School Projects
At l’École Nationale Supérieure des Arts de la Marionnette, I observed a presentation of 20 collage projects similar to my "dream in a box" exercise with performance of story added to the assignment. The idea was to play with the objects with the least amount of manipulation and in confrontation with the performer’s body until the movement and imagery begin to tell a story. Many students created attractive assemblages and told conventional fairy tale-type stories. Some poked fun at the naiveté of it all. Some created puppets of human- and animal-like figures. Gilbert, the teacher, was after the hard work that comes from craftsmanship in maintaining the audience’s attention. He urged the students to keep the audience from guessing what comes next in order to sustain dramatic tension and release. The use of the performer’s body was also an important element of the story telling.
