AnimationDance

Line drawing by Gavin Skerritt

Completion of the R&D Period

The Research and Development period, supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, focused on the experimentation of materials, aesthetics and design to create a life-sized object/puppet forming the centerpiece of this new work.

Students participating at the Broadway Theatre workshop

The research included a two-day workshop at the Broadway Theatre in East London, giving young people a rare opportunity of handling and operating one of Skerritt's newly constructed life-sized puppets. They were also asked to create their own moving objects/puppets, which, through the help of Gavin's expertise, they brought “life” to, looking at movement and manipulation and how dance and choreography can be applied to a moving object/puppet.

“The initial concept for this new project was first planted whilst developing my production Y Weledigaeth. The main puppet explored its movements through the outside static tensions of its strings. This developing technique gave a quality very different from a puppeteer’s hand manipulating stings, offering me a new vocabulary from which I could choreograph and animate an object/ puppet.”

                                                                                                                                              Gavin Skerritt

Line drawing by Gavin Skerritt

This R&D was funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council England and The Puppet Centre Trust.