Masterpuppet Theatre: The World of Shakespeare at Your Fingertips

Methink’st thou art a general offense and every man should beat thee. –All’s Well That Ends Well

I love me a good Shakespearean insult. And nothing drops a creep at a bar like that line, ladies. Trust me, I know. I can really wear a sweater.

Has an overwhelming desire to recite a soliloquy ever washed over you? Have your friends repeatedly told you to sit down, and that’s not cool to do in a movie theater/Wawa/taxicab, anyway? Thanks to the excellent imagination and talent of Philly based visual artist Michael Rogalski, a solution is possibly at your finger tips.

Masterpuppet Theatre! It’s every bit as awesome as it sounds, and I was fortunate enough to chat with Michael about how he put good ol’ Billy and the Globe Theater in a box set.

Check out the interview after the jump! Want to win a copy of Masterpuppet Theatre for yourself? Leave a comment about your favorite Shakespearean play. I’ll pick one of you at random at the end of the week, and send you a copy. Enjoy!

Bianca: In a feeble attempt at gumshoe e-stalking, I spent a good deal of time clicking around on Eyewash, your (rather impressive) portfolio site. I was both delighted and sad to find that the only bio info about you was that you are a human– yet you are depicted as Mr. Potato Head. Can you tell me a little more about yourself?

Michael: Don’t trust that profile image– it changes monthly. I graduated with a major in Illustration from UArts when it was still the Philadelphia College of Art. I live just outside Philadelphia, creating illustration and graphic design for a range of clients from book publishers to pharmaceutical firms.

My wife is a jewelry designer, my daughter is in college, and we have two cats that seem to be obligatory for these interviews. My primary escape from the pixel glow is mountain biking, and I’ve been collecting scars for more than twenty-five years riding off-road.

Bianca: With so many witty charts and diagrams, it’s clear you’ve got a very smart, visual sense of humor… so, it doesn’t surprise me that you were able to create such an interesting book kit. But I am interested to know your inspiration?

Michael: I’ve always had a soft spot for diagrams and how-to graphics. I was attracted to the concept of a DIY kit for some highbrow endeavor like brain surgery or abstract painting, and Shakespeare occurred to me as a potential candidate. I wondered what would comprise a kit that would enable anyone to become a classical thespian and determined that the package should provide all the trappings of the stage—costumes, sets, scripts—in a single container.

Bianca: The fingerpuppets– they slay me. It’s just too hilarious once you have the kit in yours hands. Did you have an extended interest in puppetry before this project?

Michael: The notion of paper fingerpuppets came to mind as a way to accomplish that with pretty basic fabrication processes. I made a prototype of King Lear, poked my fingers through the holes, and the combination of literature’s greatest characters and puppetry’s humblest form just clicked. It was a very funny contrast.

[Ed. note-- we agree!]

I’ve always enjoyed working with paper. I appreciate the versatility and immediacy of the medium. When I was a kid my dad would sit down and in minutes craft accessories and add-ons for my toys using cardboard cartons and packing material—miniature buildings, vehicles, bridges—I was enthralled and I’ve had a penchant for papercraft, scale models, and dioramas ever since.

The interactive angle really appealed to me, as did the concept of taking Shakespeare’s plays and opening them up to reinvention and improvisation—there’s no end point to the activity, it’s limited only to your imagination. As a logical extension of that premise, the Masterpuppet web site offers free printable downloads that can be used to supplement the basic kit.

Bianca: I’m very attracted to projects like these for one of the reasons you’ve mentioned: scale. I love the idea of a kit that fits under your arm, that opens up still to be a smaller, self-contained ‘knuckleodeom’…

Michael: Early on in the proceedings the dream version of Masterpuppet Theatre was a package that would unfold to form a dimensional replica of the Globe Theater. The reality of manufacturing costs quickly retired that notion, but I wanted to retain some vestige of that idea. The simple cost-effective solution employs the box itself as a stage platform that supports the flat scenic backdrops. Throughout the entire development process no finger pun was left unturned, and the term “Knuckleodeum” presented itself as an appropriate name for a fingerpuppet venue.

Bianca: Much to my best friend’s dismay, I think that your Character Card of Iago looks an awful lot of Keanu Reeves as Neo. How were you inspired to draw specific, classic characters?

Michael: I don’t quite see it, but oddly enough you’re not the first to make the Iago / Keanu comparison. Although the distinguished Mr. Reeves has performed Shakespeare he didn’t serve as the model for the Masterpuppet. Family and friends posed endlessly for me, however, and it was a lot of fun to portray them with various beards, wimples, jerkins and doublets. I work in what I call a “deadpan’ style, depicting all manner of odd scenarios in a straightforward tongue-in-cheek reportorial approach, and I employed this look for Masterpuppets with a kind of contemporary take on traditional engraving.

Bianca: The selection of soliloquies and short scenes are great. I’m especially a fan of your choice to include a scene from The Winter’s Tale that ends with very specific stage directions: ‘Exit, pursued by a bear.’ Other popular endings includes folks dying, pledging to die, being sent to their death, etc. What was your role in selecting the text for scenes in the playbook?

Michael: I compiled a list of scenes that contained what I felt were the most iconic lines of Shakespearean dialogue. Shakespeare being who he is, the list was rather long. Jason Rekulak, my editor at Quirk Books, and Ali Bitzer, the editorial intern at the time, did an amazing job poring over the material, cutting overlong run-on scenes and selecting those that maximized the 60-character cast. Ali is a Shakespeare fan and her extensive knowledge base was a big plus. Jason suggested the bear scene from A Winter’s Tale, and I loved the idea of including two characters specifically to accommodate a stage direction.

Bianca: Thank you for talking with us about your piece– and congratulations on such a wonderful project. The Lit, design and illustration geeks in us all are looking forward to making Hamlet and Lady Macbeth do Rockette kicks!