Shadow Puppets by Richard Merrill


Shadow puppets, inspired by the Wayang Kulit of Southeast Asia, built by Richard Merrill Wayang Kulit is the traditional Javanese and Thai shadow theatre in which large, flat leather puppets portray the stories of the Ramayana in performances lasting several hours, sometimes all night. Amazingly, one puppeteer performs the whole show, making all the voices and sound effects! The puppets are intricately cut with filigree and lace patterns, and have jointed arms and sometimes jointed legs. Merrill's shadow puppets are made from simple, graceful shapes articulated for expressive movement, and made from paper and aluminum sheet metal. Some of Merrill's shadow puppets appear in The Dragon's Daughter, a production of Figures of Speech Theater.
	The shadow display shows characters from "The Legend of Jumping Mouse," a Native American story from the Lakota people. The Legend A mouse hears a distant sound no one else in his village hears, and goes to investigate. What follows is a journey of discovery and transformation aided by Frog, Raccoon, Wolf, Buffalo and Eagle. The Puppets The shadow box was made by Scott Ferden of Ye Olde Woodworks. It stands 36" high and is lit by a single fluorescent unit custom made by Merrill. The puppets were all built by Merrill from paper, wood, sheet aluminum and wire. They are articulated for movement, and are designed to suggest pictographs from caves or hide paintings.
			A shadow puppet begins with sketches for shapes. Studies for joints begin now as well. Between this sketch and the final shape there were 20 or more sheets of paper. The theme of the curved leg with curved parallel claws is a very expressive, very ancient image. Surprisingly, this small detail set the direction for the entire cast of characters. The pictographic style made for interesting shapes, and required me to reduce each animal to its elemental aspects.
Since Raccoon is a little bear, I chose to have the audience see the her face full front. This made the all the elements of the face work together in positive and negative shapes. The distinctive mask shape identifies this character unmistakably as Raccoon. The face is part of a complete circle with its center point between the raccoon's eyes. The head will pivot about this point so that it will seem to tilt its head from side to side inquisitively. The circular space will be filled with a sheet of transparent acetate on which the face is pivoted, so that the eyes will not be occluded by supports or wires when the face turns.
		With a paper template in place, I score aluminum sheet metal with an Xacto knife. I remove the template and cut more deeply with the knife.
I cut carefully around the shapes, then make radial cuts through the waste margin around the piece. With needle nose pliers, I carefully remove the waste margin, section by section. The edges are clean, and the piece stays pretty much flat. Shears tend to curl the metal; once it's curled, it's almost impossible to get it flat. The eyes will be drilled out later.
			Here are some of my favorite tools and materials. Knives, fine saws and files, needle nose pliers of various shapes, galvanized wire in an assortment of guages, and wooden dowels and splints for control rods.
			Left, characters created by Richard Merrill for Figures of Speech Theater of Freeport, Maine. The story is of a Chinese girl named Gum-lin who goes through many adventures, culminating in saving her village from a dragon. The figures are articulated shadow puppets made from various materials. The arm and legs move, and the basket on the back can be removed. The crane facing her moves its head and legs.

Above are two views of another character in the play. This peacock dispenses wisdom; at the proper moment the tail spreads for a colorful fan effect. The audience says "Ohh!"