. The establishment of NPT is an exemplary event

on building connections between a medium and its patrons. This

interdependent relationship of a community to its art

patronization through the forming of the theatre has forged a

sense of belonging and pride to the community.

Norwich is lucky to have this facility which is the only

puppet theatre in England outside of London. The

reputation of the theatre in the international community

is reflected in the standard of touring companies who

perform at the theatre, which in 2006 included : Duda

Paiva (The Netherlands) and the British Premiere of the

Figurina Theatre of Animation from Hungary. As such

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audiences have the opportunity to experience cultural

diversity and to see how the art form of theatre

animation has developed in different countries. Back in

1979 Tony Ede said that " if the theatre were to be

completely destroyed by a thunderbolt we could still say

with certainty that the social advantages gained during

construction were enough to make the whole thing

worthwhile" it is fair to say that this contribution to

the local community has continued to the present day.

(Norwich Historical Churches Trust)

NPT is not merely a puppet theatre but a symbol of collective

memory and effort of the people in Norwich. In turn, the arts

and the local communities have bonded a quality of resiliency

towards each other even after they are physically not in

Norwich. But the emotional attachment people established with

this building-based puppet theatre seems to be able to draw

its people back. Anna Hunn and Toby Catlin, both originally

from the city but who now live in east London decided to make

NPT their wedding venue.

They both have fond childhood memories of the theatre and some

of their families have connection to the theatre, ‘It is

somewhere that has always been special to us. We both went

there a lot when we were children’ (Knights, “Norwich couple

to wed in Puppet Theatre”).

Mark Mander, a puppeteer, who grew up in Norwich described

NPT, ‘ for me, it is like going home, I saw [NPT] being built,

it was my first job, so I have got a life time of memories

23

associated with this building and the current team [of

employees] is like a collection of old friends’ (Mander).

Mr Mander continues to perform and work with NPT even after he

left Norwich and has been based in London since 1991. His

latest performance of Festival Gala: Manipulate at The Golden

Clementine’s was another collaborative work done in NPT during

the Manipulate Visual Theatre Festival 2014(NPT Manipulate

Visual Theatre Festival program booklet).

Ray Dasilva also emphasised that the importance of bringing

puppeteers together to inspire each other with their puppetry

works was one of the most rewarding and successful part of his

time in Norwich. The gathering of puppeteers once a year in

Norwich later led to the establishment of Puppeteers UK

(DaSilva). The face to face meetings may unfold the intangible

qualities of building genuine friendships through puppetry

among people who share the same sentiment about puppetry

(Squire, Arvon Foundation).

As shown in the case of Norwich Puppet Theatre, the mutual

effort of a community to stay connected through a building-

based puppet theatre is rather a concept of people staying in

touch with each other through a communal space. It is a medium

which could connect and join common memory and reflect

identity of that community (Osborne 2)

In a research project under Wintario Research Program,

researchers Donald Getz and Wendy Frisby reported that:

24

Festival and sporting events are closely associated with

municipal leisure and community services departments,

falling naturally under their recreation and cultural

mandates. Not only are festivals and special events

designed to contribute to “quality of life”, they often

performed important functions….

Festivals and special events, which usually reflect a

theme unique to the host community, contribute to

community pride and solidarity. Events are also of

increasing interest from an economic or tourism-centric

perspective as their potential for attracting tourists

and enhancing a destination’s image has been well

documented. (38)

Therefore, puppet theatre does not lack the capacity to

organize municipal festivals and special events that celebrate

the art forms and boost community pride and solidarity. It is

possible that it may even expand to the larger social impact

of the region when the event is organized at an international

level.

In 2005 and 2007 NPT hosted the 1st and 2nd Norwich Puppet

Theatre International Puppet Festival, which brought together

national and international puppeteers and puppet

organizations’ representatives, academics, and tourists to

Norwich. Not only did NPT organise the event, the puppeteer

communities from UK and around the world were also joined in

the collective celebration for the arts of puppetry.

