Puppetry Editing and Proofreading Services

A puppet arrives from the builder and it is beautiful. It also weighs four hundred grams more than the performer can hold at head height for the eleven minutes the scene runs, its eyeline is set for a person of average height when the operator is short, and the mechanism that opens the mouth needs the same finger that holds the rod. Every one of those was decided by a drawing that did not say enough.

We edit what puppetry companies and puppet builders produce — build specifications and design briefs, mechanism and operation documentation, rehearsal and manipulation notes, touring and maintenance instructions, technical riders for puppet shows, funding applications and touring proposals, workshop and education material, and the show documentation that lets a production be remounted. Our editors work on documents that pass between a maker and a performer.

The build specification is where puppetry succeeds or fails before rehearsals begin, and its failure is a description of appearance without a description of use. A puppet is not an object; it is an instrument played by a specific body. We work through these so the operating position is specified — standing, seated, overhead, at what height, for how long, and by whom — since a puppet that can be held for two minutes and must be held for eleven is a different object; so the weight limit is given as a number with the distribution, because the total mass matters less than where it sits relative to the hand; so each mechanism is specified with which finger or hand operates it and what else that hand is doing at the same time, given that this single conflict is the commonest build failure and is invisible on a drawing; so the eyeline is set from the operator's actual height with the audience position stated, as a puppet that looks at the ceiling from row F is dead; so the material behaviour under stage light and after eighty performances is addressed, since a finish that shines or a joint that loosens changes the show; so maintenance and field repair are specified with what the company can fix on tour and what must come back; so any quick change, transformation or double-operation is described as a sequence with its timing; and so the specification names the performer it was built for. Specifications written this way produce puppets that work on stage.

Everything you send is treated in confidence, including designs, build documentation and production material. We are editors rather than puppeteers or makers, and we offer no view on design, construction or performance. What we can do is make the specification describe the instrument as well as the object.