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With Mr. Punch the Online Journal of the Worldwide Friends of Punch and Judy Volume 7 No 2 August 2003

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With Mr. Punch the Online Journal of the Worldwide Friends of Punch and Judy Volume 7 No 2 August 2003 Around The World With Mr. Punch The Online Journal of the worldwide friends of punch and judy Volume 7 No 2 August 2003 Looking Back and Moving On Then there is also the constant nostalgia interest in Also in this Mr. Punch. He is an A List celebrity in the UK cultural issue heritage industry - with his status having weathered the Teaching late 20th C. obsession with Punch in issues of Political Poland Correctness as a younger generation of parents comes to the fore. Not that Punch Punch up at himself has remained tate unchanged. His show is, after all, moulded by the culture in which it operates and gracie fields, managing to stay in touchrita haworth & with how his audience thinks is what stops him fossilising Tony martin into a museum piece. All great drama has provenÇal contemporary relevance and the underlying dramatic punch premise of Punch and Judy is no exception. These opening years of the new century are as good a punch in oz time as any to reflect on the Punch and Judy traditionIt is this perennial fascination part two and consider its current state of health. This seems towith Punch and Judy which is be an underlying pattern in the articles and otherbeing celebrated in an material submitted for inclusion in this issue of theexhibition at London’s journal. celebrated Pollocks Toy red nosed Museum. Entitled Pollocks miscellany Firstly - as we all know very well - the tradition is asPacks a Punchthe museum alive and flourishing in the UK as ever before and thereexplains that it features is also increased interest in the other lands to which he“puppets and memorabilia Toby’s has migrated. Let us salute, therefore, young Williamfrom the collection of the tailpiece Cousins of the UK (not yet in his teens) who has gotinternationally renowned the Punch bug and can hold an audience with his showPunch performer Professor 18th and 19th centuries as the photograph above, sent in by his dad Rick,John Styles including booths from the collection of Mr. demonstrates. Says Rick “He is just getting under way used in the 1960 cult George Speaight, the with his outdoor shows for this year and has shown no television series The distinguished historian of sign of tiring of his career so far! It looks like dad is Avengers and the film Time the popular theatre and going to have to make a new portable theatre for him Bandits plus puppets and authority on Punch and soon as he is rapidly outgrowing the current one.” artefacts over 100 years old. Also on display a unique Toy Theatre.” Young hands entering an old tradition are proof indeedcollection of Punch & Judy Old Red Nose is certainly of its vitality. prints dating from the late no fading star. TEACHING PUNCH IN POLAND Prof. Dan Bishop (Lands End, UK) English). There were four lecturers,work with hand puppets - and in was invited to give master classes at three from Poland: particular Mr. Punch - was a steep the International Puppetry Summer learning curve. Even the 3rd Year School, Bialystok, Poland in June and Leslaw Piecka, an expert in stringPolish puppetry student July of this year. This is indicative of puppet construction and the level of seriousness with which (assigned to my classes as a manipulation; Piotr Damulewicz, the wider world of puppetry in Europe translator and assistant) found is engaging once more with the once Professor and authority on playingworking with two puppets despised forms of puppetry of which with and manipulation of objects;simultaneously very difficult Mr. Punch is the pre-eminent Wieslaw Czolpinski, Professor andbecause they have trained using survivor. Seeing new raw talent come director of modern andjust one puppet at a time. to grips with the possibilities inherent unconventional forms of puppetry; in the Punch and Judy show is always and also myself with a brief to teachMy objective after five days (20 exciting - as Dan shows us in his about the theory & practice ofhours each group) was for each article. traditional hand puppet playing -participant to present a 3 minute especially in relation to the U.K.sequence of their own devising of tradition of Punch & Judy. Punch & Judy. I made it clear that Dr. Marek Waszkiel is the Head of the my aim was to provide Puppetry Art Department of theAlthough I have worked at variousinformation and suggest a Aleksander Zelwerowicz Theatrelevels on voice and characterizationprocedure with which they might Academy situated in Bialystok,with puppeteers and puppetrycreate an original interpretation of Poland. (This Faculty of Puppetry Artstudents in the past - at home andthis particular tradition - not as a runs a four year MA course for Actorabroad - there is no doubt that the’museum piece’ - but as - Puppeteers and a five year MAanticipation of this particular periodsomething