VCA Master of Puppetry – A Year on Fast Forward

I began the first year of Puppetry, the Post-Graduate Diploma, at the Victorian College of the Arts (VCA) at the beginning of 2006. This year forms the first half of a Master of Puppetry. In this first year, different forms of puppetry are introduced, with classes in performance techniques, design, making, writing, and history. At the end of 2006, I had well and truly sunk my teeth into the art form: but if this year had been the tapas plate, I was ready for the main course. Bring on the Masters.

A Master of Puppetry degree from VCA is assessed by coursework, and requires that you develop and produce a piece of puppet theatre of approximately 30 minutes length. There are no limitations to the style, scale or genre, provided you can achieve what you have proposed within the given time frame and the budgetry constraints. Through the course there are various papers and assignments set, concluding with a 10,000-word paper: an analysis and reflection of the work you have produced.

At the beginning of 2007, I came back from touring Hatch in India with fellow Masters student, Jacob Boehme, where we both had our thinking altered on the shape our Masters pieces would take. On the plane trip home, we concurred: we were both petrified, as the first pitch of our Masters ideas was scheduled for ten days after our arrival. We unpacked from the tour, and the year on fast-forward began.

The first pitch was to our lecturers, Gilly McInnes; script development & dramaturgy, Annie Forbes; production, and Dale Ferguson, design. Jacob and I were given support and feedback for our ideas, with suggestions for directions to further explore and develop them.  The feedback sessions in first term were held weekly, and we had to generate the initial concept and a first draft of a script within a matter of weeks. We were working towards a two-week creative development (CD) period and a CD showing at the end of May.

The pressure to generate the first draft was great, but so was the support our lecturers gave – particularly Gilly, who has the unique ability to dig out the nasty spots in a script – but without causing undue pain. Ronnie Burkett arrived at the VCA, to lead a Master-class for both the Masters and Post-Grad puppetry students. As Masters students, we each had one-on-one development sessions with Ronnie: his input was invaluable. Ronnie prompted fresh ideas and provoked strong stories and design concepts from each of us, by guiding us to establish firm parameters.  Armed with all these ideas, Jacob and I then took a house in the bush for three days, barricading ourselves from distraction, and finished our first drafts.

With these initial scripts, we went into the first CDs. Masters students are not expected to go it alone, but to pull together a creative team.  I had Tim Denton come on board as my ‘outside eye’ designer and director, Justine Warner and Dan Goronszi as makers and collaborators. Vanessa Ellis and Keira Lyons helped with the construction of my puppet, and actress Caroline Bock, came in and played with the mocked-up set and puppets. For the last week of the CD we had VCA students assisting as well. The CDs were, again, well supported by VCA lecturers, who checked in on the processes along the way, and were always available to trouble-shoot. The CD showing in May was gruelling – as most showings are: both Jacob and I came out with fresh insights and perspectives on how to move forward with our pieces.

A week after the CD showing, I jumped on a plane, with my family, bound for the Czech Republic, to participate in the Prague Quadrennial. The Prague Quadrennial is an international exhibition of scenography and theatre architecture accompanied by a bounty of puppetry (and other) workshops. The opportunity to go to Prague came through the VCA Production School. A group of students and VCA lecturers attended, including head of puppetry, Peter J. Wilson. This was not an official part of the Masters but much from the experience subsequently fed into my work.

In conjunction with Petr Matasek and his puppetry/design students at the DAMU School in Prague, the VCA group developed three theatre pieces. I collaborated on a work called “Windows”, where we integrated traditional rod puppetry with interactive digital projection, using the elements of glass and sand (pictured). The works were presented as part of the Quadrennial Performance Programme. Also as part of the Quadrennial programme, I had the opportunity to take Master Classes with some of the ‘big lights’ in puppetry: Peter Schumann, of Bread and Puppet Theatre (US), Nori Sawa (Japan & Czech Republic), and Kazunori Watanabe/Miyako Kurotani (Japan).

Back to Australia, returned to VCA for 2nd semester, the dates for the shows were set, venues locked in, and work on the season began in earnest. I went into a second CD with Tim, Justine and Dan. Gilly had great input during this time in her role as lecturer overseeing the dramaturgy. I also invited composer Robert (Rob) Vincs to become involved: the VCA provided a sound designer, bringing Angela (Angie) Grant on board. Rob and Angie dived straight into the work, and accessing the VCA recording studios, generated some amazing sounds, which Angie built into the soundtrack.

As part of their assessment, the VCA puppetry post-graduate students built some of the props, overseen by Al Martinez. This was a great privilege to be able to access this assistance: the results perfectly matched my design briefs, and were beautifully done.

Everything assembled, we went into a four-week rehearsal period. The VCA provided a rehearsal space, which Jacob and I shared, which could have been awkward, but I did daytime rehearsals and Jacob, evening. During the rehearsal period Gilly McInnes and Peter Wilson, who offered regular and constructive feedback on our progress, again oversaw us.

For the last ten days of rehearsal – which included production week, the VCA production students were assigned to us, completing the teams. Some of the students, although busy on other productions, had volunteered to begin work on Jacob’s and my pieces before their ‘official’ time – which was a godsend. The lighting design could not have been managed for either production in the time allocated, nor the AV design for my show achieved. The VCA supplied the venues, lighting and sound gear, publicist, stills photographer and the filming and editing of the two shows  – a huge contribution on top of everything else.

The two shows went on in the same week, promoted together. Both were performed at VCA theatres – a stones throw from each other. Although developed side-by-side, the works were very different. In the Grant Street Theatre, Jacob’s work Idja, strongly movement and dance based, was a contemporary indigenous story presenting a personal journey toward home, about belonging and accepting the skin you are in. Dialogue and lyrics were spoken and sung in Narangga with local choir fIRST cHORUS performing live as part of the show. My show, Dispatch, performed in the tiny Shed Theatre, was about a puppet character “Sorrel”, a girl who arrived in a leaky boat at ‘the middle place’ – an island. Keeper of the island was “Maman Brigitte”, who I played. On the island were abandoned suitcases – Sorrel went through these seeking shelter and refuge. She received stories and lessons from the contents she found within. Dispatch was a reflection on mortality and the art of detachment.

The seasons ran for a week, and after bump-out, we had six weeks to produce the final analysis and reflection paper. To analyse a work so fresh out of production was certainly challenging: the demand being to take an objective view of the work and to be insensitive to feedback – good, bad, sublime or ugly. But once the paper was in, the Masters was completed.

Although the Masters has been an enormous amount of work, Jacob and I are both proud of the results. The Masters is a year on ‘fast-forward’: from an initial concept in February to full production in September takes a lot of push. Fortunately, the support and guidance provided at the VCA made the goal achievable.