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- ANGEL: Today on People Behind the Puppets, I'm speaking to Peter Morton
from Half a String in Canterbury. Hello Peter, I'm Angel.
- PETER: Hi Angel! - ANGEL: Hello there, nice to see you.
- PETER: Yeah, lovely to see you too. Great to be here.
- ANGEL: Good! Peter, can you tell us how you first got into designing and making puppets?
- PETER: Yeah, sure. So, I've always really liked building things.
Growing up, I was building dens and things like that, rubber band shooters...
And then at school, I did a lot of DT, woodwork and things like that.
And I also had a love for drama. So when I came to university I combined the two
and started building a lot of things for our shows that we were doing,
and then I found puppetry and actually building puppets was a lot more interesting
than building things that were really still. So building things that moved was really interesting
and finding ways to make things move in the way creatures do,
and studying bone anatomy and things like that was really interesting.
- ANGEL: Wow. - PETER: That's how I got into building puppets.
- ANGEL: Gosh, that's fascinating. And you run your own company as well - can you tell us a little bit about that?
- PETER: Yes, sure. So I run award-winning visual theatre company, Half a String.
And we tour shows up and down the country. We like to tell powerful stories,
usually through live music. We don't usually use a lot of words. And of course,
because I run the company, there is a lot of intricate puppetry,
and we focus on really kind of small movements as well as
blowing up to quite big puppets, just like Elsie, this cow here.
- ANGEL: Oh, hi Elsie! - PETER: I won't touch her because
she is precariously balanced on a chair and she might fall over.
But we also use a lot of set in our shows as well. So I'm a set designer and we like
to use set that transforms and combines into different scenes
to take our audiences on a journey. And part of the shows is
discovering the kind of set reveals and the weird things
we can do through the shows, which is really exciting.
- ANGEL: Yeah, that does sound exciting. What is it you enjoy most about working with puppets?
- PETER: I've always loved puppetry and I think it's that thing of bringing something to life.
So, I love live performance and there's that liveness of that puppet, all sitting in
a dark room, watching these things come alive is really special... about that pretence
and everyone pretending together, whether you're an adult a child or anyone.
There's something really ancient and visceral about it. And one thing we do in our shows -
we like to make shows... suitable for everyone so we...
it's that collective appeal of wonder which I really like. And making puppets -
obviously I also really enjoy. So there's many possibilities when you're making a puppet
of what materials you can use, and what mechanisms, and mechanics you're going to
put into this puppet, and the aesthetics, the design can go anywhere and that's really exciting.
And should go anywhere, and you can use whatever you like, which is really exciting.
- ANGEL: Yeah, you can use anything. But what is your favourite type of puppet?
- PETER: Ooh... My favourite type of puppet? I love a puppet that looks like the materials it's made from.
- ANGEL: Oh. - PETER: So this puppet can then use movement and
mechanisms to create the life that you see. So a really good example of this is the War Horse puppets
that the National Theatre did. So these horses are made from cane and gauze and don't look anything like horses
if you look at it, you know, photo to photo. But actually, the movement they do, and they're so cleverly designed
and the way the lines flow... you just see a horse. And that, for me, is the kind of pinnacle of puppetry.
And that's what I want to design is, you know that it's a thing made of wood and fabric and bone, but it's also a horse.
- ANGEL: Yeah! Yeah, absolutely. So when you're making a puppet, what are three things you need to consider?
- PETER: Sure, yes. My three things that I ask first are how many puppeteers does your puppet have to control it?
So if it's just one puppeteer, do they have to just use one hand because they're doing something else with the other hand?
Do you have four puppeteers all controlling each limb? Because that is going to make a big difference to how I design something.
So that's number one. The second one is what does the puppet do in the live performance?
So, does it need to walk around? Does it just sit there? Stay still? How does it move? So I'm looking at the show
and what kind of movement that puppet needs to do, really. So that's number two.
The third thing I finally get to is what is it going to look like? That's the third most important thing for me is the aesthetics
of the design and how it fits into that wider world, as you don't want a puppet that's a completely different look and feel
to everything else in the show, because that's really going to jar. So they're the three main things I think about when designing a puppet.
- ANGEL: Yes, quite a lot to think about, isn't there? - PETER: There is. There is quite a lot, and especially...
stuff like aesthetics can go anywhere. You can make a puppet out of anything, so you've got to, really, you know, choose stuff carefully.
- ANGEL: Yes, yes. Okay, Peter, have you got a puppet that people can make at home?
- PETER: I have indeed, yes. I have designed this puppet.
- ANGEL: Wow. It's a fish! - PETER: Yes, it is a fish, it's a clown fish.
Well, I made a clown fish, but people at home can make any kind of fish they so wish. This clown fish is made out of
a milk bottle, as you can see it there, which has a handy little built-in handle.
And it takes around... three hours to make with all the drying times and things like that.
But it comes with all of the nets and things of the tail and fins for you to cut out as well.
But it's a really fun puppet to make and you can see it's pretty good at swimming around.
- ANGEL: Yes, it certainly is. And from a milk bottle as well, that's incredible!
- PETER: Yeah, yeah, yeah, which is really fun so anyone can make them.
- ANGEL: Hmm. Yes, in fact, we do have the instructions on our website, so if you want to make a fish like Peter's,
why not go ahead? Peter, it's been lovely speaking to you today. Thank you so much for joining me.
- PETER: No, it's been a pleasure, thank you so much, Angel. Thanks for having me.
- ANGEL: No worries. Thanks everyone, see you next time, bye! - PETER: Bye!
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