A little leftover from yesterday: forgot to mention what it’s like where I’m staying, as in location. For Victorians, imagine the top end of Burke St in the city, right around where Target/Tivoli is. Two blocks up from that, where James St starts, it’s like walking into Bendigo. And despite this being city centre, the trip certainly felt less like that and more like the northern suburbs of Melbourne… All within twenty minutes of each other! Read yesterday’s diary entry here. Follow along with more pics of Day Two’s activities here. (Warning: long entry ahead) 

Also, after I got offline, I had dinner, and just for my sister, here’s a pic. This is ordering in from the restaurant at my hotel: bad I know, but I was so tired, and couldn’t be bothered yesterday. It turned out nicely. A braised chicken burger (without the bacon it was supposed to have), avocado, lettuce, tomato, and a very very nice homemade mayonnaise. 

Unfortunate: a bad night’s sleep, thanks to some noisy people on the terrace, and the fact that my knees hurt badly from not being stretched on the plane.

Day Two: Bunraku and BBQs

Today started my 3 and 1/2 masterclass learning how to make a bunraku head. I got up early - class started at 9am - and had breakfast. I’ll skip the details, but again, for those food-pic nuts out there, here’s one of mine. The bread was de-lic-ious! (Or is that a website?) A short walk to James St, and went to class. The teacher was running late - problems with a video not working - and so met my classmates. 

A great and pleasant shock: one of my classmates turns out to be Hilary Talbot, of Spirits Dancing fame. We’ve been in contact for a while, as she’s the webmaster for UNIMA Aus’s website. It’s lovely meeting her in person, and I’m already in great admiration of her crafting skills. Another coincidence: yesterday on the Adelaide-Perth flight, a woman sat in front of me, but ended up being in the wrong row - she was to sit in mine. It turns out this very woman is one of my classmates! 

The class is five members strong: each of us from a different state of Australia, and each of us female… don’t know why! 

Anyway, this is the class: How to make a Ningyo-Joruri Head, run by Japanese maker and performer Nori Sawa. The aim of the class: to make a bunraku head, with a simple moving mechanism. (Do read my FAQ post on bunraku if you don’t know what it is; a sample pic is there of what a puppet looks like). Nori is funny, and very nice - also very helpful. 

The first part of the day we spent learning a bit about the mechanisms of the head of the puppets; with some gems of information thrown in. I won’t repeat it all, but basically: the first assistant in bunraku performance operates the left hand of the puppet, but does so using their right hand. This way, there is more space for the three puppeteers to work together. That there are three important points to building a bunraku head: the angle of the eyes, which affects the emotion of the character through movement of the head; the chin, which actually ‘leads’ (acting term, it means the part of your body that ‘leads’ the rest of the body in the direction of movement) the movement of the head, not leading with the eyes; and the movement of the neck, which must have a circular motion to it (ie. it must nod, and it must shake right to left, which put all together creates a circle). 

All of the above is said with reservation: Nori informed us that even the word ‘bunraku’ is copyrighted, and for him to even teach ‘bunraku’ he would have to have government permission from Japan - bunraku is after all a national treasure… However, I doubt anyone would mind me too much writing the above. 

After all of that, we went about making our heads. We used the traditional, build a clay head and papier mache it method. Using what Nori told us about the chin thing, and the angle of the eyes, I set about making my character. I thought I was aiming for a female, but Nori pointed out it looked male, and I suddenly realised it was! So I made a quite evilish male character. Ideal, because I’d wanted to make a bunraku evil male character for a project in the works. 

Once we made the clay, we moved onto the plastering… Well, we thought we would. Hilary was the first to finish, and she and Nori made up the plaster only to discover that it wasn’t right - and poor Hilary had to start all over again! 

