Between Art and Commerce and Art Between Everyday Practice in Modern in Practice Everyday
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297798 - Day Contact Day Puppetry - Mandy Heidstra Between Art and Commerce Everyday Practice in Modern Abstract Contact puppetry is a western interpretation of the ancient Japanese bunraku puppetry. In the last decade or so, the popularity seems to have grown exponentially. As part of the performing arts, contact puppetry is a creative industry. These industries are characterized by seven properties, according to Richard Caves in his book Creative Industries; Contracts Between Art and Commerce (2000). By means of three modern-day contact puppetry productions (War Horse, Disney’s The Little Mermaid, and A Dog’s Heart), the aim of this thesis is to identify if everyday practice in contact puppetry follows the creative industry ‘rules’ as portrayed by Caves’ properties. And if so, what can be (preliminary) said from a cultural economic point of view about the economic and artistic reasons to use contact puppetry? Key Words Contact puppetry, bunraku, creative industries, Richard Caves, War Horse. Mandy Heidstra - 297798 Master Thesis Cultural Economics and Entrepreneurship E. Dekker MSc. Dr. C. Handke Colofon Mandy Heidstra© Student Number 297798 Master Student Cultural Economics and Entrepreneurship Thesis supervisor: E. Dekker MSc. Second reader: Dr. C. Handke Erasmus University Rotterdam Burg. Oudlaan 50 3062 PA Rotterdam The Netherlands 1 Word of Thanks Jamais seul, jamais cent et toujours dans la foule Être mille ou cent mille et tout le monde qui l'écoute Il est là le jour qui se rêve Le voilà le jour qui se rêve Robin des Bois, 2013 Writing a thesis is not an individual ordeal, it’s a collective effort of all even remotely involved and affected. Without all of the support, help, patience, ideas, love, and so on, given to me, I would have never been able to complete this final quest. Therefore I want to thank all of you who had to suffer my endless lack of time, frustrations, doubts, questions, and screams for help. You all know who you are and I promise to make it up… as soon as I’ve got time again. Next to those who had to put up with me, I also want to thank all those involved in creating the contents. Starting of course with all the interviewees (in alphabetical order on a first name basis): Adrian Kohler, Derek Blok, Finn Caldwell, Floris Visser, Josie Daxter, Max Webster, Sascha van den Tol, Toby Olié, and Wendy Dries. Thank you all so much for your time, your candor, your enthusiasm, and most of all your love for the performing arts in general and puppetry in particular. Also, this word of thanks would not be complete without thanking Erwin Dekker, my brilliant supervisor. I’m really grateful for your help, ideas, input, critiques, and endless faith – even when I had none. And last, but first in a way as well, I want to thank Toby Olié. Your love for puppets and enthusiasm about your work is contagious to the extent that you’ve got this pediophobiac completely hooked; without you this endless world of wonders would have remained a mystery. 2 Table of Contents Colofon .................................................................................................................................................... 1 Word of Thanks ....................................................................................................................................... 2 Preface ..................................................................................................................................................... 5 General Introduction ............................................................................................................................... 7 Research .............................................................................................................................................. 8 Value of Science .................................................................................................................................. 9 What’s Next? ..................................................................................................................................... 10 Introduction in the History of Puppetry ................................................................................................ 12 Growing Up? ...................................................................................................................................... 12 Adult Puppetry?................................................................................................................................. 13 Handspring Puppet Company ............................................................................................................ 14 Bunraku?! .......................................................................................................................................... 14 UNIMA ............................................................................................................................................... 15 Introduction into the Academic Discourse ............................................................................................ 16 Money, Money, Money ..................................................................................................................... 16 Artists? ............................................................................................................................................... 18 God and Men ..................................................................................................................................... 21 Deus ex Machina ........................................................................................................................... 21 Introduction into this Thesis Research .................................................................................................. 24 Seven Properties by Richard Caves ................................................................................................... 24 Three Cases of Modern-Day Contact Puppetry ................................................................................. 27 The Interviews ................................................................................................................................... 31 The interviewees ........................................................................................................................... 31 Interview Set-Up ............................................................................................................................ 32 Interview Analysis Based on Caves’ Properties ............................................................................. 35 Now What? ........................................................................................................................................ 47 Contact Puppetry in Practice; Supplying Complex Creative Goods ...................................................... 49 Work Without Love is Slavery ........................................................................................................... 51 Motivation ..................................................................................................................................... 51 Contracts ....................................................................................................................................... 52 There is No "I" in Team, But There is a "U" in Suck ........................................................................... 52 Motley Crews ................................................................................................................................. 52 Art Versus Craft ............................................................................................................................. 54 3 Deus ET Machina ........................................................................................................................... 57 The Only Certainty is That Nothing is Certain ................................................................................... 58 High Fixed Costs............................................................................................................................. 58 Workshopping ............................................................................................................................... 59 Take Your Time .............................................................................................................................. 61 Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star ............................................................................................................ 62 Anything but That! ........................................................................................................................ 63 Judgment Day .................................................................................................................................... 63 The Weight of the Market ............................................................................................................. 63 Audiences ...................................................................................................................................... 64 Peers and Gatekeepers ................................................................................................................. 65 Hard to Place ..................................................................................................................................... 66 To Conclude with Some Further Thoughts ...........................................................................................