Puppet Pantomime?

[Beauregard]

Has anyone done a puppet pantomime before? Or will I be the first?

GTG

Beauregard

[matleo]

Sorry Beau,
Puppetry is all about being able to create movement. It's about being able to emote through the figure not just by words but by actions. I'm afarid that puppetry pantomime has been around for..well as long as puppetry has been around. In fact once upon a time, Frank Oz even did a piece called "the painter" which was all done in pantomime.
Sorry to break it to you. BUT I still suggeest exploring it. It really is at the heart and soul of puppetry as an artform and one of the most important things you can learn to do. Let me know how it turns out.

--Matt

[Al Raschid]

I put on 'Ali Baba and the 40 (ish) Thieves' last Christmas (with the help of a large puppeteering team and £5,500 grant- thats about $11000 i think)

We had to build the props and get the stuff from august onwards which was a huge struggle, but it had pyrotechnics and full lights in the end and was amazing, not to mention hilarious.

You will need a fairly large group of puppeteers (depending on what panto u choose) and lots and lots of time to practice.

Hope it goes well for you!

(ps: Al Raschid was the puppet voice that I did- the bad guy!)

[Beauregard]

Hello there! That sounds amazing! I did put that panto on about three years ago now, and of course I was being neive to think it was the first Puppet Panto, but I had never seen the two art forms mixed.

Tell me, did a female puppet play Ali Baba and a male puppet play his mother? *sniggers*

[Al Raschid]

Tell me, did a female puppet play Ali Baba and a male puppet play his mother? *sniggers*[/quote]

Well funny you should say that. We did have a female puppet with a girl putting on a fake male voice that kept ''slipping'' (up until the end). She was one of the thieves who was in love with the leader of the 40ish thieves and it all worked out alright in the end and they got together.

Great opportunities for lines such as ''Harem, stop tidying up in there! Anyone would think you're a woman or something!''

However, the character that stole the show was undoubtably our French Camel. Made room for countless jokes about the smellyness of the french, garlic eating habits, language differences, as well as someone to generally abuse. ''You wouldn't want to eat me, I would err, taste like garlic!''

[Was Once Ernie]

I'm not trying to be a wise guy here, or start anything... I just wanted to point out that if there's dialogue, it's not pantomime.

:p

[Al Raschid]

''Mime'' as in ''Mime artists'' can otherwise be described as non-verbal puppetry. This is the meaning you are taking from PantoMIME. However, you are sadly mistaken. ''Pantomime'' may have had its roots in some of the old theatre non-verbal performances, hence it having ''mime'' put on the end.

Now however, it covers the often exaggerated, audience participation based, traditionally Christmas-time performances, usually with a set ''goodie'' and ''baddie'' and a happy ending.

That IS pantomime...unfortunately we have progressed since the time before the ''talkies'' :boo:

[Was Once Ernie]

That must be unique to England, then. There's no definition of pantomime that I can find in the U.S. that includes dialogue.

Again, I'm not disputing you. I'm sure you're correct in that context. It sounds like you're describing what we call "melodrama" over here.

:p

[Fozzie Bear]

Or, if it stars a honeydew and a cantaloupe, it's called "Melon-drama!"

WOCKA WOCKA!

[Beauregard]

Or, if it stars a honeydew and a cantaloupe, it's called "Melon-drama!"

WOCKA WOCKA!
*laughs!* Wocka, wocka! *throws stuff like rotten tomatoes...and chairs*

Pantomime in the British sence of the word is a very traditional show that tends to be put on at least once in every town or villiage around the whole of the country every January-ish time.

Here's what I found on Wiki:

"Traditionally performed at Christmas, with family audiences consisting mainly of children and parents, British pantomime is now a popular form of theatre, incorporating song, dance, buffoonery, slapstick, in-jokes, audience participation and mild sexual innuendo. Plots are often loosely based on traditional children's stories, the most popular titles being:

Aladdin (sometimes combined with Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves and/or other Arabian Nights tales)
Babes in the Wood (often combined with Robin Hood)
Beauty and the Beast
Cinderella
Dick Whittington, first staged as a pantomime in 1814, based on a 17th century play.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Jack and the Beanstalk
Mother Goose
Peter Pan
Puss in Boots
Sleeping Beauty
Snow White

The form has a number of conventions, some of which have changed or weakened a little over the years.

-The leading male juvenile character (the "principal boy") - almost always played by a young woman.
-An older woman (the pantomime dame - often the hero's mother) is usually played by a man in drag
-Risqué double entendre, often wringing innuendo out of perfectly innocent phrases. This is in theory over the heads of the children in the audience.
-Audience participation, including calls of "look behind you!" (or "he's behind you!"), and "oh yes it is!" or "oh no it isn't!" The audience is always encouraged to "boo" the villain.
-A song combining a well-known tune with re-written lyrics. The audience is encouraged to sing the song; often one half of the audience is challenged to sing "their" chorus louder than the other half.
-The pantomime horse or cow, played by two actors in a single costume, one as the head and front legs, the other as the body and back legs.
-The good fairy always enters from the right side of the stage and the evil villain enters from the left. In Commedia Dell 'Arte the right side of the stage symbolized Heaven and the left side symbolized ****.
-The members of the cast throw out sweets to the children in the audience."

If I ever come to America, I'll definatly inroduce the art form there for you folks :p

Bea:zany:{Did you know that Sir Ian McKellon once played Widow Twanky (Aladdin's Mother) in a pantomime? Amazing.}regard

[Fozzie Bear]

What do you call a bear actor with motion and no sound?

A PANDA-MIME! WOCKA WOCKA!

Haaaaaa! Oh, I'm so funn-ee!
(And making this all up strictly for this thread, shame on me).

Know why I got my jeans back from my cousin?

Because they were pant-o'-mine! HAAAA! OH! This is my "A" material!

[Was Once Ernie]

Thanks, Beau! That was a great description. It still sounds a lot like American melodrama where the audience hisses the villain and cheers the hero, etc.

Pantomime over here is what Red Skelton sometimes used to do or someone like Marcel Marceau or even Ernie Kovacs on occasion. They were bits performed without dialogue and sometimes without props or costumes. All those things would be "mimed".

But I've learned something! Thanks again.

:p

[Fozzie Bear]

What do you call a tired clown dog?

Pantin' mime! Get it? Panto--Pantin'...it's, nevermind...

[Beauregard]

Why did a mime try to cook an egg on his foot?

Because it was a pan-toe...Panto...get it, get it?