For Stephen Foster, a puppet is not a prop. It is a theatre instrument that has to move well, last for years and hold an audience’s attention.
The 47-year-old from East Kilbride in Scotland is one of as few as six people making marionette puppets in Britain, in a craft now officially recognised as endangered.
He made his first puppet at high school after finding a pattern in an old book during a woodworking class, and has kept at it ever since.
“The first time I made a marionette was at high school, when we had a woodworking class in fifth year,” Stephen said.
“We could choose whatever we wanted to make.
“There was an old book by a marionette maker called Waldo Lanchester, and he had a pattern on the back of it to make a puppet.
“I redid it when I met my mentor when I went to college, and made it a bit lighter and more flexible, and then continued to make them on and off after that.”
Stephen later studied theatre in college, where he focused on puppetry and met the mentor who taught him the craft. Over the years, he has worked in a range of jobs, often in theatre, while keeping puppet-making as a side job.
He said that work is driven by two basic questions: what the puppet should look like and what it needs to do.
“The first part of the process is finding out what the character is and what it’s going to look like, so you design the visuals of it,” Stephen said.
“Then you’ve got to find out what it’s got to do, because there’s no point in making something that looks really nice but can’t move well, or concentrating on the walk when in reality it’s going to be static.”
“It can be a long process, and especially with marionettes, a bit of trial and error, because balance is so important with them.”
A single puppet can take several weeks to a month to make, depending on how detailed or flexible it needs to be. Stephen often uses them himself in workshops and performances, and has also made custom pieces for puppeteers and collectors around the country.
He said some of the pieces he made 25 years ago still work.
“I did some for an exhibition, they were designs based on real ballet costumes, so I had to interpret the costumes so you could recognise them from the original designs,” he said.
“I don’t know of the ones I’ve sold on that are still in use, but some of the early ones that I’ve made 25 years ago, I’ve still got working. It’s important to make the puppets good from a technical point of view. I look at them like instruments in a theatre, you’ve got to make them perform properly. They’ve got to be robust; they’ve got to last.”
“You don’t generally get duff musical instruments in orchestras, they’re all good quality. It’s the same with the puppets. They’ve got to be of a standard so that they perform properly and the performer can get everything out of them.”
The trade is now under pressure. A recent estimate from Heritage Crafts suggests there are only between 6 and 20 people in the UK working full-time or part-time in marionette making.
Stephen said traditional marionettes have become less popular in part because they take a long time to learn to operate smoothly.
“It’s a difficult thing professionally, because it takes a long time for someone to learn,” he said.
“Even if you are used to marionettes, you have to almost break one in to get used to it. Recently, they tend to be more private or decorative pieces to work with.”
Even so, he wants to keep the craft going because he sees puppet theatre as many children’s first contact with the stage.
“A good live theatre experience is incredible,” he said. “Puppet theatre is an entryway for most kids into theatre. From an experience point of view for the audience, it’s important that what you create is of a high standard and it encourages people to come back to the theatre.”
“If you get that right, you’ve possibly set up an audience for future plays, future theatre-goers to keep that alive.”
