Video transcript
Drama Company 2021 – Tales from the Wild Bush – 13. Puppetry demonstration

[intro music]

KATELYN: Hi, I'm Katelyn, and I'm the first puppeteer of Snuffles in 'Tales from the Wild Bush.'

[laughter]

ALICE: Hi, I'm Alice. I'm the second puppeteer of Snuffles in 'Tales from the Wild Bush.'

KATELYN: Well, I've definitely learned to always keep the puppet alive. So always breathing, little movements of the head. If you can see here, I'm doing little breaths and then little movements of the head and it just makes it look more alive and living.

[panting]

And then if you're going to bark, move the head with it. So like roof!

ALICE: Another sort of tip that you do when you're puppeteering, especially for [inaudible] puppets is to make sure that you recognise the weaknesses of it and not show the audience. Specifically for Snuffles, we don't cover his neck. So to keep the movement so it can move around freely-- his neck looks a bit weird and scary if you bring it around like that. So just make sure keep it down and not bringing the head up and looking around and to keep the--

Sometimes, the legs, they don't always sit straight down on the ground. We need to make sure they're not swinging. So they're stable ground.

KATELYN: So basically, when you're working with a puppet, you have to make sure that you're always looking at the puppet and not looking around what's happening in the scene because as the audience-- if you're looking around reacting to what's happening around you, the audience is going to be looking at you. And especially if you're an actor or actress, you're most likely going to make facial expressions about what's happening around you. So you want the audience to focus on the puppet and not you. So keep a straight face, look at the puppet's head so you can really focus on its breathing and its movement.

ALICE: So another important thing when you're being a puppeteer if you're working with any sort of puppet is to make sure you know the focus and leading of where the puppet was going. Especially if it's an animal, you'd be thinking about what if it was a real animal, where it would be going. With a dog, it would be led by its nose because they have such a strong sense of smell.

So when the character such as Snuffles would be running around, he would be leading with his nose. But, for example, other animals, they may lead with their [? cheeks ?] or whatever. So it depends on what you're puppeteering.

KATELYN: Because Elektra and Snuffles have such a close relationship, Snuffles is always by Elektra's side, always really loyal to Elektra. So whatever situation she gets herself into, Snuffles is going to be there with Elektra. And wherever Elektra's going, Snuffles is going to be there to follow Elektra. And it's just a really cute and beautiful relationship between them, too.