I’ve just had the audition and frankly have no idea how I did. But I had fun.
They had Topthorn here, the black horse. He is a gorgeous, gorgeous puppet that just wants to do the work if you don’t fight him. We spent most of the time just trying to walk. Walking is a four-beat gait so very hard. They divide the role into Head, Heart and Hind. The heart is the one in the center and controls the front legs. Walking went right front (1), left rear (2), left front (3), right rear (4). The Heart puppeteers legs moved in time with the puppets legs, so both right legs went at the same time. (I never got to try the Heart position, though they let me play with the controls after.)
The Hind puppeteer’s legs move counter to the horse’s legs. It got confusing. Also, the legs are behind the puppeteer so you have to rely on feel to know what was happening. It was… challenging.
Basically they just rotated us through trying folks in different positions. I worked the Head once and the Hind twice. It was loads of fun and MY GOD the puppet is beautiful. It just wants to work and all the puppeteer has to do is not get in the way of it being a horse. Clearly, we’re supplying the physical means for that but horses are very much about stillness and it’s hard to not want to Move The Puppet at times when it should wait.
The other challenging thing is that you can see squat, so it really is all about feeling and breathing and trying to think together. One of the reasons that I love multiple person puppets is that there comes a moment when you stop being three people strapped to a thing and all have the same thought. It’s the closest to telepathy that I’ve experienced.
One of my favorite touring memories comes from a Tales of Japan show. I was on the feet of this character called Myoga. He had to climb a mountain, which would later collapse. Something went wrong and the mountain collapsed early so the poor guy was looking at a sheer rock face but we STILL had to get to the other side. My partner and I stopped being two people and just went into this full on rock-climbing routine. I love that sense of sharing the same mind. Ballroom dance, with a good partner, is similar.
Since none of what we were doing in rehearsal was choreographed, it was all improvised. That’s tricky under normal circumstances but more so with folks that you’ve never worked with before since you won’t necessarily have the same vocabulary of movement. But it can work if you can get into that fusion of minds. I felt like that happened toward the end a little. It wasn’t a perfect blend but it made me sense all the possibilities.
Lord knows what will happen because there were no clues in the workshop, but it was worth coming out just to play and spend an afternoon being a horse.
It sounds like the audition was awesome! I’m glad the puppet lived up to (or even exceeded) your expectations.
Huge fun. I’ll tell you all about it when I see you.
I love that concept of “as close to telepathy as I’m going to get.” – what a concept! I think the closest I get is when I just *know* what my kids are thinking or feeling, sometimes even before they do. But oh, to feel it in a physical art. I’m envious! Enjoy your time in NY. I hope you get the part!
It really is the physical connection that makes it so exciting. You don’t get to do multiple person puppets often in the US because it’s expensive to devote that many cast members to one character, but it is so worth it.
Just occurred to me, our dog (a whippet) was named for a famous 5-gaited american saddlebred mare. I don’t think it would be fun to try to work a 5 gait puppet.
No kidding!
I’m excited you got to audition and might be in Warhorse – it’s such a magnificent show, saw it 2 years ago now.
I’m not holding my breath on that. My goal was to have fun and feel like if I didn’t move on it wasn’t because of an obvious screw-up on my part. Goal = success!
Everything else is out of my hands so I’m just pretending like it doesn’t exist. And would totally appreciate the help in doing so.
I have been thinking of you all day and was wondering what your experience was. “Huge fun” is good!
The horses are beautiful and absolutely fascinating!
What’s next in the audition process?
Aloha and all good vibes from the Big Island.
Oh, I am just glad that you got to play. And I really liked what you said about telepathy.
Thanks for writing this. I would have loved to take part in an audition (if only to see the puppets up close). I’ve sent a number of friends in NY to try out. I wonder if you met any there?
Were you able to take any pictures?
Way to go! I’m glad you met your auditioning goals and hope you get the call to move on.
Wow. I’m glad the audition was such a fulfilling experience. I know from doing improv that what that fusion of minds feels like (on the rare occasions I get there). It really is an awesome feeling. It’s wonderful that you got to experience that again.
That’s really neat! What a terrific, one-time experience to look back upon with fondness in the future when you are extremely successful at some unrelated endeavor. (Am I doing okay, here? 😉