25

During the 2007 International Festival in NPT, the building-

based theatre hosted 16 companies from 7 countries who

performed over a 9-day puppetry programme ranging from the

traditional Slovenian Dr Faustus to the modern Titeres de Mana

Parrato. Workshops and master classes were also conducted during

the festival (NPT Financial Statements). The festival has

extended the collective celebration to the local performing

arts organizations like Norwich Playhouse and The Garage,

while some performance and workshop were held at during the

festival. This collaborative organizing effort brought the

‘Norwich Spirit’ in the local performing arts scene as the

festival brought in guests from all over the world to these

venues. The repercussion of such events made the

sustainability of puppetry in the community of Norwich even

more likely due to ‘raised morale’ (Callaghan et al. 931).

Puppetry, as a dynamic and multipurpose art form has the

ability to touch lives (“The Center for Puppetry Arts”).

Events and festivals that centred in this kind of art form

always make a significant connection with the people who are

involved in it or engaging with it. Puppetry contributes in a

very personal and unique way that is almost religious when the

metaphysical experience is celebrated collectively.

Creating a shared space for a community to engage with

each other towards a collective goal would empower the

community to achieve resiliency and strengthen the bond

between the people and the art forms that mediate it (John 8).

When the people and the art form are interdependent and stay

26

connected, it increases the resiliency of the community as

well as the tradition that ties in with the art forms.

Lederach described the quality of community resiliency as a

capacity to stay in touch with one another:

By its very nature, resiliency as metaphor suggests a

journey that is both internal and outward bound that

rises from a quality of character and spirit. To place

the term in a life journey, resiliency suggests that no

matter the difficulty of the terrains faced by the

traveller, s/he stays in touch with a core defining

essence of being and purpose, and displays a tenacity to

find a “way back” as a “way forward” that artistically

stays true to his/her very being. We could say the

defining quality of resiliency is the capacity to stay in

touch. (“Resilience” 24).

Once an alliance is formed between the people and the arts,

the commitment to stay in touch with one another is forged and

thus could establish resilient quality in this relationship

(Callaghan et al. 935). Nina Simon, the author of

Participatory Museum believes, ‘social objects allow people to

focus their attention on a third thing rather than on each

other, making interpersonal engagement more comfortable.

People can connect with strangers when they have a shared

interest in specific objects…. We connect with people through

our interests and shared experiences of the objects around us’

(2010).

27

Puppetry which centred on an object, the puppet, could be seen

as a social object as mentioned by Nina Simon, that enables

the people who associate with it to forge a common connection

that may encourage long lasting friendships and devotion

towards sustaining this art form, and participation in group

visual arts activities can foster a sense of belonging (Parr

153; Skudrzyk 252) and stimulate new social interactions

(Askins and Pain 803).

People who were touched by the puppet’s ‘magical power’

sustain a long passion and often showed resilience in the art

form. Ronnie Le Drew, the puppeteer of the famous Zippy, co-

founder of London School of Puppetry, an apprentice at LAT in

1964.

He has remained loyal to this art form and continues his

support of LAT. LeDrew recalled enthusiastically his encounter

with The Little Mermaid played in LAT while he was a boy, ‘when I

first went to [LAT] and saw the Little Mermaid production,

I’ve never seen a marionette like that, and that totally you

know, captivated me really, … this beautiful mermaid and

beautiful lighting… the narration saying “ This is a story of

a little mermaid, no ordinary mermaid but a princess.”…just

beautiful’(LeDrew).

What happened to LeDrew half a century ago is still vivid in

his fond memory. As researchers proved, the experience of

being in awe was the first step of building intrinsic

motivation (Ibanez et al. 215). The intrinsic motivation could

become a passion for lifelong enjoyment toward a job,

28

Passion for the work — what psychologists call intrinsic

motivation. Without it, no amount of talent will yield

great performance. For 35 years, we have been exploring

how motivation affects creativity. In studies involving

groups as diverse as children, college students,

professional artists, and knowledge workers, we have

found that people are more creative when they are more

strongly intrinsically motivated — driven by interest,

enjoyment, satisfaction, and a sense of personal

challenge in the work they are doing. (Amabile et al.

