Bunraku-Style Puppet

My fellow student Alex Watson and I have collaborated for this project. He has been focusing on the structure of the toddler and the baby puppet. I have been discussing the design with the designers, sculpted in clay accordingly, made the plaster molds, latex and foam casts, and paint finishes. 

Bunraku is Japanese traditional puppet theatre with half-life-size dolls that feature a head and torso, and hands and feet that are attached with string, operated by two or three puppeteers. They usually do not have an actual body, but just a robe or kimono to resemble the shape.

In this devised play the hands and feet of the puppet were animated by the actors’.

The puppets were required to have a plain look that conveys the humbleness of their character, with asymmetric features which would reveal diverse emotions under different lights.