KL Design

Puppetry Design Brief

This project was to create puppet designs for four characters from the Edward Gorey Alphabet book The Gashlycrumb Tinies (1963).

 

A macabre and humorous book about the strange deaths of 26 children told in brief two-line rhyming descriptions of their untimely ends. The puppets were to be designed for a children’s performance aimed at engaging them with their ABCs. The colour palette given was monochrome.

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My final puppet design was for S is for Susan who perished in fits. I created a pixie style face with a modern style of costume. The style of puppet was bunraku with rods to control the arms and legs. To re-enforce the alphabet, the letter 'S' was embedded in white on a black jumper. 

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The moral of the tale emphasises the dangers of electrics and giving further information to the audience. The addition of LED lighting through her hair and lighting up her face is controlled through the bunraku style of control of the head and adds a further element to the puppet.