ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

Gordon Craig; “I intended to make an instrument of the theatre, a surrogate which would
serve my purpose as an actor.” 261 He is careful to couch the essence of his puppets in
motivational language, assuring his reader that “the marionette can take its place in the
theatre with the best of these actors and make a contribution to theatre form which only it
can provide” (xi). His philosophical self-promotion is a secondary consequence of his
early experience creating a production of Hamlet.
According to Chesse’, it was Remo Bufano, whose magnificent artistic creations
were discussed in chapter V, who encouraged his “wild idea” to play a marionette Hamlet
(7). Chesse’ had trained as an amateur actor, studied painting at the Chicago Art
Institute, and experimented with puppetry performance (sans construction) in a set design
class with Blanding Sloan of San Francisco. However, it was not until a brief residence
in New York City, where he witnessed Bufano’s Orlando Furioso, that he conceived a
marionette production of his own. Upon his return to San Francisco, Chesse’ began work
on Hamlet.
Chesse’ did not avoid applying his self-aggrandizing artistic standards to his
reading of Tony Sarg’s Marionette Book (1921). He patronizes the “practical” source for
its “loose and flexible” objects, but affirms that he “would have to develop a different
structural pattern for the kind of marionette [he] would require for Hamlet” (9). This new
structural pattern proved to be quite an aesthetically compelling concept.
Chesse’ envisioned a technique that would make his marionettes uniquely
260 John O’Connor and Lorraine Brown, eds. “Free, Adult, Uncensored,” The Living History of
the Federal Theatre Project (London: Eyre Methuen, 1980), 24.
261 Ralph Chesse’, The Marionette Actor (Fairfax: George Mason University, 1987), xi; Chesse’
quotes Gordon Craig’s On the Art of the Theatre extensively in his argument. From this point on, I will use
parenthentical documentation for the lengthy selections from this source.
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