Harvard Business Review)

Today, Le Drew often returns to LAT to direct puppet shows

like The Wild Night of The Witches, teaching puppetry master

classes like Long String Marionette Training Course, and

performing puppet shows such as Dogs Don’t Do Ballet to young

audiences. Beside his professional service to LAT in the form

of puppetry, the intangible relationship that seeded among his

family with LAT is also apparent, ‘I was a kid when I went to

[LAT] first of all and I brought my children when they were

young and they brought their children... There are generations

of people who have come, brought their children and I often

get this, “Oh my mother brought me as I was a child”. That’s

nice to hear while you talked to the members of the audience

after [performances].’ His continuation of staying in touch

with LAT and growing in the arts of puppetry for more than

half a century adding support towards sustainable traits

between puppetry and its people.

29

The relationship forged between a puppeteer and the theatre is

much resound in one of the main ideas of John L. McKnight’s

Asset-Based Community Development methodology, which focuses

on gifts within communities as a means for sustainable

development (Block 25).

Asset-Based Community Development theory focuses on utilizing

people’s gifts especially those who were being labelled or

exiled in a society, and turning it to a sustainable trait for

building a community:

‘[Community vision] sees the goal as ‘recommunalization’

of exiled and labelled individuals. It understands the

community as the basic context of enabling people to

contribute their gifts….Those who were once labelled,

exiled, treated, counselled, advised, and protected are,

instead, incorporated in community where their

contributions, capacities, gifts, and fallibilities will

allow a network of relationships involving work,

recreation, friendship, support,…[However] the community

vision has frequently been forgotten.’ (McKnight 57)

As LeDrew recalled his headmaster Mr Ragette, replying to a

letter from his concerned mother about his future as a

puppeteer:

I can entirely see your point of view. I merely endeavour

to get young people to think deeply and widely about

their choice of career. In this connection, it is

difficult for them to take the long view as they have

little knowledge of life...one of the important question

30

in taking the long view is prospects, that was the

particular point which worried me about Ronnie’s choice.

(LeDrew)

In those days, learning to become a puppeteer was a ‘worrying’

option of career. However, LeDrew continued his training

under services rendered13 at LAT. He was in LAT from Tuesday to

Sunday rendering his services in exchange for training.

Despite being advised that a puppeteer had ‘short sighted

prospects’, LeDrew has been contributing his services to LAT

since 1963 and has become part of the core community of LAT.

This building-based puppet theatre has become a place of

significance for LeDrew.

As McKnight’s suggested about ‘recommunalization’, LeDrew

appeared to take what the society considered irrelevant and

turned it into a network of relationships involving work,

recreation, friendship, and support that last (57).

In the article of Emotion Induction and Pro-Environmental

Behaviour in a Dictator Game, the authors agreed that ‘[a]we

would increase the individual perception of available time,

which alters consumption preferences, and makes individuals

more altruistic (while being volunteers)’ (Ibnez et al. 216).

Art and literature always present highly unusual or even

magical and impossible events. Works that challenge and that

involve obscurity are more likely to induce awe (Keltner et

al. 310). The puppet show may be a magical encounter for a

‘first timer’, thus young children are more easily subjected 13 Paying training fee with services like looking after props and sets andhelping with scene changes during shows etc.

31

to the sense of awe (Keltner et al. 311) while experiencing

the uncanny life of a puppet. There may be a long term effect

of childhood ‘awe’ experienced with puppet shows. Gregory

Doran, artistic director of the Royal Shakespeare Company

(RSC) and director of Venus and Adonis14, stated:

For me, puppetry was an intrinsic part of the magic of my

television youth, whether with Calamity Gulch or

Supercar, Stingray or Thunderbirds. The wooden figures

suspended on strings were to become the stuff of my

dreams and, with the innocence of early adolescence, the

stuff of my fantasies as well. No wonder I can immerse

myself so completely into the magic of Venus and Adonis;

unbeknownst to me this is my childhood heritage, except

now very adult in subject-matter and style. (Quarmby)

A good puppet show would expect to have these three elements

as Ronnie Le Drew explained to his students; ‘secret, magic,

and surprise. If you have these 3 elements in your show, you

are pretty much safe’ (LeDrew). Quarmby also recorded in his

interview with Michael Pennington regarding his performance of

Sweet William15, ‘[t]he most gratifying aspect of the show,

apart from being invited back to the [LAT]… definitely the

number of kids who see it and are enthralled.’

