The Almanac:
Can you please share how you first got into puppetry?
Ronnie Burkett:
When I was 7 years old, my parents had bought a set of the World Book Encyclopedia. One day I was pestering my mother while she was making lunch, and she told me to go look at the books. So I sat on the floor and pulled out a random volume; it was "P". It opened to a two-page article on puppetry and I was hooked. My mother called me for lunch, I closed the book, and from that day onward I was smitten with puppets. The family joke for years was that if only the P volume had fallen open to plumber or psychiatrist or anything else.
The Almanac:
Why do you love puppetry, in particular? What makes it special?
Burkett:
I think the initial appeal of puppetry for me was an art form that allowed me to play in all the areas of expression that interested me; storytelling, sculpting, drawing, acting, making things. That certainly holds true to this day, but I've also realized that puppetry — as a solo performer — allows me to shrink the larger world to a manageable scale for me to reflect on or satirize or comment on my often confounding fellow humans. And unlike the restrictions of the human theater, puppetry allows me to play any character I can imagine, regardless of age or gender, be they human, animal or fantasy. It's a miraculously freeing experience for any actor.
The Almanac:
Can you tell us a bit about the process of designing and creating the puppets? What's the most challenging aspect? The most fun?
Burkett:
Each of the marionettes are individually designed full size on paper, front and profile views. I don't use stock body patterns, and this bespoke approach allows each character to have their specific posture. From these drawings, patterns are made for the limbs and transferred to wood, which is then carved, jointed, sanded and painted. The marionette heads are made from a papier-mache pulp, either as direct sculpts or cast from molds. There are so many parts to creating a marionette, and an important aspect is the controller to which the strings are attached. Every puppeteer has their favorite kind, and mine is quite specific to my needs in performance. I suspect the most challenging aspect of creating a puppet is finding the character through stance, movement, sculpture and costuming so it reflects who that character is before it even speaks. But of course that's the fun of the entire process too. Personally, I'd have to say that I enjoy painting the heads and faces the most, and costume design is always great fun.
The Almanac:
Do you have any particular favorites amongst your characters?
Burkett:
In The Daisy Theatre cast, there are three characters who are my "go to" characters, simply because I know them so well and can pick any of them up and start improvising. There's Schnitzel, a little fairy who longs to get their wings and fly, who is unabashedly adorable and a huge audience favorite. And Mrs. Edna Rural from Turnip Corners, Alberta, is another favorite. Edna is a prairie farm widow who tells the most hilarious and tender stories. And then there's Esme Massengill, a vain, drunken has-been actress well past her prime. Esme is unapologetically vile, and so much fun to perform.
The Almanac:
How did you decide to take on "Romeo and Juliet"?
Burkett:
I've been performing The Daisy Theatre for a decade now, so I know the characters very well. A few years ago, I decided to do a loosely improvised version of "A Christmas Carol" starring the Daisy characters called "Little Dickens," and it's become a great seasonal hit. I've always been a bit in the closet about my love for Shakespeare, so in "Little Willy" I decided to let the Daisy cast of characters muddle their way through a very loose and ridiculous telling of "Romeo and Juliet." My main goal was that it be more Daisy Theatre than Shakespeare, and that it would still work as a Saturday date-night show for an audience who weren't Shakespearean experts. It's quite silly and very funny and bawdy, and I made a marionette of The Bard himself, who appears in the show.
The Almanac:
Anything else you think readers who are unfamiliar with your work should know?
Burkett:
This is definitely theater for adults, so get a babysitter and leave the kids at home.
"Little Willy" runs March 1-4 at 8 p.m. at Bing Studio, 327 Lasuen St., Stanford. Tickets are $50. More information is available at https://live.stanford.edu.
This story contains 928 words.
Stories older than 90 days are available only to subscribing members. Please help sustain quality local journalism by becoming a subscribing member today.
If you are already a member, please log in so you can continue to enjoy unlimited access to stories and archives. Membership starts at $12 per month and may be cancelled at any time.
