POLLY DUNBAR - Long Nose Puppets

Got an email from Matt with some super useful puppet resources for me to gander at. Thanks, dood!

Polly Dunbar- Long Nose Puppets

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES YES

I knew I'd heard her name before. Polly Dunbar is the lady behind the Tilly books which is now also a TV show on Cbeebies. BUT she's got her finger in many pies (what does that saying even mean!!!!!????? or is it a thumb idk)

She's ALSO running a theatre company called Long Nose Puppets.

Two illustration students - Polly Dunbar and Katherine Morton - they met at University and CREATED STORIES AND CHARACTERS TOGETHER. They enjoyed the act of making.

After graduating, they went their separate ways making illustrations but joined forces in 2006 to make a puppet show 'just for fun'.

The show was a huge success and they continued designing, making and performing with a group of friends who helped to bring the puppets to life on stage.

Books written and illustrated by Dunbar are translated into puppet designs BY HER so they are really closely connected. This is a perfect example of the illustration/puppetry cross-over because this lady does both and has been really successful in both paths! 

In an interview with the BBC, she talks about these platforms for her characters and how she finds puppetry the most fulfilling avenue.

'There is something magical about a puppet show because you have a live audience. The audience become part of the show... there is a special atmosphere within a theatre.'

It's that intimacy, immediacy and risk of live performance that doesn't exist in television or books because the audience and the creator are distanced.

I found this quote from Katherine Morton that I think totally captures the magic of PERFORMING with puppets 'if something has a face and you can hide behind it, you can get away with a lot of fun and mischief!'

This is their lovely lil' logo. Their branding and identity is really bold and instantly recognisable as LONG NOSE. It's an illustration - they're associating themselves with an handdrawn logo rather than a 3D puppet, which I found a little confusing at first, but now I've read about and learned who they are, what they do, I understand this really beautiful link they have with illustration and that this is fundamentally the basis of everything they do. Why should one thing be a puppet and another thing they make be an illustration? They are one and the same, they are products of creativity. Although you can't really class these drawings as puppets themselves, they do stand for puppets - they're visual motifs for them (since a logo is a static image anyway and a puppet is only a puppet when it moves, right?!). But I think that since all their puppets are designed and made by illustrators, surely the puppets themselves are illustrations.

They tell the same stories as Dunbar's drawings in her books, only on stage.

http://www.longnosepuppets.com/uploads/5/6/4/5/56454305/1223268.jpg?509

The long-nosed creature is really quite cool, it's very child friendly and just plain silly fun. Damn I want those lil' mint green boots. It's a character and a mascot for the company. I'd like to see him as a puppet too!

It does remind me of Mr Nosey from Mr Men Books though. Seriously. I think they might be long lost cousins.

http://www.gareth53.co.uk/assets/img/content/mr-men/nosey01.jpg

See! Told you.

http://www.longnosepuppets.com/uploads/5/6/4/5/56454305/8518843_orig.jpg

The puppets LOOK like Dunbar's illustrations. They look like they have just climbed off the page.

It's lovely that kids will know her work from different platforms - some will recognise Tilly from the telly or the books, making it really special when they meet these physical translations in the flesh. Like meeting the princesses at Disney Land, kids bloody love to see, touch and MEET their favourite characters.

http://www.longnosepuppets.com/uploads/5/6/4/5/56454305/2839789_orig.jpg

Seem like such lovely people! They're a COMPANY. It takes more than one person to make a production like this. They each have their own skillsets - illustrators, builders, fabricators, performers. It would be really cool to collab with people - find someone who makes costumes, someone to perform the puppet, someone to build me a stage... UTILISE everyone's expertise. There's no point me doing a bodge job when someone else could do a much better job.

Because none of the group were trained in puppetry, none of them had ever been taught the dynamics or process of making puppets. Their approach is so inspiring, just to make and use whatever you have. They make it up as they go along.