Paul Piris

Abstract

At the beginning of the Twentieth Century, it was exceptional to see a visible puppeteer on stage. Today such a thing is the norm. Paul’s research addresses the issue of the visible presence of the puppeteer in contemporary performances through alterity, perception and embodiment.

The visible presence of the puppeteer has transformed the aesthetic forms of puppet theatre, its reception by the audience and the skills required by the performers. A new alterity is re-written which becomes the starting point of a questioning about the relationship between the self and the other but furthermore between imagination and perception, acting and puppeteering.

The theoretical framework draws significantly from the Sartrean phenomenology of Being and Nothingness (1943). The mode of inquiry is framed in practice-as-research, drawing on Paul’s directorial works as well as on the works of three influential contemporary practitioners: Neville Tranter, Nicole Mossoux and Duda Paiva.

Profile

Paul initially trained in Economics and Management and has worked as an art and business adviser. He also trained in acting, physical theatre, mask and puppetry. In 2006, he completed an MA at CSSD. In 2007 he was awarded an AHRC grant to study a PhD on puppetry.

Paul is specialised in directing interdisciplinary performances that combine puppetry with acting. He has researched and developed a training method called manipulacting which consists of a performer simultaneously manipulating a puppet and acting a character. His research explores levels of reality through the encounter of the performer with the puppet.

Paul began his professional career as a director in London. In 2005, he formed ‘Rouge28 Theatre’ (www.rouge28theatre.co.uk) a company that fuses puppetry and acting to produce original and intriguing visual theatre. The company has been awarded a residency at the Puppet Centre Trust and has been funded by Arts Council England.

Publications

2010 The presences of the puppeteer: an overview of current French academic research, in Puppet Notebook Magazine

Conference papers

2009 The subject-object relationship of the binary performer-puppet, Postgraduate conference, Central School of Speech & Drama

2008 The gaze in the subject-object relationship between the binary performer-puppet, Objects of Engagement conference, Royal Holloway

2008 The role of the gaze in the subject-object relationship between the binary performer-puppet, Postgraduate conference, Central School of Speech & Drama

Presentations

2008 Directing puppetry and performer: practice based research presentation, post-graduate research week, Central School of Speech & Drama

Productions

2009 director, puppet maker, scenographer, The Maids, Central School of Speech & Drama

2007/2009 director, writer, co-designer, video and sound editor, Urashima Taro, Shunt, Little Angel Theatre, The Boo, Camden’s People Theatre, Buxton Puppet Festival, Prema, Norden Farm, Central School of Speech & Drama

2008 co-director, co-writer, performer, Maeva Blue, Central School of Speech & Drama

2007/2008 co-director, performer, puppet maker, Postalgia, Shunt, Little Angel Theatre

2006 director, Madame, Shunt, Ghent International Puppetbusker Festival, Belgium

2006 director, co-writer, Furies, Barons Court Theatre and Byalistok International Puppet Festival, Poland

2006 director, The Bush & The Dog, Festival BeforeHereafter, London

2005 director, scenographer, sound designer, The Story of the Panda Bears, White Bear Theatre, Edinburgh Fringe Theatre

2005 director, writer, Heartsnatcher, Cockpit Theatre