While we waited for some more plaster to be bought, we continued with our building. We started making the neck rod and handle, which insert at the bottom of the head, and are attached via elastic to the head and the trigger that moves the head. It’s very simple, and although I could describe all about how to do it here, it’s both not appropriate and too time consuming. (Not appropriate in the sense that I want to respect Japan’s national treasure, as well as Nori’s efforts in teaching us something that is rarely tought - even in his own country you have to learn by apprenticeship, rather than by taking a course) 

We finally got plaster, and continued on by plastering the clay, which would allow us to make a mold, and then tomorrow we’ll papier mache the mold. Absolutely exhausting, we didn’t finish till 6pm. In the middle of the day, a new classmate arrived, and she and I happened to walk back towards my hotel together; we checked out Perth Town Hall, which as it turns out is right around the corner from where I’m staying. … You’d think this would be the end of my day, but it’s not… 

At PTH, I picked up my UNIMA stuff, including my congress papers (UNIMA is holding a congress, and every delegate gets a copy of the notes - delegates are a higher status than average festival-goers, with access to UNIMA events), info on shows and local emergency numbers etc., plus a nice bag and my UNIMA badge. The badge is special, because it gets me into the Transit Lounge, a special member-only area for delegates. And that badge got me in to tonight’s Welcome BBQ. 

I went back to my hotel and showered first, and almost didn’t go. I was feeling very tired and sore, and had simply intended to go downstairs to reception to pick something up that I’d left with them; but instead I managed to keep walking and went out the door to the BBQ. I went in, and walked into a packed backyard-type space behind the PTH. I freaked, because I didn’t know anyone, and couldn’t see anyone who I did kind of know - I was planning to finally face to face introduce myself to Gary Friedman, who’s Sydney based. I went over to the BBQ, which was luckily near the door and easier to squeeze my way to, and picked up a Chinese box of fried rice… for some reason they had fried rice… Also sausages and other stuff, but the rice looked good. Anyway, I headed downwards towards the stage, where I clearly missed the first half of a welcome speech. I happened upon Gary, and once the speech was over, I introduced myself. Apparently I’m the most famous Australian puppetry blogger! (Anyway, he thinks so ) 

Although initially I was worried about going to the BBQ - not being a very sociable person, or one who likes walking in on a party where I don’t know anyone - but I soon found Hilary, and then Kathy joined us, and we chatted, then headed upstairs where the bar/lounge was. We sat and watched some performances: Krinkl Theatre with a very fast rap dancer puppet (excellent handiwork in the sense that they have some fast and complex movements); and Hanging the Sky (not sure who performed it), which involved a beautifully evocative faceless blue figure. Both were very good! 

Lastly, on the way out of the lounge - at 11pm - I grabbed hold of Sue Giles, from Polyglot Puppet Theatre, whom I’ve known since 2003 when I volunteered with them. I chatted with her for a bit and discovered something - she’d written a review on my show, City Head, performed last year… and I never knew!!! I have to go find it now, she refused to tell me much about it, other than she enjoyed it… 

All in all, a very good day. I’m glad I had the impulse to go to the BBQ, I shmoozed, even if it wasn’t much! 

An additional note, and that is: I previously mentioned that I’m not a good traveller. Why am I here then you may be wondering? Well, over the years I’ve tried to travel in the hopes that I could learn some ways to manage my anxiety when I travel. Each time I learn a little more, but it’s never been enough to allow me to travel and not dive right back home before the trip was up. Only in Year 10 was it easy for me, and I can’t remember why. Nevertheless, many trips have contributed to a small wealth of knowledge that I try to apply in future journeys. Last year however, a slight breakthrough. My Sydney one-dayer worked out fine: no panic attacks or anxiety at all; cause, adrenalin. My mum took a last minute flight to join me in Sydney. I figured if I could do it fine with her, there had to be a way to manage and so I am doing this. 

I was worried at first, and though there have been moments that have been difficult, for the most part, I’m fine. I finally cracked the code, so to speak. I’ve worked out a little system, internally, and have focused on that system. The last two days I have been practically anxious free. And even if it all collapses on me tomorrow, I’m glad to know that I can do it, and finally after all this time, am on to something - a clue into how this works. Amazingly, it doesn’t seem to be to do anything other than making sure that my first day is a good one. Have a good first day, the rest will be easy (or easier)…. 

Anyway, that’s it for tonight. It’s 12.30pm as I write (Perth time), and I have to be up early tomorrow. Tune in for Day Three: Continuing the bunraku head and my first review of a show!! UPDATE: Read Day Three’s post here.