Challenges in
the Preparation Process

What challenges have you come across during the preparation for The Puppet Whisperers?

The practice performance of The Puppet Whisperers is the second phase of the Sidekick Project. We envisioned it to be a diversified performance, thus we have been particularly careful with our search for a suitable venue. In the past most of the shows by our tutors had been outdoor, where we built the stage and took it down by ourselves. If we have the opportunity to present an indoor puppet show, the audience would be able to sit comfortably and focus on the puppeteers’ performance instead of just taking a brief glance when they walk pass the site.

We contacted a few venues. Apart from introducing body movements into traditional puppetry, we had thought of making use of multimedia elements, such as projection, visual effects, and sound, to create a sense of spaciousness and room for imagination. That is why we had our eye on Comix Home Base at first, since comics, animation, and puppet theatre all provoke imagination, though in the end we did not choose the place as the facilities there did not suit our needs. Other options were performance venues managed by Leisure and Cultural Services Department, the first one being Yau Ma Tei Theatre, a venue primarily for Chinese opera (Xiqu). An application for holding a puppet show there, however, does not stand a high chance of approval. There is no venue specifically built for puppet theatre in Hong Kong at the moment. We waited a long time as it is hard to secure a suitable venue that is available at the right time.

Finally it occurred to us that the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (HKAPA) might as well be interested in Chinese puppetry in addition to Chinese opera, as they have been offering training on traditional performing arts. After discussing with HKAPA, we decided to move the show to the Academy, which offered the lighting, sound, and projection our performance required.

What challenges did you face when holding the casting for The Puppet Whisperers?

Chui: After the first phase of interview, we hoped to take in some new puppeteers – not just anyone who wants to be a puppeteer, but those who can fulfill our requirements: preferably performers, be it dancer or Chinese opera actor, who are familiar with either Western or Chinese puppetry. Availability was also taken into consideration.

The initial training consisted of a three-day course that provided around 20 hours of intensive training, which means applicants had to commit three whole days to attend the course, not an easy commitment. In addition to the training in the first phase, there would be an end-of-term performance and outreach teaching. The whole programme spans two years. After a thorough consideration of the applicants’ aptitude, their work report, and the amount of time they are able to commit, we selected eight out of the twenty-three applicants. We would want to accept more, but we did not have enough resources to do so. Fortunately there was one applicant who was willing to attend the full training programme at her own expense, completing this puppetry actor group of nine.

You have mentioned the hard work in the early stage of the training. Would you mind telling us more about the challenges in the training process?

Wong: In the past we taught one-to-one. A master would take on one apprentice. When your master taught you a move, you practised it over and over again, and you would ask your master whenever you came across something you do not understand. There was no rule that requires the apprentice to finish learning all the moves within a certain period of time. You just kept practicing under the supervision of your master. When you have practiced for a certain period of time, your master would bring you with him when he had a performance so that you may observe his moves onstage.

Nowadays not only do we teach a whole class, the schedule is also tighter. While I used to spend one to two years learning one type of puppet, they now learn four in a matter of months. It poses a greater challenge. In other words, you cannot ask for too much in terms of perfection. We used to move on to the next move only when we have fully mastered the previous one, but people nowadays are not that patient. They would invent their own moves.

Chui: One more word on teaching. On top of the daily taught lessons, there are also observation lessons that allow students to participate when their teacher goes onstage.

Wong: This is a better arrangement. In the classroom you only learn the basics. If you are to apply the moves in a play, you need to link different moves smoothly instead of doing one move at a time. Students may not know how to do that. I think the traditional teaching method in the past is better. Students these days forget the move as soon as they learn it because they lack solid practice as they are stuck in the classroom. They will have a more solid impression if they can watch the performance on the spot as an observer. In this way they will gain a better understanding of how the moves are executed, and think about how they could handle better had they been in a similar situation.

Performance Training

What has Andy noticed in these young students throughout the performance training?

Van: As programme organizers who have laid down plans, we are of course eager to promote the art form. But when it comes to participants, we never know to what extent they share our passion for puppetry. Learning is just one step in the process. How prepared are they to go all the way to preserve the art or innovate upon it? You would not know even if you ask them.

