The puppet that Christopher Marcus put on stage for the production of ‹Kaspar Hauser› at the Goetheanum almost 20 years ago was almost three meters tall. In the run-up to this production, there was a workshop for everyone on and behind the stage to familiarize themselves with a puppet.
We had a one-meter long wooden figure lying in front of us. The task: Give it life! So we let the puppet stretch, lifting its torso with the handle on its back. It didn’t take long for each of us to discover the magic: the smaller the movements became, even diluted to an impulse, the more alive the creature there in front of us on the table became. Where his wooden chest lifted only millimeters, the magic was at its greatest. Since then, I’ve known: puppeteers know and love the greatness of the smallest and the smallest movements, the mysterious transition between something at rest and something stirring, when life shows itself and the spirit enters. Nathaniel Williams is a puppeteer.
Image Ruth Kress and Nathaniel Williams narrate Von der Reise des Friedensstifters [From the Journey of the Peacemaker], Photo: Fumie Ishii.
Beautiful! I mean: the photo, the text, the spirit, the gesture in this little gem.