Perhaps what Le Drew and Pennington suggested as a good puppet

show and the importance of enthrallment is to instil in young

14 A collaborative theatrical production of RSC and LAT, based on Shakespeare’s poetry with the use of puppets performed in 2004 15 Michael Pennington's solo show about Shakespeare, Sweet William, has beenacclaimed throughout Europe and in the US as a unique blend of showmanship and scholarship.

32

minds a sense of awe that could foster a lifetime passion.

This may be the reason Ronnie Le Drew is very cautious to

build positive experience to his young audience, especially

the first-timers of puppet show. He makes sure the puppet

leaves a good feeling to the little audience (LeDrew).

Steve Tiplady, a renowned puppeteer who won a Time Out Live

Award 2002 said in an interview; ‘you can create such a sense

of wonder using simple things,… using objects imaginatively

leaves spaces for kids to fill in’ (Palmer, Tesconnect). The

sense of awe and wonder in childhood could be the main force

to build sense of belonging and even healing for young people

(Jacono 53; Synovitz 145).

The youths who help to construct the NPT building, the

children who attended the puppet making workshops in LAT, the

children who were captivated by the magic of a marionette show

in LAT, the puppeteers who collaborated to create a puppet

show, or those who have fond memories of just being a witness

to a magical puppet show may easily become an alliance because

of its previous encounter. Collective emotions have

transformative powers, they could change people’s attitudes

and inspire them to follow something larger than themselves

(Keltner et al. 300).

Since the time of Modernism in Europe, new understanding

of the arts has been rallied through collaboration with

artists and educationists, where puppet theatres were included

under this sphere of experimentation (Prior et al. 1). This

modernity movement has encouraged puppetry to new development,

33

prevailing over to popular forms. As time has passed, creative

innovation has been encouraged. Previously contrary fields

such as performing arts e.g. puppetry and science have been

pushed together in an attempt to improve a situation where

either one of the elements would not normally be sufficient.

An example of this could be child psychology (Irwin 389).

However, the reconstructed form of collaborative arts may not

be sustainable in other communities. In Southeast Asia, many

forms of traditional puppetry are slowly diminishing. They are

struggling to find their audience and failing to evolve with

the pace of its society.

Conversely, in Malaysia, the modernisation of the countries

and their media and art forms appears to have discouraged

traditional puppetry as a mainstream art form (Yousof 106):

Like modern theatre everywhere, puppetry has become

interested in contemporary issues; these are mostly

political, possibly philosophical in some broad ways,

rarely religious or spiritual, …The likelihood,

therefore, is that such forms of new puppetry will come

and go, serve a particular passing purpose, and then

decline, finding their way into oblivion. This is partly

due to the fact that the new values come from outside;

they do not represent the core values that have long been

cherished within. …Recent decades, and particularly the

past quarter of the century, has seen considerable

erosion in the status of all four Malaysian shadow play

34

forms. Wayang kulit Melayu is almost extinct and each of

the three others [Malaysia puppetry] is now performed by

a small number of dalang. (Yousof 103-112)

There is no one single factor that can be blamed for the

drastic decline of puppetry in Southeast Asia. Perhaps, as

Yousof has suggested, socioeconomics, politics, religion, and

new media are main contributors to the deterioration of

puppetry in Malaysia. He has claimed that one of the most

prominent aspects of puppetry in Malaysia was the spirituality

in performance that sustained the art form for decades.

However, Yousof’s view that modernisation influenced puppetry

in Wayang Kulit Malaysia may be referring to the influence of

‘Western’ spirituality in performance.