Are they patient and tenacious enough to keep practicing their moves even when they are injured? To go to class no matter how busy they are? Do they take the initiative to ask Master Wong Fai? All these reflect how eager they are to excel in the art. I am not saying they are not passionate. Yet the amount of passion is crucial to an artist as it determines how self-motivated one is to overcome difficulties when learning and performing onstage. What you achieve in the end depends largely on how much passion you have got – it makes all the difference when you have a burning passion. This does not only apply to puppetry. I noticed the same problem when I was teaching body movements. Very often the students would do what the teacher tells them to do. They could have thought more about why they need to learn a particular skill and what it has to do with their bodies.

I see puppetry as a craft as well as a bodily experience, an experience of the strength and rhythm of the hands’ movement, and of how to control the puppet strings. When I watch Master Wong Fai, I can sense the dramatic qualities in his body that passes on to the puppet. What we are talking about is the sense of oneself. Of course there is no life in your movement when you are a beginner who struggles to remember the steps, but when you have remembered the move by heart, you can bring the puppet to life. Will and passion make all the difference in the learning process and influence how you view yourself.

The students we recruited are quite young. They are fresh graduates. Some of them have just returned from abroad. To them, puppetry is something new. I would ask them about puppetry and creative works during rehearsals and tell them to create something or answer the questions. Some of them are willing to think hard and contribute to the creative work. Even though they may not be the most capable ones, they are the ones who master the puppets as they develop a relation with the puppets in the learning process, and they are able to notice a couple of problems and think of some solutions.

Master Wong Fai has talked about his experience as a young apprentice who spent a long time following his master to learn. When we compare his experience with that of a new generation of young performers, what are the differences in the difficulties faced by different generations of apprentices?

Chui: At the moment our young budding puppeteers are still beginners who have a long way to go. I am a bit worried if they will have the time and opportunities to develop in the field. The nine students could devote all their time to the programme when they were first recruited, but as time went by they were forced to gradually cut back on training as they have to work and make a living. The problem is that they are torn between puppetry and their lives. The current environment does not allow them to focus on training to be a puppeteer. It is hard for them to set aside a long period of time for full-time training. It takes constant preparation, learning, and research to become a good actor. We hope there will be a second and a third show after the two-year-programme. These will provide opportunities to train up these young puppeteers.

Van: I would look at it in another way. When we looked for a group of young performers in the beginning, I did not expect them to become experts in the culture behind traditional puppetry in a short time. What interests me is what the young people are thinking, and how they would transform puppetry into other things. The work they create with puppetry may be different from the traditional Chinese ones, but they may come up with a new form of ‘tradition’ by creating a fusion of traditional elements and a brand new way of using puppets. There are puppet shows in many places that feature their own characteristics. Other than the traditional way, there are lots of possibilities to puppetry.

Though the programme will end in two years, these students may make use of puppets later when they create their own works. If, say, two or three out of these nine performers incorporate puppets in their creative works and performance, they would be promoting puppetry in an alternative way. If we put it this way, we do not have to be bound by tradition and think of holding puppet shows as the only way to promote puppetry. Incorporating puppetry in theatre may give a fresh look to traditional puppetry, attracting audience in a new way.

Even if we have another one or two performance of The Puppet Whisperers in a new form in the future, they will still be a continuation of the old one if these performances are still initiated by us. If the young students initiate something by themselves, they will be able to take our place. We are not bringing about new development in puppetry culture if it is just we three ‘oldbies’ who work on it over and over again. I am not against holding another performance, but I think it is more important to encourage these nine people to take the initiative to promote puppetry in their own way.

Chui: You can say that again. Most students express interest in learning more. The last few months of learning exceeds their expectation as they had thought that they were going to learn a common skill that takes just a couple of months to master. Once they get to try it, they find that it is not that simple. Bringing with them their questions, they are looking for more resources so that they may keep learning.

There is in fact no conflict between learning and inventing their own way of performing. But where can they find the opportunity to learn? Shall they enroll in other classes by Master Wong Fai? Or should Sidekick Project start another workshop? Is there any chance of them participating in other plays to gain experience? I am not talking about a sequel to The Puppet Whisperers, and it does not have to be initiated by us three. If there are other puppetry teachers who are recruiting new actors for a new play, our nine actors could apply. What I have been talking about is the opportunity for them to keep learning.

