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Editor’s Note: One of the
enjoyable things about this endeavor is some of the interesting
material sent by readers. This one was sent by a reader who remembered
a local individual who used to make merry-go-round horses…
New York Magazine...
What It’s Like to Be
a War Horse
4/13/11
Photo: Paul Kolnik
It takes a lot of work to be one of the war horses in the hit play War
Horse, now on at Lincoln Center. The play, about a boy whose beloved
horse is sent off to battle in World War I, features large, life-sized
horse puppets, which require three men each to operate. Each horse was
made by Basil Jones and Adrian Kohler, of Handspring Puppet Company in
Cape Town, South Africa, and fashioned out of cane, leather and
aluminum.
“We don’t call them puppets,” said Jonathan Christopher MacMillan, who
operates the head of one of the horses, Topthorn. “No, we call them
horses.”
“It could be frustrating,” said Tom Lee, who manages the hind legs of
one of the animals. “But it’s also beautiful. People believe these
horses are here. It’s kind of humbling.”
And the key, explains Joel Rueben Ganz, another puppeteer, is
“micro-movements. When we’re really still on stage -- silent -- and
then, just an ear moves. That’s terrifyingly beautiful.”
Anatomy Of A War Horse: The Actors Behind The Puppets Speak [Huffington
Post]
Read it with links at NYMag
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