Spirituality in theatre performance has been a tradition

in the West (Winston 242; Astles 30) even to the most recent

work of puppetry in London In 2014. An interview with the

production team of A Midsummer night’s Dream by Bristol Old Vic

and Handspring Puppet Company, Basil Jones and Tom Morris

discussed the concept of instilling life in a puppet;

The thought of all things having the potential of life

inside them is an old animist idea. ..This animist belief

in spirits inhabiting all objects defines the culture

presented in the show. Tom talks about the importance of

the shoe Oberon and Titania figures: ‘At the start of the

play Hippolyta is carving the figures which will bless

and protect her marriage to Theseus and the house they

35

live in. These carvings embody the spirit of Oberon and

Titania.’ (Wallace 10).

The concept of animism being rooted in many puppetry works can

be seen in the West as many puppeteers believe every object

has a right to life, which is a strand of animist belief. In

2014 the London, Barbican held a performance of A Midsummer

Night’s Dream where cast members used pieces of wood to

represent characters in the story. This is not a traditional

method of puppetry, however it does show an example of

traditional puppetry in a ‘modernistic’ setting. Perhaps more

can be done to instil ‘life’ to traditional puppetry in

Malaysia through practice-led research and an in-depth

understanding of western ways in penetrating the uncanny life

of puppetry from a social psychology perspective.

One of the possible solutions is to study arts and the

relationship with their communities. ‘Arts are what the human

hand touches, shapes, and creates and in turn what touches our

deeper sense of being. The artistic process has this dialectic

nature: It arises from human experience and then shapes, gives

expression and meaning to, that experience’ (Lederach, Moral

34). If arts could touch lives and promote peace building

among a society as Lederach believes, perhaps we need to look

into the capacity of connecting this idea to a puppetry

community. Jan Mrazek in his book Puppetry Theatre in Contemporary

Indonesia suggested that the demand and support from the local

public, environment and resources from within its indigenous

society were keys to its success for prolonging the puppet

tradition:

36

Perhaps for artistic innovation to succeed in a

traditional culture there must be resources and

environment that support them and there must be a society

that needs them. At the present time, it appears that the

society is still debating whether it needs wayang ukur

and just as importantly, whether it can afford it. (185)

Mrazek’s view for the sustainability of the puppetry tradition

relates to its community’s needs toward the tradition and the

concern of economic factors.

NPT and LAT both host extensive master classes, summer

schools, festivals, and workshops throughout the year creating

face-to-face interaction between puppeteers, theatre

professionals, people who live around the theatre and beyond.

This small scale meeting of people who share a common interest

in puppetry reflected what Poplin quoted from Nisbet’s Moral

Values and Community; ‘ [the only alternative to reconstruct a

healthy community in twentieth century] are communities small

in scale but solid in structure, as they respond at the

fundamental human desires of [togetherness]’ (Poplin 8).

Arts and community could forge sustainable relationships

with each other if they keep in touch and forge a connection

(Axner, University of Kansas). This relationship would enhance

both parties and build resiliency mutually. It is not a matter

of who needs whom, but it becomes a matter of mutual

dependency for a healthier community. The tradition of

37

puppetry in Southeast Asia dates back to hundreds of years

much of which precedes the ‘age’ of the country itself. I

believe that the further involvement of communities who

recognise the significance and wisdom and their own heritage

in the traditions, which have already shown resilience by

existing through the years, would be the way to sustain them

for the future.

In the cases of NPT and LAT, their operational business

traits were highly dependent on the commitment level of its

communities and the commitment level of supporters may be

motivated by the inspiration of a skilful piece of puppet

performance. The skilful puppet performance in turn could be

produced by the puppeteers’ passions for puppetry craft. This

could become an ecosystem of puppetry that depended on the

interaction between the art of puppetry and its people. In the

cases of NPT and LAT, the theatre building played an essential

role for such interaction to develop. Like an association, the

proliferation and development of creative solutions between

puppetry and its people are highly interdependent on the work

of its community. As McKnight described; ‘[t]he associations

in community are interdependent. To weaken one is to weaken

all’(56). So the need for puppetry in a community depends on

the puppetry that is able to involve people with meaningful

activities that would bring forth inspiration to the

community. Likewise, this could be carried out in Southeast

Asia where puppetry is slowly dying out due to lack of support

from the community or rather not able to sustain the

‘ecosystem of puppetry’.

