When director Marianne Elliott was pitched the idea of creating a theater piece based on a children’s book about cavalry horses in World War I, she responded, “It sounds like absolute madness. Yes, I’d love to do it.” Along with co-director Tom Morris and the artists of South Africa’s Handspring Puppet Company, Elliott guided War Horse to a widely hailed London debut, and the creators are now hard at work bringing the show’s lead character, a beloved horse named Joey, to life for the American premiere of War Horse at Lincoln Center Theater beginning March 15.
At a February 24 press preview, held in a rehearsal room beneath the Vivian Beaumont Theater, Handspring co-founder Basil Jones, a native of South Africa, quipped, “A puppet is an engineer of the emotions, using up-to-the-minute 17th-century technology.” But don’t be fooled: These horses are amazingly lifelike despite being crafted of lightweight cane, aluminum, leather and mesh. A team of three puppeteers—described as the horse’s head, heart and hind—control Joey’s intricate movements and provide his "voice" in scenes choreographed by Toby Sedgwick.
“Movement is thought,” Jones explains of the horse puppet, emphasizing the importance of ...
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Behind the 'Absolute Madness' of War Horse's Amazing Life-Size Puppets
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment