Between Art and Commerce and Art Between Everyday Practice in Modern in Practice Everyday

297798

Day Contact Puppetry Day

Mandy Heidstra Mandy

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

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.

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

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 ...... 69 Further Thoughts on the Field of Modern-Day Contact Puppetry ...... 71 Further Thoughts on Future Research ...... 72 References ...... 73 Appendix A – Interview Floris Visser – 06-03-2013 ...... 75 Appendix B – General Interview Questions ...... 91 Appendix C – Interview Adrian Kohler – 22-04-2013 ...... 93 Appendix D – Interview Derek Blok – 09-05-2013 ...... 101 Appendix E – Interview Finn Caldwell – 18-04-2013 ...... 110 Appendix F – Interview Josie Daxter – 02-05-2013 ...... 120 Appendix G – Interview Max Webster – 03-05-2013 ...... 127 Appendix H – Interview Sascha van den Tol – 23-05-2013 ...... 135 Appendix I – Interview Toby Olié – 12-04-2013 ...... 143 Appendix J – Interview Wendy Dries – 20-05-2013 ...... 160

Preface I must have been about six years old and cute as a button. Absolutely no match for my loving dad, who could not resist my big begging eyes when it was time to go to bed. And so I got to stay up late and watch TV, lying on the couch, curled up against him. I’m guessing that’s a pretty common picture for dad’s and their little girls. And mostly it’s just one of my many fond childhood memories. Nevertheless, it’s also the start of a lifelong trauma. One night I remember asking my dad which film we were going to watch. ‘A fun movie about a doll’ was his answer. And it was! I loved it and over time I saw many of the sequels as well. The one where the doll had a bride was my absolute favorite. It was not until many years later I linked my ridiculous, but genuine fear of dolls with my childhood acquaintance with ‘Chucky’, the (killer-)doll from this horror film sequence. Usually, fear of dolls is a trauma you can live a long and happy life with. However last year I got an internship at Disney’s The Little Mermaid. To create the illusion of an underwater world on stage, the creative team used many theatrical solutions – one of them being puppetry. Puppetry in my opinion was just a fancy word for freakishly large dolls and so I was not too happy with the artistic excesses of the creative team. Until I met Toby. Toby Olié is a smart, funny, sweet, grown-up man who still likes to play with dolls. A lot. But the most unusual thing about him is that his enthusiasm is more contagious than the common cold. Before you know it, you’re talking with him for an hour about this very small aspect of a doll –sorry, puppet– without even realizing that it’s an unusual subject and a rather odd way to spend your time. When you’ve met Toby and talked to him about his dolls –puppets– you will just have to face the fact that he brainwashed you, but in the nicest possible way. Even though I’m still a pediophobiac, the infection got to me too. Before I knew what hit me, I spend hours and hours of watching YouTube video’s and reading all kinds of websites and articles, finding myself somewhere between sheer horror and a childlike excitement. Performing arts might have been my first love, but puppetry became my… well, to quote Madame Bovary: ‘he was becoming her mistress’ (Flaubert, 1857: 316). However, not all my geese were swans and I noticed that there was something weird going on. Puppetry is an ancient art form, but there has been a resurgence in the past couple of years. Not that strange, as many things come and go. But still, something bothered me. After thinking about it for a couple of days I realized what had struck me: the economic recession. This