Monkeybear alum Ty Chapman writes about process

My process tends to be an attempt at organizing chaos, in an effort to always know exactly what the next step is. When I first sit down to create a new puppet show, I give a lot of thought to what I want to create a show around. Before I even begin with the story, I ask myself: What’s the purpose of this show? What do I feel the need to communicate? Then I begin drawing up a storyboard. Once this chronological list of scenes is complete, I create a build list. This is a detailed list of every single puppet needed for each scene. This list tends to get out of hand quickly, as my initial concepts usually involve creating three variations of the same puppet. This is fine when I’m making shadow puppets, as I tend to be able to crank those out more quickly, but when I’m creating marionettes it becomes hundreds of hours of work very quickly. This is why the next step tends to be cutting unnecessary scenes and puppets.

For me, this tends to be a good point in the process to start thinking about rough ideas for lighting, and sound. If I need music for the performance, I try to reach out to my talented musician friends as soon as I have the script loosely cemented. Following all of this prep work, I finally begin working on the puppets. As you might expect, my process varies depending on what type of puppets I’m working on. In either case however, I begin working my way down the build list. I go from top to bottom in order to be able to rehearse scenes as soon as possible, and begin to get a feel for the show. Additionally, this is in important step in my process because puppets rarely work exactly how you want them to on the first build. Often you complete a puppet only to learn it’s great at sitting down and moving its arms, but it can’t walk properly. Sometimes this results in a quick build to fix it, whereas other more horrendous times, it requires a complete rebuild. For the show I’m currently working on, I’m trying my hand at making very small scale marionettes—a new endeavor which will undoubtedly lead to lots of build time. It’s important to me, to carve out a large amount of time for this step in the process.

Following the build, and rebuild, and inevitable third rebuild, I begin working on set things. What scene(s) are these puppets occupying? From where do marionettes hang when not in use? While I’ll have hopefully already answered these questions at this point, now is when I make those answers a reality.

I feel at this point in the process is where puppeteers reach a crossroads. Do I spend my remaining hours perfecting my puppets and making them a stunning work of modern art? Or do I prioritize rehearsal time, so the mechanics of the performance work as planned? ​

Personally, I always opt for the latter. Thanks to guidance from multiple mentors, and my own experiences, I’ve learned how important it is to ensure I’ve spent as much time as possible rehearsing scenes—even if its at the expense of my dream aesthetic. At first, I run through one scene at a time, focusing on line memorization, scene beats, and puppetry mechanics. Once I feel I have each scene down to a rough science, I begin running the whole play start to finish. This is to ensure that my transitions are quick and intentional, rather than fumbling with set pieces and puppets on stage.  This is usually around the time tech week rears its frightening head, and all the puzzle pieces and hours of work start to really come together in an exciting way. I run the show with music, sound and light cues, and then it’s show time. That’s more or less my process. ​

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“This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.”