Sense of the Body

To make good use of the body is an important part of traditional puppetry training. Andy has also incorporated body training in his training for these new actors. Are there any new discoveries when body training meets traditional puppetry in The Puppet Whisperers?

Wong: Performers in traditional plays focus on the puppet but not how the body works with it. The puppet is the centre of attention. The audience is aware of the puppet but not the puppeteer behind. Once the actors are onstage, their bodies would stiff up and would not relax until the show is over as they could not enjoy the show like Western performers do. In the West they put more emphasis on the interaction between the puppets and the audience, a quality that is lacking in Chinese traditional plays.

Plays in the past usually followed a cliché pattern: the protagonist appears, conflicts break out, and then we have a happy ending. More innovative in its content, The Puppet Whisperers is made up of a series of fragments that develop around a central theme of ‘passing the torch’. Its structure resembles that of an essay and is not overly fragmentary. Besides, actors are interacting with the puppets through their body language. All these create resonance with the audience.

Van: The incorporation of body training is a new attempt for me. I first came across puppetry when I watched an Indonesian shadow puppet show when I was studying in Singapore. From behind the curtain, I saw the puppeteer singing and playing music at the same time. It dawned on me that the artist behind is more precious, that the art is really not only about the puppet. That is why I suggested considering the puppeteer and the puppet as a whole even before we came up with any concrete content for the work.

The nine young puppeteers we recruited may be performers, but they are not body performers. They may be drama actors who are used to speaking but not necessarily performing with their bodies. Therefore I have to train their bodies. As Master Wong Fai has said, hands are the key. The first thing I taught them is to control the puppet with their hands. But if they only move their hands while their bodies remain still, the audience would still not enjoy the show. The status of their bodies reflects a kind of life. The aim of body training is to show them that controlling a puppet is not just about their hands, but also about the condition of the whole body, which the audience would notice. Is this the condition you want to show your audience? If not, how would you adjust your body? The first thing I notice is that you cannot neglect your body if you want to build a relationship with your puppet.

The second thing is that I hope they would create their own works and have a dialogue with the puppet. Throughout the training I have been observing them. Before we had the script, I was thinking what they would do and say, and how they would present the dialogue between the actor and the puppet if they do not speak. It would be best to present the dialogue through body language; therefore the actors must be sensitive to their bodies and know how to make good use of their bodies before they receive training.

I received part of my body training from my Chinese opera training. I taught them how to do a stage walk because it once occurred to me that if Janet, one of the students, walks in classical steps, both the actress and the puppet might look gorgeous. I could not teach Janet alone, so everyone started learning stage walk. The body movement should match with the Chinese classical character represented by the puppet. I also taught them some steps from Noh, which are powerful yet do not involve huge body movement. There is energy to the body when you walk.

While traditional puppetry is often matched with the rhythm of Chinese classical music, this time we have introduced percussion music from cha-cha. If your body does not understand this kind of music, you would not know how to go with it when you are holding a puppet. I tried to teach them another bodily feel, a slow and forceful one. Next time when they play in another puppet show, they may experience an energized feeling in their body. At that time I did not imagine what the music or the work would be like in the final outcome. I was just trying to teach them how to go with different rhythms and movements. The body must be able to feel them before one can apply them to the puppet.

That is why we did not focus our body training on the puppet. Unlike in traditional puppetry, we did not assign a character to the puppet, because when there is a character, there are a set of moves that come with it. I wanted different actors to experience different feelings with their bodies, so I left out the character. I told Janet that the most interesting thing with the character of Chang’e is the fear she experiences when she is suddenly lifted off the ground and flies, which reminded Janet of the helplessness she experienced when she went to Mainland China to study. I told her that she may draw on this emotion: Chang’e has to fly, and you express fear and helplessness. As I am not a puppeteer, I could not tell her what to do, but she would develop on that emotion once she understands the feeling. I also suggested that we express this helpless fear with lighting effect, and that she can interact with light to convey the blend of fear and excitement one experiences when faced with a tempting uncertainty. She came up with all the moves herself. Based on the emotional condition behind those moves, we tried to work out the lighting projection to match the moves.

