around the world with mr. punch

I'm acting as Punch & Judy mentor to artist Nenagh Watson who purchased the puppets of the late Joe Beeby (a Prof's Prof) and is undertaking a project to explore her reactions to them and become a Prof herself. Nenagh's most recent work has been with doo cot - a company which described itself producing "self devised work in different media at different venues and with different collaborators. The artistic frission is the tension between shamanistic past and a technological future. We aim to encompass the qualities of simplicity and grandeur. " Nenagh herself has a background in sculpture and theatre with training in puppetry at the Institut de la Marionette, France, where she worked with director Philippe Genty and the late visionary director and painter Tadeusz Kantor whose passion and poetry continue to inform her work. A key theme of her work is to explore "the dynamic of the performer and the object" And now Mr. Punch is that object - which requires coming to terms with the very basics of becoming a Prof.

Nenagh is happy that some of our mentoring exchanges are posted online as a resource for other novice Profs who will face similar challenges.

Mr. Punch is - perhaps above all else - defined by his voice. It is the expression of his very essence. And so the mundane business of learning to swazzle is where we begin these exchanges.

N: Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh this swazzle bussines is hard going - but I'm keeping with it! It would be helpful if I could meet up with you for a swazzle low down & routine catch up?

G: It is quite legit to consider special measures. I know � - for instance � - some Profs have the swazzle built into a dental plate. I even heard that the great Percy Press (whom I idolised as a child � - which is why Percy 2 was such a dreadful let down) had such a device. But this may be hearsay. Anyway, it�s not any kind of issue if you went down that route. You might cast about any dentist chums (???!!!) or friendly neighbourhood dentists to see what they might offer. Other special measures involve a bit of knowledge about the inside of the Watson gob. I know someone who has a tiny, arched roof to her mouth and has a tiny swazzle to fit. Some folk have a ridge down the roof of the mouth running from front to back which is a problem for keeping the swazzle snugly fitted. We may need to play about with different sized swazzles and look at different options. A �bespoke� swazzle' (or device) rather than the old �off the peg one size fits all�'swazzle may be what�s needed. Or it may be a simpler issue to do with basic swazzle maintainance - like trying to ride a bike with flat tyres and a bent back wheel. It took me 6 months grief as a teenager � - whereas my daughter and her friend picked it up in an hour at the same age. It's such a vital part of the whole thing (like being able to play your scales as a pianist) that every second of agony is well spent. Once you�ve got it, you don�t ever forget it. But you can still play inventively with routines and speak/squeak for Mr. Punch in rehearsal.

N: I kind of get two 'delicate' patches @ the soft pallet where the swazzle has been - just making it a bit tender - but I kind of figure if I just keep having a go ever day it might build up a bit a resistence? It's me spit that I'm trying to cope with - I produce a lot & then I have to swollow & not swollow the swazzle - Say it not Spray it! Ron Codman mentioned some one in his family going to Ireland & bringing back a pewter swazzle which was small - I have been wondering if a smaller one would help????

G: Swazzling is a bit of a moist activity but I think that eventually your mouth works out that you�re not trying to stick a foreign object down your throat to kill yourself and it stops trying to flush it back out. You�ll always produce a bit of saliva, however, because a dry swazzle only croaks. The tender patches will harden up (a bit like a blues guitarist�s calloused plucking fingers) although they�ll un-harden if you don�t swazzle for six months or so and then they have to get toughened up again. Biting the underside of your tongue is the most painful thing you can manage to do in performance. Having a jagged bit on the swazzle that cuts you is a close second. Having the cotton unwind in performance and start sliding down your windpipe is also worth avoiding! The old advice was to use powdered alum to harden the sore patch � but when I went to a chemist some 20 years after getting that advice he looked at me as if I�d asked for laudunum or arsenic. So I guess that�s out. Thanks for the Material Theatre info about the artistic side of your project. I used to work with a bloke whose wife was an Americam feminist acadmic whose PhD had been on women writers in the time of Shakespeare or earlier and who�d used men�s names for nom de plumes. (or noms de plume???). The title was �The Goose�s Quill� because a quill pen could be made from a goose feather or a gander feather and a reader could thus never truly know the gender of the author. This is a bit garbled and I only remember it because the swazzle as a voice-modifier has the same potential. You can�t tell a male Prof swazzling from a female Prof swazzling. This might resonate within your feminine/feminist critical dialogue.

AN ONGOING POSTING TO BE CONTINUED AS THE PROJECT UNFOLDS.