Glutz: Dragon
Glutz Puppetry Show
Glutz puppet show was a site specific piece written to be performed in a public square. This gave us the flexibility to perform the show the same way in the Cardiff run and the shows at the Prague Quadrennial. I was a team leader of a group of four designers and between us we made five puppets and a costume. Although we all assisted each other, everyone took over one aspect or another of the brief and I focused on the costume for the living statue and the dragon puppet.
This board focuses on my singing Welsh Dragon puppet. The brief specified a Welsh dragon that could sing, dance, breathe fire and disassemble for transportation. The puppet had to flat pack because everything had to go on the bus to Prague.
Directed by Alison Reid. Cardiff show photography taken by Kristen McTernan.
The Cardiff Shows
My Puppetry Team: Livia Jones, Constance Canavarro, Emily Hartness MA and Megan Ricketts
The Prague Shows
The puppet had to flat pack to make travelling to Prague manageable so everything detaches except the tail. The tail was a challenge. Because the swirl clearly identifies it as a Welsh dragon the production designer was keen to keep it in but it naturally made the tail top heavy. In order to keep it upright I had to use strategically deployed fibreglass rods and use torsion on the supporting pipes. By putting a twist on the pipes I created an inward force that keeps the tail straight.
Process Photos
First I built the dragon’s frame and harness. Only one person supports the dragon’s body weight so building a structure that distributes the weight of the puppet equally is import for the performer to be able to keep their balance. Next I made a cardboard maquette on the frame of the dragon’s body and limbs. This was pretty accurately transferred to the final design where the body and limbs were built out of corrugated plastic and bolted together. This was useful, both for easily moving joints and for disassembling the puppet. From here I started work on the dragon’s face. I made a cardboard dragon head which I turned into a pattern. I then cut the head out of plasterzote and assembled it over a wire frame. The fire breathing was solved by hiding red silk streamers in a pocket in the mouth. When pulled out by a puppeteer they create a satisfying fluttering effect giving the impression of flame.
I built this puppet with a lot of collaboration with my teammate Constance Canavarro who came up with the mechanism for the wings and built them out of the same corrugated plastic. We also did a lot of collaboration in the early stages of the design and painted the dragon together.