Very often an actor’s onstage performance is influenced by the bodily feel and his or her understanding of the topic, thus transforming the rhythm of the puppet. For instance, there is a scene where a xiaosheng (young gentleman) in traditional Chinese costumes and with traditional Chinese style stage walk appears onstage with Chinese background music. This time the character is accompanied by Western percussion music. It would be hard for the puppeteer to adjust and give a different performance if he or she does not feel the music in the body.

These examples show that there are various layers of beauty in Chinese traditional puppets that need to be conveyed through puppet moves. Actors are capable of recreating the so-called traditional and modern textures only when they grasp the different bodily feels. They are able to create more boldly after the body training. I cannot guarantee a perfect performance, but at least with body training there are more they can express, providing more options so I can help. Wong: I like King’s plate juggling. If I were to juggle the plates, I would keep staring at the plates nervously when I do the throw, the catch, and the spin, which would divert the audience’s attention from me. If they are looking at me, I would be distracted and would be more likely to drop the plates. My master told me this too, that we Chinese are always tense and nervous when doing a traditional performance. Though it means we take our work seriously, such a performance may not be very desirable as the audience would share the performer’s anxiety. I can tell the audience is more relaxed when watching King’s plate juggling and his comical clown dance. This kind of performance requires a certain degree of physical performance that calms the nerves of the actor and deliberately compensates for the shortcomings in the puppet performance. Chui: I watched Master Wong Fai’s performance before I watched that of our students. Master Wong executed every detail with utmost attention and without the slightest mistake. I once visited a Dutch puppetry festival with Master Wong where an audience member asked what the essence of Chinese puppetry is, and how westerners may admire Chinese puppetry. I have encountered one or two marionettes of Zhong Kui. Though there were different puppeteers performing, the moves and the plot were the same. Are we supposed to admire the skill then? What do we mean by skill? How do we judge if a move is perfect or not? How should a spectator who only watches the same show once criticize? The audience may also doubt the necessity of presenting certain content or emotion. All these are interesting questions that I have been pondering. How can we pass down the tradition of Master and his master?

There are many elements in The Puppet Whisperers. Master Wong Fai has taught the basics while Andy has spent a lot of time to understand the thought and strength of every actor apart from talking about physical movements. Precision is vital in a puppet show. I am afraid our nine students have yet to attain the level set by Master Wong – they may have finished the move, but the master is not satisfied. The students fail to grasp the skill because they have never seen performance of the highest standard which only the master has witnessed.

This is why this performance is important. The show consists of nine sessions, in which every detail is the result of workshop discussion between Andy and the students. I remember when I watched the rehearsal for the first time there was no dialogue or title, but I found it interesting. I witnessed the apparent transformation in the actors after several months of training and getting along. They were transforming from the inside as they tried to interact with the audience – the mark of a true puppeteer.

After a prolonged process of understanding, Andy tells the story from the angle of the actors, who bring the puppets onstage to share with the audience. Master Wong has just pointed out the show’s resemblance with an essay, with one section after another. Some may think the story is scrappy. You may say there is no coherence, and you may say there is, because in the performance every actor expresses their feelings and what they want to say entirely through the puppet and their own bodies.

Van: Some audience would find it hard to overlook Master Wong Fai’s mastery. What is interesting is that perhaps not everyone finds the ‘traditional’ alluring, yet no one would overlook the difference between the traditional and the new. It takes a long time to attain Master Wong Fai’s level of expertise. If not for performers in the past, we would not be able to realize the value of tradition through comparison and contrast. I think what is most fascinating with this performance is that it shows that tradition survives and at the same time emerges in a new form, implying that tradition does not vanish even when it is presented in a modern way. We can still find beauty in our tradition. ‘Tradition’ and ‘innovation’ should go well together.

Stage Aesthetics

With regard to the combination of ‘tradition’ and ‘innovation,’ I would like to ask about stage design. The Puppet Whisperers features music innovation as well as multi-media elements like computer image projection. What do these arrangements add to the performance?

Chui: The Puppet Whisperers is an indoor show divided into several parts. Traditional performance requires a lot of stage set and there are usually special requirements on stage design. For example, a shadow theatre stage and a lamp are needed to obtain the effect of a leather shadow. If we build a shadow theatre stage in The Puppet Whisperers and then change the set for other types of puppet, such as hand puppets, rod puppets, and marionettes, set changes may take fifteen minutes to half an hour while each scene lasts only five minutes. This would bore the audience by constantly interrupting the performance. We therefore prefer having all the props ready in the same stage space. Instead of bulky stage set, we prefer something that is easy to change, like computer projection. Take shadow puppets as an example. We want the audience to be able to see not just the shadow puppet but also the puppeteer, so we make use of the special effect of a kind of UMU glass, which becomes translucent or clear and exposes the performers behind when switched on, and serves as an ordinary screen for other puppet shows when switched off. We are trying new things in stage design to introduce changes.