38

Following this, I believe that to encourage puppetry (not only

in Southeast Asia), it would be necessary to follow the

example shown by NPT and LAT. The community and the theatres

or puppet-bases would need to work together to promote the

resilience of the art form, rather than expecting to stay

alive without the engagement of local publics. Perhaps the

promotion of sustainability of traditional puppetry in many

Southeast Asia regions requires building resiliency of a

community toward the art forms by diversifying audience base

rather than limiting to certain ethnic groups.

The power of collective resilience in the case of NPT and LAT

relied on strategies of mitigating local people who are

‘friends’, creating organization linkages beyond puppetry

communities, boosting and protecting social support using

creative and high profile activities. An example of which was

encouraging celebrity fundraising and adopting a creative

mindset on problem solving during times of crisis. All these

activities were carried out by the communities that belong to

the operational system of these two building-based puppet

theatres.

A system can be defined as a comparatively bounded structure

consisting of interacting, interrelated, or interdependent

elements that form a whole (Susser 675; Gross 29; McKnight

56). From the case study above, my hypothesis would be that

there are three sectors in the puppetry operational system;

one is the ‘External Elements’ of a puppet performance. Craft,

39

which contributes to the technical elements of performances

like construction of a puppet, manipulating a puppet,

workshops on voicing the puppets, costumes, sets, lighting,

sound, venue for performance, etc. These could be enhanced by

the educational workshops and training programs offered by the

puppet theatres.

The second sector would be the people who are contributing to

the external elements. For example: the puppeteers, puppet

makers, the set designers, the costume designers, the lighting

designers, etc. These people could be drawn together by the

festivals, performance, and professional training.

The third sector is the audience. The individuals who attend

the performance and are connected to puppetry through

participation, whether it is due to general interest, memory,

and relationships, which could be cultivated by exposing to

the craft.

The operational system of puppetry could be understood and

drawn analogy from ‘ecologysm’ as Mervyn and Ezra Susser

defined in their research, ‘[h]ence, a set of factors that

make up a system can be identified. Their coherence implies a

degree of persistence and stability. This stability coexists,

however, with the capacity for change. Because the factors

contained in a system relate in some fashion, change and

activity in one sector impinges on and affects other sectors’

(M and E Susser 675). The key to enhance the system depends on

the dynamic of the interaction between these sectors. The more

interaction each sector has with the other, the more vibrant

40

it would become (M and E Susser 675). The growth of the system

is thus dependant on each of these sectors, were one to

collapse all would eventually collapse, were one to grow all

would have to grow to sustain the system (Callaghan et al.

940-41).

The more puppet shows you produce, the more people you

would need to recruit for its operation. To balance the 3

sectors is the key concept for sustainability of that system.

Imagine if there were many puppeteers in the market, but not

enough puppet-makers to construct puppets for the puppeteers

to perform, the quality of the performance would be

compromised due to poorly crafted puppets by the puppeteer

her/himself. Time is the key player in the game of quality

work in live arts. As long as a human is performing the tasks,

constraint of time is needed to be taken into consideration,

is the reality of human live arts which is also the beauty of

it. A puppeteer could not do everything by her/himself, some

parts of the production would suffer or become compromised.

Ray Dasilva said in an interview that his biggest challenge in

the puppetry ‘business’ was time constraint. ‘There is never

enough time to do everything’ (Dasilva). However, a lot of

puppeteers would choose to work alone to gain full control of

his/her puppet show in terms of artistic direction. Creating

performances under influence of other sectors may compromise

certain areas of the artistic process. For instance, producing

shows for educational and therapy purposes would be much

different from producing shows for general audiences. There is

a fundamental question of the puppetry business: How much

41

could the puppetry system/industry grow while sustaining the

quality of performance that could instil the sense of awe in

the audience? When the performance ‘quality’ is compromised,

all of the previously mentioned sectors may also slowly

disengage, eventually disappearing and vice versa, because it

is within an ecosystem.

