“Why should he have all the adventures? I want some for myself.”
—Princess Cimorene, Dealing with Dragons
When I saw the notice last October that Phantom Chorus Theatre would be adapting Dealing with Dragons, Minnesota author Patricia C. Wrede’s YA fantasy novel about the unconventional princess Cimorene, I knew I wanted to audition. I knew I wanted a part in bringing this beloved book to stage, and as luck would have it, I found myself with the chance to be a puppeteer and voice actor for the show. I’ve been writing, acting, and producing plays locally for a little over a decade. But these were the two things I’d never done before.
A good friend once told me there is great power in the word “yet.” It’s an actionable word: “I haven’t done puppetry—yet.” This show has become my next “yet.” And dang has it been quite the adventure.
The folks at Phantom Chorus Theatre have graced local stages with a bevy of unique and imaginative puppetry-focused shows. They design and build these puppets themselves, and Dealing with Dragons has them bringing multiple dragons and many other magical creatures to life in some fabulously creative ways. I find myself, a self-taught actor, thrust in the middle of the production.
One thing you learn quickly as a self-taught theater professional is that you have to respond quickly on the fly in each show. Learning to animate the puppets has been quite the learning journey; I’m finding new physical and mental challenges while performing onstage as we breathe life into constructs of fabric, foam, and glue. And in its own way, doing so creates a kind of magic we only find in fantasy books: the power to create life from the inanimate, fully realized onstage.
The biggest thing I was not ready for was the challenge of paring the mental aspects of acting with the physicality of puppetry. In a typical acting role, I can express an emotion or connect with another actor onstage through body language, eye contact, and physical expressions. In puppetry, you have to convey those physical expressions through the puppet you are controlling. In practice, that means you are looking at the puppet while controlling it, making sure it’s emoting and making eye contact with the other characters. It’s a bit of a juggling act, and it has helped me become more aware of the minutiae of performance, as I’m making sure all the things I do naturally in my own body instead find their way into the physicality of the puppet—all within the limitations of the puppet’s construction…