Behind The Scenes Of The Secret Garden Extract From Lisa Blair Assistant Director 'The Secret Garden'

Today was a really great day! Mervyn, the puppeteer, was in rehearsals to ensure that the ensemble was performing well with their puppets (especially the Robin who is very important in The Secret Garden!). He made sure that they were moving the puppets in the right way, and even making the right sound. He is very hands on and it was fascinating to watch how he works. He gave a lot of really useful notes to the ensemble and they immediately put it all into practise. Mervyn thinks that it is very important that there is a connection between the actor operating the puppet and the puppet itself. A lot of the energy and focus of the actor goes to the animal puppet so that the audience’s attention is drawn only to the puppet. It is a very interesting process and one that works with brilliant success. The ensemble are doing a great job and are practising really hard… With fantastic results!!