When adjusting the balance of lighting and projection on the stage, sightlines of the audience and the energy of the performers need to be taken into consideration. If the performer has a solid strong energy, a general light will do the job; if the performer is less energetic, we would skip the less important parts and place the focus on the actor and the puppet. This is how we deal with space focus.

The use of Western music is another new attempt. Traditional puppet theatre is usually accompanied by traditional Chinese music mainly from the Mainland with a Peking opera style of singing. As another target of ours is to attract more audience, we, after consulting Master Wong, decided to boldly deviate from the tradition. In puppet shows it is important to follow the rhythm of the music. If one element is taken away in this process, the students and performers may come up with something new. With this in mind, we only kept the traditional music for Master Wong’s part while rearranging the music for the rest of the show into cha-cha music, and live accompaniment was added.

Van: This is the first time I have ever used projection and computer lighting effect to work with actors and puppets as a director. We have Western music with Chinese style puppets. I have never tried something like that even as a performer, yet there is nothing pulling me back from taking up the challenge. It is just that I need to find concrete content to carry the message.

When it comes to creative concepts, I remember watching a Mainland Chinese film in which people breakdance in ancient costumes. Why shouldn’t I put similar things in a puppet show if they have already done that in the Mainland? When we are faced with the need to respond to tradition, I believe people in Mainland China are also facing the same issue. They are trying to respond in real lives, and we respond to the issue with puppets and puppeteers. Both attempts are met with satisfactory results.

The only problem I cannot solve concerns scenic design. The puppet is tiny and looks even tinier onstage. What should we do? An actor with powerful energy and physical force may communicate with the audience through visual elements. Puppets, not to mention hand puppets, are too small for that. The stage of HKAPA is so large that I find the actors small when I am sitting in the auditorium, not to mention the even smaller puppets. A traditional stage would not be that big and is close to the audience, so the size of the puppet normally poses no problems as the audience can manage. I am worried that this time the audience may not be able to see what is going on in such a vast space. Needless to say, I can always resort to the most straight-forward solution: shooting the puppet and at the same time projecting it onto a screen to enlarge the image. This method, however, is too cunning. I still cannot solve the problem.

Wong: In the past the puppet was not too small for us because we had a small stage. Now that the actor appears with the puppet, the latter would seem even smaller. On top of that, with an open stage, which is larger than the traditional ‘l’-shaped stage, the puppet would look little.

Van: If we are to hold a puppet show in a theatre instead of on a traditional stage, we have to think of a better arrangement, taking the size of the theatre and the relation between the size of the stage and the audience into account. Visually speaking, the place we have this time is not the best suited for the purpose. This applies to stage design too. Though we have a couple of movable stages for different scenes, allowing the actors to act behind the stage while the puppets act in front of it for a juxtaposition effect, we have to endlessly push the stages. The puppets must be in front of the stage and not behind, otherwise the audience cannot see them. It is a lot of trouble to change sets.

Wong: There is, after all, something good. The stage this time is more open than the traditional one. It facilitates interaction with the audience and provides more space for the puppets to move around. If we develop in this direction, we may adopt the Western approach and have more communication between the actors and the audience. The idea for the stage design is very good. We just have to figure out how to make the actors and the puppets visible at the same time. Chui: I think the relationship among the audience, the actors, and the stage is important. Different kinds of performance require different things from the venue. I admit that a thrust stage in a drama theatre facilitates interaction with the audience. This time we need to move the sets around. If we abandon the stage and mark a couple of rectangular frames on the floor instead, with lighting we have several stages. We can even forget about the stages. Several patches of light on the floor may do the job as well. The whole thing may even run more smoothly Wong: I think it would be better without the frames as they would limit the movement of the puppets. When there is no frame, they can move around freely.

Chui: There will be more flexibility. We can return to that later.

