THE RISE OF MANIPULACTING THE PUPPET AS A FIGURE OF THE OTHER SUBMITTED IN FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF PHD PAUL CHARLES RENÉ TED PIRIS CENTRAL SCHOOL OF SPEECH & DRAMA UNIVERSITY OF LONDON 2011 1 DISCLAIMER I, Paul Charles René Ted Piris, understand the Central School of Speech and Drama definition of plagiarism and declare that the submission presented here is my own work. Information derived from published or unpublished work of others has been formally acknowledged. Signed: Print name: Paul Charles René Ted Piris Date: 28 th October 2011 2 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This research has been supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Central School of Speech and Drama, and a research residency in May 2008 at the Institut International de la Marionnette in Charleville-Mézières. I would like to thank my supervisors Professor Andrew Lavender and Ayse Tashkiran, for their constant support and advice, as well as Professor Ana Sanchez-Colberg, Dr Anthony Fisher, Dr Eleanor Margolies, Sandra Margolies and Penny Francis for their precious help. I am grateful to the artists who have collaborated with me throughout this research: Professor Ana Sanchez-Colberg in Seaside , Aya Nakamura in Urashima Taro and Seaside , Kristin Kerwin and Juley Ayres in The Maids , Zoilo Lobera, Boris Kahnert and Amadeo Rosenheim in Postalgia . I would also like to thank Neville Tranter, Nicole Mossoux and Duda Paiva for their generosity and their time to share with me their artistic practices, and Monika Kita for documenting with talent my research. I am indebted as well to Ken Mizutani, Roberto Puzone, Nick Paddy, and Adam Parker for facilitating my practice research at Central School of Speech and Drama. Finally I would like to thank my parents Paul and Miriam Piris, and above all Claire Doucet for her loving support during these intensive years of research. 3 ABSTRACT Since the beginning of the 1980s, artists such as Neville Tranter in the Netherlands, Philippe Genty in France, Ilka Schönbein in Germany and Compagnie Mossoux-Bonté in Belgium have developed a new form of performance that I call manipulacting. By interacting with puppets, performers enter the fictional world of the puppets and appear as their Others. This study argues that manipulacting is a new and distinct form of performance. Although manipulacting combines acting and puppetry, it differs from them because it discloses a human being and an object engaged in a relation of self to Other. Manipulacting is defined by this specific relation and not by a particular aesthetic or technique. The methodology of the thesis is framed by Practice-as-Research from a directorial perspective. The enquiry includes four personal research projects – Seaside (2007-08), Postalgia (2008), Urashima Taro (2007-09) and The Maids (2009-10) – that explore the relations between manipulactors and puppets through different dramaturgical and performative settings, interviews with Neville Tranter, Nicole Mossoux and Duda Paiva, and detailed analyses of Cuniculus (2008) by Tranter and Twin Houses (1994) by Mossoux-Bonté. The thesis proposes two areas of new knowledge. Firstly, it suggests a rethinking of the nature of the puppet and an understanding of it by way of its alterity. It discusses the ontological ambiguity of the puppet in manipulacting, by re-functioning phenomenological aspects of thought developed by Sartre in The Imaginary (1940) and 4 Being and Nothingness (1943), and by Levinas in Totality and Infinity (1961). Secondly, the thesis explores the specificity of manipulacting by looking at representations of the Other developed in dramatic and postdramatic performances. It explores the alterity of the puppet in relation to dramaturgical meaning, as well as the production of ambiguity in performance. It concludes by discussing the core dramaturgical and performative elements that constitute manipulacting. 5 LIST OF CHAPTERS Chapter I Manipulacting and alterity 14 Chapter II Defining manipulacting 36 Chapter III A phenomenological perspective on the alterity of the puppet 69 Chapter IV Case studies: Two representations of the Other 119 Chapter V The Maids: Ontology, dramaturgy and speech 171 Chapter VI Urashima Taro : An ambiguous dramaturgy of the Other 190 Chapter VII A method of practice for manipulacting 215 Chapter VIII Conclusion 229 6 TABLE OF CONTENTS Notes for the readers 13 Chapter I Manipulacting and alterity 14 1.1. The notion of ‘manipulacting’ 16 1.2. Research itinerary 18 1.3. Research inquiry 24 1.4. A Sartrean perspective of manipulacting 28 1.5. Conclusion 34 Chapter II Defining manipulacting 36 2.1. Historical evolution: from the invisible puppeteer to the manipulactor 36 2.1.1. Puppetry and materiality 37 2.1.2. Disclosing the creative process 39 2.1.3. Japanese influence: Bunraku 45 2.2. Current trends 47 2.2.1. Motionless animation 48 2.2.2. Possession 50 2.2.3. Close distance 51 2.3. Manipulacting: a hybrid form of performance 54 2.3.1. Manipulacting | acting