Knee High Puppeteers are ALL ON FIRE!
At the 1995 WOMAD World Music Festival in Adelaide, from way
across the breadth of Botanic Park, I caught my first glimpse
of the spectacular Android Sisters. Two giant silver robotic women
emerged from some shadowy corner of the parkland and were approaching
the crowd at an alarming rate. Electric pulses shot up and down
their enormous bodies like lightning. Their intensely bright eyes,
set at least ten feet from ground level, stood out as beacons
in the night. I wondered where on earth these extraordinary beings
could have come from.
Little could Tony Hannan, the company's founding artistic
director, have known that the WOMAD gig of 1995 would catapult
the company, with its modest handful of physical and street performers,
onto a world stage that has stretched from Asia to Europe. In
four years Knee High Puppeteers have appeared in 13 countries
and have performed to an estimated audience of over 500,000 people.
Further international tours are planned for 1999 as the company
presses on to expand an ever-blossoming profile.
These days the group has grown to 9 permanent members and,
with plenty of support from the local council, resides in a community
space in St. Peters (the former home of Carouselle Puppet Theatre).
They perform regularly at major outdoor events including festivals,
corporate launches, exhibition openings and street parades.
Tony, whose background in radical community work and circus
performance is a strong driving force, says the company's key
value is in the art of connecting with the audience - and keeping
connected.
'Plenty of people want to perform in front of people but my
view is that it's more important to perform with people. I want
them to experience it, not observe it. People are more affected
by stuff that reaches them physically, not just visually. We also
don't want to do stuff that's fashion of the month. If people
are saying, "We've seen it before", then you have to
move on. That way it stays exciting.'
And moved on they have. Since the commercial success of the
Android Sisters, the company has been seeking to diversify their
skills in the field of celebratory outdoor theatre. A burgeoning
interest in scripted theatre work, co-productions, workshops and
a pyrotechnics department allow the company to feature in all
manner of community events and corporate commissions. 'In Sight
Unseen', the company's first major scripted project, was developed
with the assistance of an Australia Council project development
grant. By streamlining the company's internal running costs it
was able to be showcased at the 1997 Melbourne International Festival.and
the 1998 Performing Arts Market Adelaide. The production is partially
an experiment arising out of Tony's vision to create what some
might consider the ultimate in puppeteering - the invisible puppet.
'Dark One' is a majestic 3.8 metre tall, black velvet female
figure with a sophisticated 16 channel light chasing circuit controlling
an impressive covering of bright red L.E.D. (crystal) lights.
Tony's enthusiasm for the future of this exquisite puppet can
hardly be contained.
'The idea is that it's completely dark. She enters the plaza
and she's scary. Everyone's a bit wary of her because she's very
difficult to see. She's exactly designed not to be seen. She can.....just
appear. People don't know she's there. They go "AHH!!"
and because she's black it's hard to tell where she is in the
landscape. You're not getting a stereoscopic view so it's harder
to work out if she's close to you or further away. It's an optical
illusion.
So a person comes up and goes to touch her but she's completely
velvet so it's the very opposite of the initial fear. And the
puppeteer engineers it so that if you touch her finger the red
lights spread from there till there's just waves of bright red
light going all over her body.'
THE COMPANY is hoping to develop Dark One's performing potential
throughout 1999. Meanwhile, fire sculptures (Tony directed the
beautiful fire event at Normanville Beach Yankalilla (S.A.) on
New Years Eve) and flaming 'pyro' puppets are the current preoccupation
of this multi-skilled, gadget loving bunch. The Burning Man (named
Bernie of course!), a 3.5 metre tall, fully articulated mobile
fire puppet, heads up an impressive display of possibilities on
offer for night events. He and others can be viewed at the Knee
High website at www.kneehigh.va.com.au - the fire kissing sculpture
is a must see.
Bernie (and his dog Rusty) featured at the 1998 High Beam
Festival in Adelaide where the Knee High team discovered that
it's possible to be so on the cutting edge that you can slice
right through it! They were all set up at the finish of the festival
parade with a spectacular image of Bernie and Rusty bursting through
a wall of flames. But, as Tony recalls, they weren't prepared
for the public's reaction.
'Everything went according to plan but the people thought
we'd lost control. They were waiting for the fire engines to arrive!'
The perils of pyromania aside, I am struck by the inspiring
ethic of this group towards taking creativity to the community
at large, in particular, those people who wouldn't necessarily
go to theatre - even when the budget dictates an awful lot of
voluntary involvement. I am invited back to morning tea and warned
of the risk of a paint brush being slapped into my hand. It's
an offer I find hard to refuse because there's an energy so magnetic
here. The spirit of community is irresistible.
'You know the only way these things happen in the arts industry
is a lot of people putting in a lot of volunteer hours.
But doing good things gives us lots of energy to keep doing
it. For most of us there isn't anything else we'd rather be doing.'
The company's next major event will involve numerous activities
with the upcoming International Festival for Young People, Come
Out. As well as performing their giant stilt characters in the
festival, Knee High plan to conduct workshops on any number of
puppetry skills, from stilt walking to simple electronics and
mechanical design. Festival participants will also have the opportunity
to get very hands on with another new area being explored by the
company - the craft of inflatable puppetry (puppets that are driven
by a fan). Also, a 30 minute street theatre touring show, 'Contrary
Mary', is available for bookings from APRIL, 1999. Watch out for
them!