Audience

We are approaching the last part of the dialogue. You have mentioned audience a lot. Audience doubtless plays an important part in a performance. If we are to bring new life to traditional puppetry, how should we promote the art form among the audience? How can we encourage them to progress with the performers?

Chui: We handed out questionnaires at the end of the programme. If the audience is interested in puppetry or in our performance, they may contact us. We also asked what they think about the show. Most of them found Master Wong Fai’s performance amazing, and there are young people or children who found the show fun, fascinating and fresh, unlike any other show they had seen before, so they left their contact information. We have also sent ten actors to ten schools respectively to teach workshops for children. What we are doing is just like sowing. When children get to know about puppets, they would try to find out more themselves if they are interested. You can find anything you want to know on the Internet nowadays.

Apart from that, they can enjoy their own creative space when they watch puppet shows. I said at the beginning that puppet theatre is related to animation because puppet shows leave more room for imagination than ordinary shows played by human actors. There is a lot for the audience to imagine. It is not only the actors’ performance that triggers such imagination as puppet shows themselves leave a lot of room for imagination and projection. There were many people who understood part of the story asking what the story is about. Usually I would say it is what you see and what you think it is. If you want to add anything, just use your imagination. There are children who enjoyed the show very much because they used their imagination to make sense of what they saw and they do not ask why. That is why they would tell their parents they like the show.

Van: I think this show has been a success with children. Some said it is a rare thing that their son could sit still and finish the whole show; some were curious why this show attracted the undivided attention of children who were usually restless. I think our show works well with children’s imagination. Whether they understand the story is less important than the opportunity to reflect that things can turn out this way, a reflection they may not be able to articulate, though we know it is a rare experience in life. In the beginning I discussed with my team if the show should be tailored for children or for everyone. More imaginative, children usually express more enthusiasm for puppets than adults do, as adults are more likely to be bound by fixed concepts that prevent them from admiring the beauty in Chinese tradition. It is thus harder to attract adults.

Our mission for the programme, however, is to promote and preserve tradition. It is something only adults, not children, think about. Therefore I was in a difficult situation. What should we do with the creative work? Should it be thought provoking, or just anything that works great with children? Then I reminded myself not to be too stressed out as it would be impossible to solve all the problems with one programme. In the end we decided to see what these young performers received and how they would respond. I think this is already a big achievement.

Some students of mine asked me after watching the show, ‘what are you doing, Andy?’ I have always been stern in the theatre, so my students do not expect me to be so cheerful. I said you imagine that I am a stern person, that this would be a very serious show - just your imagination. I asked if they noticed anything in the puppets that is different from the tradition, and they said they had never thought about it. My decision was correct after all: I should not worry about what I should create for the audience, but what I can create. When I read history, I find that people from all walks of life talked about politics through Chinese traditional puppetry. There were well-versed scholars who expressed their views on politics and social reality with puppet shows, and artists who were supported by political forces and enjoyed a prestigious social status. Yet puppetry was also an art of the peasantry. The social status associated with puppetry is not necessarily high or low; it depends on how you view it. Thus I decided not to think too much.

As I said in an interview before, this show is a mix of all the conflicts and contradictions. The Umbrella Movement broke out before I started writing it. As I was writing I kept pondering if I was responding to the society, looking for resonance in a swarm of opinions without writing off anyone. This is a puppet show in which the relationship between the puppeteer and the puppet is a manipulator/manipulated relationship. I did have the intention to handle these issues, but I did not want to put it so explicitly that everyone would know I am talking about the Umbrella Movement. These thoughts were there before the Umbrella Movement. When I was studying in Singapore, I learnt both the traditional and the contemporary. Teachers would argue among themselves, not believing in each other. How should I digest these as a student? I could benefit from all the knowledge if I accept them and resolve the conflicts, but if I refuse and deny I gain nothing. How should I accept conflicts and contradictions? Life is like that. I wanted to write about these, but I did not want to make it too explicit or didactic. The audience will decide for themselves what the work is about.

Wong: I hope the audience base will expand beyond Hong Kong in the future. In this show we have taken the first step by presenting puppetry in an alternative way to gain acceptance among audience. We could keep the good things about tradition and improve upon the weaknesses or present the art in another way so as to attract audience. Not just Hong Kong audience, but also audience from other parts of the world.