fresh and up to date of course for Directors). of teaching had caused me moretheir own making. excitement - and more anxiety - Some months ago Dr. Waszkiel hadthan ever before. However, havingDuring the first two days I hinted in conversation that he wouldarrived three days before theinundated the students with as like to arrange some master classesclasses were to commence in ordermuch visual and factual at the Faculty. In June and July of thisto perform in the Bialystokinformation about the Punch & year, a summer school took place inInternational Festival of PuppetJudy tradition as possible. Also in Bialystok which hosted twenty twoTheatres, I had a chance to have athese initial two days we worked students: two from Latvia; two frommeeting with Dr. Waszkiel, and alsoon characterization, some Holland; one from Poland; one fromto have a good look at the Puppetryelementary voice work and on Israel; also a German andArt Department and see themaking Mr. Punch’s voice. Lithuanian. In addition, there were 14conditions in which I was to work. students from the puppetry school of As is always the case, the ’voice’ Cervia in the north east of Italy.Each lecturer worked with each ofproved more difficult for some Sadly, not one from the Unitedfour rotating groups for 20 hours. Inthan for others. Whether it ‘clicks’ Kingdom. practice this meant Monday tostraight away or not seems to be Friday - during the first week - foras much a matter of luck as The cost was only 400 Euros whichfour hours in the morning with oneanything else, and during the two included the cost of food, very goodgroup, then four hours in theweeks of work I saw one student accommodation and 80 hours ofafternoon with another, with amake a strong Punch voice at the intensive tuition over a period of twopresentation on Saturday of thefirst try, while others struggled for weeks in a puppetry school to die for:work of all four groups. Then, in thea few minutes - or hours - before equipped with numerous lecturesecond week, I worked with thesucceeding. There were some rooms, classrooms, workshops,third and fourth groups in the samewho arrived on the third day with studios - and, in addition, a fineway. very long faces and knitted brows. library of puppetry books, an But then - quite suddenly - a assembly hall and a large, fullyI quickly found that the age andbreak through, and broad grins. equipped theatre. Three wellexperience of the students variedAfter only 5 days of work, only equipped rehearsal rooms wereenormously. There were puppetryone of the 22 students decided made available to me and I workedstudents, actors, workingnot to make their final with groups of no more than 6puppeteers and a Polish ethnologistpresentation using the ’voice’ - students. The Subject waswho had never previously workedand of those 21 who did, 16 ‘Mastership in Manipulation’,with puppets. For all, however, theachieved not only a rich sound but (working languages: Polish & also managed the alternation wife, had to wake me up in between Punch‘s voice and that of the middle of the night during the other character(s) with the second week. I was considerable skill. sitting bolt upright, fast asleep, with my hands in the When I divulged the secret of the air practising a routine. ‘voice‘, I stressed - of course - that they must never show off with it, Naturally, I’m not in a position share the secret or use it to comment in any depth on inappropriately and I was very the other three elements of struck with how seriously they all the classes, except to say took this. that judging by the presentations at the end of The foundation of study and each week, the study of practice established in the first two manipulation had clearly sessions were in preparation for been expertly directed. the final, three day task: to choose Several pieces, stand out in and create a contemporary Punch my memory: Amongst them, & Judy sequence of their own a poignant marionette study devising, approximately 3 minutes by Martins Bruveris’ (once long, understandable to an English again); a comic object study speaking audience but retaining on the contraception pill by the essence and spirit of the the Dutch Girls - who also continually evolving tradition gave a bravura performance through the study of extant texts. of ‘Brave Urgurki’ (gherkin) Some participants had also seenmulti-nationally inspired variants, who overthrew a tyrant king, my own performance during theverbal gags, puns - and all were told entirely with vegetables. festival which preceded thetrue to the essence and spirit of the classes. tradition. There were many studies both touching and comic, but During these three days ofI have a photograph (above. Ed.) the one which will always individual preparation it waswhich reminds me of the remain with me was another interesting - and sometimes verypersistence which they applied to object piece from Paolo Rech funny - to see how the differentmastering the ‘spinning’ of so many from Italy & Maja Kruk - nationalities embraced the‘plates’.
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