Creating programs which support the ecosystem of

generating puppet performance that could instil a sense of awe

to the viewer could be the starting point of developing a

building-based puppet theatre. To sustain the engagement of

the community, each program should be contributing to the

process of creating a puppet show. This means including the

external elements, the artists, and the audience in the

outcome of each sector.

Fig. 1. The 3 sectors in operational system of building-based

puppet theatre

Each program must have an outlet to be consumed by another

program and they all should be interdependent like an

ecosystem. For example, if the theatre offers puppet-making

External

elements

Audience

The Artists

42

workshops, to complete the ecosystem, it should also create

puppet-manipulating workshops, and form audiences by

organizing events like family days outing. This way, the

puppet made would be used by people in the puppet manipulating

class to perform in the family outing day and the people who

attend the family outing may be inspired to want to

participate in a puppet making class or puppet manipulating

class in the near future.

On the other hand, to expand one sector, you may have to

expand the other 2 sectors to balance the ecosystem. The

expansion is based on the creativity and innovative ideas and

methodology of the other sectors. For example, the innovative

development of a puppet performance of Shakespeare’s poetry

leads to creation new audience). Now would follow organisation

of an outlet for this performance by having a puppet poetry

club to create a space for new work in puppetry (new external

elements). At the same time, it would be you create a platform

for this club to perform their work and encourage new artists

to showcase their work. This cycle can be seen in LAT’s

operation system. In LAT, the Saturday Puppet Club is an

example for this ecosystem.

Taken from LAT official website:

This term you are invited to come and make your own

puppet inspired by our acclaimed production of Fantastic

Mr Fox and learn how to be a puppeteer! Members undertake

a weekly Saturday morning activity creating their own

puppets and developing a short play for performance.  The

43

term culminates in a grand finale for friends and family

using the puppets they have made. (LAT 2013)

The ecosystem begins with the production of Fantastic Mr Fox,

a puppet play for children. The outlet for this production is

the Saturday Puppet Club for children who are inspired by the

performance to learn how to produce a puppet show by learning

puppet making and storytelling. To complete the ecosystem of

this program, The Saturday Puppet Club will end with a

presentation for friends and family which develops a new

audience.

The key to sustain or grow the art form is to keep the

ecosystem in balance. For example, not to oversubscribe to a

program in one of the sectors for instance too many puppet

makers (artist sector), a large audience(audience sector), but

low performing quality due to lack of puppet-manipulating

training(external element sector). This may eventually lead to

a loss of the ‘magic’, and therefore a loss of sustainability

in the traits of puppetry. A further example could be too many

puppeteers and a large audience, but a poor performance venue

that could not articulate and project the sense of beauty in a

performance. This may lead to a compromise in the quality of

performance. Or, too many puppeteers and puppet makers, but no

effort in creating new audience, the ecosystem would not

survive too.

44

External elements

Audience

The Artists

External

elements

Audience

The Artists

45

When one of the sectors is disconnected from the other 2

sectors, the ecosystem is in danger of disengaging and

becoming imbalanced and eventually losing its survival traits.

In a similar way, if this system could be implemented in

Southeast Asia, it may be possible to reinvigorate the

traditional puppet form which is at the brink of extinction

lacking support from its community. Examples of which include

Wayang Kulit in Malaysia (Spirit of Kelantan), Sbek Thom in

Cambodia (Sbek Thom), and Bu Ou Si in Singapore (Life on string).

The power of puppetry begins with a magical encounter with a

puppet show. All the puppeteers I interviewed were inspired by

a puppet performance they watched while they were much

younger. Resilience would likely begin by continuing to create

‘magical’ performances, which inspire new audiences and

especially a younger audience. In addition, teaching skills to

those who are inspired and creating platforms for puppet shows

External

elements

Audience

The Artists

46

to be performed would be the fundamental concept of

sustainable operational traits of building-based puppetry

theatre. This system may generate a community of puppetry and

sustaining the puppetry art forms through its interrelated

relationships with its community.

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