and puppetry 54 Acting and puppetry 54 Manipulacting 58 2.3.2. Co-presence | presence 62 2.3.3. Manipulacting | ventriloquism 65 2.4. Conclusion 68 7 Chapter III A phenomenological perspective on the alterity of the puppet 69 3.1. Fabricating the alterity of the puppet 70 3.1.1. Seaside 70 3.1.2. Postalgia 75 Description of the piece 76 Framing the alterity of the puppet 78 3.1.3. Urashima Taro 84 3.1.4. The Maids 88 3.1.5. Main outcomes of the experiments 91 3.2. Alterity and ontology of the puppet in manipulacting 93 Construction of co-presence: body and gaze 93 3.2.1. The absent Other 102 Defining perception and imagination 103 Non-psychic images 104 The puppet as an image 107 3.2.2. The ambiguous ontology of the puppet 111 3.3. Conclusion 116 Chapter IV Case studies: Two representations of the Other 119 4.1. Cuniculus by Stuffed Puppet: Talking heads 120 4.1.1. Prerequisite criteria of the relation of self to Other 122 The characters 123 Design 125 Manipulation 128 4.1.2. Performing the relation of self to Other in Cuniculus 131 Dramaturgy 131 Body 134 Gaze and voice 136 4.2. Twin Houses by Compagnie Mossoux-Bonté: Thinking bodies 141 4.2.1. Prerequisite criteria of the relation of self to Other 146 Characters and personae in Twin Houses 146 The design of the puppets 149 Manipulation technique 152 4.2.2. Performing the relation of self to Other in Twin Houses 158 The dramaturgy 158 The body 160 Gaze and presence 163 8 4.3. Conclusion 166 Chapter V The Maids: Ontology, dramaturgy and speech 171 5.1. Dramatising the ontological duality of the puppet 173 5.1.1. Maids1 174 5.1.2. Maids2 176 5.1.3. Maids3 179 5.1.4. Outcomes 181 5.2. The voice of Madame 182 5.2.1. Speech movements 183 5.2.2. Body position of the performer 183 5.2.3. Characterisation and voice 184 5.2.4. Voice and gaze 186 5.3. Conclusion 187 Chapter VI Urashima Taro : An ambiguous dramaturgy of the Other 190 6.1. The development of Urashima Taro 191 6.1.1. UT1 : Otohime, a sporadic presence 192 6.1.2. UT2 : gaining presence, losing ambiguity 195 6.1.3. UT3 : Re-establishing ambiguity 197 6.1.4. Adapting manipulacting 201 6.2. Performing ambiguity 204 6.2.1. Relation of power 204 6.2.2. The doppelganger 207 6.2.3. Intimacy 210 6.2.4. Shadows 212 6.3. Conclusion 213 Chapter VII A method of practice for manipulacting 215 Balancing co-presence 216 Dual triangulation 217 Distant awareness 217 Centre of gravity, metaphorical centre and fixed point 218 Somatic dialogue 220 Gaze 222 Speech 224 9 Conclusion 227 Chapter VIII Conclusion 229 Bibliography 232 Appendices 240 Appendix A: Interviews 241 Interview with Nicole Mossoux 242 Interview with Neville Tranter 250 Interview with Duda Paiva and Ederson Rodrigues 255 Interview with Kristin Kerwin and Juley Ayres 260 Appendix B: Research projects documentation DVD 1 266 Postalgia 267 The Maids 268 Urashima Taro 269 Appendix C: Case studies documentation DVD 2 270 Cuniculus by Stuffed Puppet Theatre 271 Extract of Twin Houses by Compagnie Mossoux-Bonté 272 10 List of figures Figure 4.1 Tranter and the baby rabbit 125 Figure 4.2 Tranter and Mutti 125 Figure 4.3 Sissy talking to Tranter 129 Figure 4.4 Tranter laughing at Sissy 129 Figure 4.5 Sissy menacing Tranter 129 Figure 4.6 Vatti, Tranter, Sissy, and Claudius 132 Figure 4.7 Tranter and Mutti rubbing noses 137 Figure 4.8 Tranter talking to Mutti 137 Figure 4.9 Mutti looking at Tranter’s eyes 137 Figure 4.10 Mutti looking at Tranter’s ears 137 Figure 4.11 Mutti laughing at Tranter 137 Figure 4.12 Tranter laughing at himself 137 Figure 4.13 Mossoux alone on stage 145 Figure 4.14 Mossoux and the Androgyne 150 Figure 4.15 Mossoux and the Lady 150 Figure 4.16 Mossoux and the Double dancing 151 Figure 4.17 A reflection 151 Figure 4.18 Mossoux and the Witch 152 Figure 4.19 Mossoux and the Man 152 Figure 4.20 The Androgyne and Mossoux looking at the Double 153 Figure 4.21 The Androgyne and the Double looking at each other 153 Figure 4.22 The Man looking at Mossoux while she is asleep 154 Figure 4.23 The Man awakening Mossoux 154 11 Figure 4.24 The Man looking for Mossoux 155 Figure 4.25 Mossoux hiding inside the Man 155 Figure 5.1 Ayres and Madame in Maids1 174 Figure 5.2 Madame in Maids2 176 Figure 5.3 Madame dancing with Solange in Maids3 179 Figure 6.1 Urashima Taro with his mother 193 Figure 6.2 Urashima Taro in UT1.1 194 Figure 6.3 Urashima Taro facing Nakamura 194 Figure 6.4 Kamishibai in UT2.1 195 Figure 6.5 Shadows created by using an overhead projector 195 Figure 6.6 Shadows created by using a lantern 195 Figure 6.7 Otohime and Okoto 197 Figure 6.8 Kameo and Otohime 197 Figure 6.9 Urashima Taro in UT3.2 198 Figure 6.10 Urashima Taro undressed 198 Figure 6.11 Two Otohimes 198 Figure 6.12 Kamishibai in UT3.2 200 Figure 6.13 Setting of UT3.2 200 Figure 6.14 The two Otohimes sharing a moment of tenderness 208 Figure 6.15 Otohime seducing Urashima Taro 210 Figure 6.16 Otohime and Urashima Taro kissing 210 Figure 6.17 Naked Otohime 210 12 NOTES FOR THE READERS The mainspring of this thesis is Practice-as-Research.