Guignol: Le Pot de Confiture (Guignol: Pot of Jam) Le Collectif

Guignol: Le Pot de Confiture
(Guignol: Pot of Jam)
Le Collectif Zonzons
Study Guide (Pre-K to 3rd Grade)
Friday May 1st 2015, 11am
Presented as part of the French Institute Alliance Française (FIAF)’s Young
Audience Program
Dear Teachers,
Welcome to the Florence Gould Hall at FIAF! We have made this study guide
available to you in order to introduce your students to the performance they are
about to watch. From both a cultural and a social point of view, our goal is to
make this event unique and enjoyable for all. Therefore, we would like the
students to behave appropriately during the performance. We kindly ask you to
remind them:
- Please refrain from talking or whispering during the performance
- Please stay in your seats
- Please put away all your electronic devices (MP3, cellphone, etc.)
- No eating or drinking is allowed in the theater
We are always looking to improve our events. So we would love to hear your
feedback after the show. Please send any questions, comments, or suggestions
to Héloïse Darcq at [email protected].
Thank you very much.
Who is Guignol?
Guignol is a French hand puppet created in 1808 by Laurent
Mourguet from Lyon. Guignol is associated with the spirit
called ‘lyonnais’ (a native of Lyon). He has an inexhaustible
amount mockery and complaints; he’s spontaneous, bon
vivant, whiny but generous at heart.
During the 19th century, Guignol as a
theater genre, passed gossips from its shows to the
general public, who would come for a drink in the
theater-cafes after work. In the evening, the puppeteers
would recount the news and talk-of-the-town that
happened during the day. Today, the puppets are toys
for kids, but they are also embodiments of critical
discourse and society satire from their heydays.
About Laurent Mourguet
Laurent Mourguet was born in 1769 into a family
of ‘Canut’ silk workers from Lyon, France. He
was a silk worker, salesman, dentist before he
became a puppeteer. In 1808, while working as
a dentist, Mourguet created the character
Guignol to both attract new clientele and to
distract his patients from the tooth pain. Before
long, Mourguet became a recognized puppeteer
and his little puppet friends had attracted large
audiences. Mourguet created the first company
in 1820 with two of his children and his son-inlaw. Later he would give up dentistry for the
stage. Guignol was so successful that puppet
shows spread throughout France, reaching such
popularity that in the mid-1800s, the police had
to censor the performances because of the
widespread societal gossips from the shows. Mourguet retired in Vienna at 71
years old but he never stopped puppeteering.
The Story
Guignol is a home servant who is also quite
a food lover. Devouring everything in his
masters’ food pantry, he has got to the point
where he’s about to be fired by Mr.
Cassandre. Cassandre’s son, Octave, hired
Guignol because of his beautiful neighbor,
the charming Ms. Emilie. If Ms. Emilie
realized that her favorite valet is at risk with
his job, she wouldn’t want to marry Octave,
who happens to be deeply in love with her.
Octave must manage to please everyone,
but the mischievous Guignol is not going to
make it easy!
“The Jar of Jam” is the most performed piece from the repertoire attributed to
Laurent Mourguet, Guignol’s creator. In recreating this great classic, the Zonzons
completely engage themselves in the revival of hand puppets by reconciling the
tradition and modernity. The freshness of the production and the use of a light
contemporary castelet prop have transformed the play to feature moments of
tenderness and sweetness.
About Le Collectif Zonzons
In 1994, five members launched the company – Le Collectif Zonzons – in Lyon,
France. Today, there more than twenty artists, technicians, costume designers,
decorators and writers working for the group, encompassing diverse areas of
work. Everyone at Zonzons shares the same desire for displaying the character
and greatness of Guignol by marrying tradition to modernity, combining the
contemporary theater techniques with the popular puppet form. The Zonzons
take the lineage of Guignol of Lyon by creating a rich and innovative repertoire
where moments of folly and mischief are realized in Guignol’s character.
The Team
Director/Producer – Flip Auchère
Stage director, puppeteer, hand manipulation coach,
co-founder of the Collectif Zonzons in 1994. Well
versed in the world of puppets in France and abroad,
he created a French-Madagascan company in 2008 for
the show “Quel Bazar ! (What a Mess!)” Other
productions: “La Boîte (The Box)” (Taiwan), “Cause
toujours ! (Swizerland), “L’Armoire (The Closet)”
(France)
Making A Puppet
Guignol belongs to the family of hand puppets.
Mourguet, inspired by the italian model called
burattino, wich was well-known in France
through the popularity of Polichinelle. This type
of puppet is constituted of three distinct parts:
1. The head and the hands 2. The sheath
3. The costume
1. THE HEAD AND THE HANDS
The head and the hands are exposed to impact so they must be
made of a strong material, and easy to work with, to paint and to
handle. Linden wood meets all these quality. The head, normally 6
to 7 inches, is carved from a single block and then carved out for
the puppeteer’s index finger to go inside. The hair is carved or
glued to the skull; the face is painted in watercolor.
2. THE SHEATH
1.
This forms the body of the puppet and serves as the support to
the
costume. It’s under 20 inches long, and made of a resistant
fabric in a neutral color. The hands are extended with leather that
give stiffness to the arms and allow the doll to hold heavy items.
3. THE COSTUME
2.
Sewn or glued, the costume is attached to the neck of the puppet
and masks the sheath.
Manipulating A Lyonnaise Puppet
The hand puppet Guignol is manipulated from
underneath. Therefore the puppet can stand upright
with its hands raised up. For manipulation, one puts
the index finger into the head of the puppet, the thumb
in one arm and three other fingers in the other arm.
Traditionally, Guignol is gloved to the left hand and his
friend Gnafron is gloved to the right. This explains why
Guignol is always on the stage, since it’s important to
keep the right hand free for getting the accessories
and other characters.
The puppet has a fixed mouth and a stiff body. In order to make expressions, the
manipulator uses simple and clear actions to be perceived by the viewer. To
replace the movement of the lips, the sentence is punctuated with the hands or
the head. The stiffness of the look can be compensated by sliding effects: a rear
sliding suggests fear or surprise; an advancing sliding, craving or greed. The
same idea: bowing replaces handshakes; the head fights in place of the
punches.
The Castelet
First created in Italy, the principle
of the castelet is simple: a screen
or panel high enough to hide the
manipulator, topped with a frame
for the scene. The band: a
horizontal board that extends
slightly to the public, which
compensates for the lack of stage
floor. This is where the
puppeteers put their accessories
and on which the puppets fall
during the scene. The sets were originally painted canvases hung on the bottom
of the puppet, today the company Zonzons plays with removable threedimensional scenes.
Lyon on Map of France
Guignol was created in Lyon, France. Laurent Mourguet fully embraced the
personality from the people of Lyon, which is called lyonnais, in all his puppet
characters.
Make Your Own Guignol!
Sources
Fichier Pedagogique Guignol de Lyon
www.guignol-lyon.com http://www.bonjourdumonde.com/blog/grece/11/tradition/le-guignol-lyonnais
http://www.sagecraft.com/puppetry/performance/ltg/guignol.gif
http://amisdeguignol.free.fr/images/guignol.gif