Creative Report

Creative Report Jay Stelling OUIL502

Interview with Long Nose Puppets:

Katherine Morton

“How can we take the young audience to a magical world to ignite the imagination?”

In the seaside town of Brighton, there is a magical place where illustrations come to life. The charming drawings and characters from Polly Dunbar’s stories are translated into enchanted, moving puppets with the help and hands of puppet-maker Katherine Morton. Polly and Katherine met at University where they studied Illustration together before setting up Long Nose Puppets in 2006. I wanted to speak to Long Nose Puppets to learn more about their jump from Illustration to Puppetry and to find out how they turned their passion into a business.

I spoke to Katherine about making puppet shows for a living. The business began with no budget and they had no idea that it would become the successful, award-winning company it is today. Everyone in their team had worked in other industries like teaching and illustration but they gave up those careers to pursue Long Nose Puppets as a professional puppet theatre company. Working for yourself is a daunting leap, but Katherine justified the decision: “It is a pleasure to work for yourself, especially if you are lucky enough to work with other people who inspire you.”

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Katherine’s motivation for making shows is the response from the audience when they perform, which she said is the most rewarding part of puppetry. After the shows, the audience are invited onto the stage to meet the colourful puppets from the performance that the team spent months writing, building, directing and rehearsing.

Katherine explained that her University course was very playful and encouraged the exploration of unusual media to make illustrations, which is what inspired the trial-and-error process of production at Long Nose Puppets. Morton is self-taught and is still learning, which surprised me because their puppets are so beautifully crafted. At Long Nose, they use all sorts of materials to make their puppets, including latex, found objects, umbrellas and buttons.

I also discovered that Katherine was in a similar situation to myself at university, in which she felt more attracted to the physical act of making and performing than drawing: “I was always making 3D illustrations and photographing them and trying to change course as I thought of myself as more of a 3D practitioner and I love the theatre so puppets are a perfect solution to that desire.�

Having a passion for model-making is what spurred me to start thinking about puppet-making as a career and it is reassuring that Katherine had the same dilemma when she was studying and has still achieved her ambitions. These words from Katherine give me confidence that I can become a puppet-maker with a degree in illustration.

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Katherine discussed how the skills she learned whilst studying illustration have impacted her puppet making, including how the process of planning and making a show is similar to making a children’s book: “I think making a show is similar to making a children's book: how does each page/scene develop, how can you use the space in the page/scene, what colours, materials, light, special effects can you use to best describe the mood or excite your audience.”

I spoke to Katherine about her plans for the future of Long Nose Puppets and how they intend to progress. She told me that although they had considered using digital technology, projection and animation, they wanted to continue to use handmade puppets since they favour the hand-crafted aesthetic.

“If something can be made without digital media with the same magical effect- why would you use it?”

Katherine is also writing an idea for a new show. The shows are usually based on Polly’s books, so this will be a fantastic opportunity for Katherine to have more influence on the content of the performance.

Making this connection with Long Nose Puppets could give me a vital link to the puppet industry and I anticipate that maintaining a professional relationship with Katherine will continue to provide insight into setting up a puppet theatre company after I graduate.

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