Puppeteer and Theater Maker.
Designs and makes puppets and then manipulates them on the stage.
What is Puppetry?
For anything inanimate to appear alive.
Why did she choose puppets?
Caputo started off acting but came to work a play with puppets because of the magic involved and the animism of puppetry. (Animism - (from Latin animus "soul, life") is the worldview that non-human entities (animals, plants, and inanimate objects or phenomena) possess a spiritual essence.) This spiritual essence can be in anything from a plastic bag to to an old man, there are no restrictions. She also loved the fact that with acting you can be quite limited with what you can do with your body but with puppetry you can do anything with them.
Caputo obtained an acting degree at Bretton Hall, a degree that focused on script writing, and their own shows. From this a group of her course mates banded together and created their own theater company Chotto Ooki. This lasted from 2005-2008 until they all decided to pursue separate strands of theater.
However during this period of her life, she was on the verge of exploring puppetry, including shadow and hand held. Faulty Optic were a massive inspiration to where her career is taking her today.
http://www.faultyoptic.co.uk/tunnelpage.htm
Caputo was inspired and wanted to create worlds with no limits. After splitting from Chotto Ooki she spent two years making her own puppets, whilst also working with a community performance group called Ladybird which rented spaces at festivals, to provide performances of puppetry, it was where anyone could have a go, so she regularly tested her skills.
Rebekah brought in some of her earlier attempts at puppet making, which are falling apart, but this shows the development of her materials, and the improvement of her designs.
Her Inspirations:
Faulty Optic
http://www.faultyoptic.co.uk/newindexframe.htm
Which are defunct now and work under the name of Invisible Thread
http://www.invisiblethread.co.uk/
Suspense Festival - Which sounds amazing, I really want to go!
https://www.littleangeltheatre.com/festivals/suspense/
Pickeled Image
http://pickledimage.co.uk/
Other Influences:
Loves to people watch, see how the faces move and form, you can learn a lot from looking at different sized people.
Masks - these emphasise faces in different ways
Skeletons: the anatomy is really important to study to create other worldly object
Car Boot Sales - likes to make up stories on other peoples history.
Now Rebekah's practice form one half of Odd Doll Puppetry.
The are constantly thinking of concepts and shows they can sell for an audience so touring companies want to book them, although they are based in Leeds. The First show was the worried walrus, aimed at families, because there isn't a large audience for adult puppetry. A lot of funding comes from the art council.
She also makes a living from shadow art, making shadow art with refugees and asylum seekers as a form of therapy.
As well as being an MA student at LCA Caputo believes it's of upmost importance to share her practice with others and collaborate as much as possible. She's learnt that it's okay to enjoy and specialise it quite dark pieces of work.
Suggestions from Rebekah Caputo include:
Animate Live - an improv night once a month at the Hub in Holbeck,
Websites:
http://www.puppeteersuk.com/
http://unima.org.uk/
Books:
Puppetry & Puppets: An illustrated World
Puppetry A Reader in Theater Practice
Materials:
Supersculpty - heavy & Brittle, Faces cast in clay and then cast in Latex.
Bastard! from DudaPaiva Company on Vimeo.
http://www.rebekahcaputo.co.uk/
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