A profile by Mark Whitaker
Luis Zornoza Boy was artistic director of Norwich Puppet Theatre (NPT) from 1991 until 2008 (the post had previously been held by the founder of the theatre, Ray DaSilva, and also by the late Barry Smith). During this seventeen-year period he developed the strong visual vocabulary, combining naive folk puppet aesthetics with found objects, which makes his work so distinctive. He also performed in several of the shows. I worked with him as a puppeteer for fifteen of those years.
Although many of the shows were based on folk and fairy tales with traditional titles, the way the stories were told was anything but traditional. As Penny Francis put it in her review in Animations of Pinocchio:
“Luis Boy not only brings his rare talent as a fine-artist to his puppetry, but a canny intelligence as well. He produces shows with names like Snow White and Snow Queen and Pinocchio, but surprises over and over again with his interpretation of the chosen story which is unlike anyone raised on Walt Disney could have imagined in their wildest dreams. Rather like the DRAK company, he comes at the theme sideways, or even upside down, inserting visual commentaries and overturning any preconceptions about the piece, yet always remaining true to the inner meaning of the story.”
There is a very particular aesthetic to the work Luis created at NPT. Puppets are often made from old toys or partial casts from classical statuary combined with found objects (old tools, driftwood etc) and traditional puppet-making techniques. Perhaps the most distinctive feature is the horizontal bar (often made of wood) which is fixed on or slightly above the head of the puppet. This is there to act as a ‘frame’, breaking the movement of the observer’s eye and drawing focus back to the puppet’s face.
Unlike many directors, his interest has always been as much about the process of creating puppet theatre as in the end results. Shows would be worked and re-worked, not just before they were on the road but often throughout the run. I remember on one occasion re-rehearsing before the final performance of a tour. This method of working does not suit everyone and so over the years Luis assembled a core group of performers and musicians who worked on several shows – while still bringing in new people when projects required. As he puts it:
“Norwich Puppet Theatre gave me the possibility of a black room and plenty of time. To direct puppet theatre you need to develop the muscle. If you want to be a cyclist you need to practise on the bicycle every day. Creating puppet theatre also takes practise; to develop, to resolve problems. Things that seem obvious now didn’t seem so obvious eighteen years ago. It is very easy to do something quick, new, shallow. It takes time to turn the wheel so many times that you discover something new. It is the small things that interest me more than the bold. I have been very lucky to work with an ensemble of people who are interested in this kind of work.”
He has continued this study of process in his own production of The Emperor’s New Clothes in which he has invited a number of performers he has worked with (seven to my knowledge!) to direct him.
Although resident in the UK for over twenty years the cultural and political influences of growing up in Spain during the latter years of Franco’s rule run through Luis’ work on many different levels. The Giant in Jack and the Beanstalk is a bust of Francisco Franco; the chickens in George’s Marvellous Medicine echo the art of Joan Miro. Musically, Luis’ long-time collaboration with Santiago Puente Perosanz (composer and clarinettist, also from Spain) include similar references; Jack milks the cow to the Himno de Riego (the Spanish National anthem during the Second Spanish Republic) and the dwarves in Snow White sing A las Barricadas (the song of the anarchist workers’ confederation CNT).
As a foreign national working abroad, Luis has always had an international outlook, both for himself and for Norwich Puppet Theatre. Over the years NPT have performed around the world, including festivals in Spain, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, The Czech Republic, Canada and Mexico. Luis also programmed two international festivals at NPT in 2005 and 2007 along with a festival of German puppetry in 2008.
“In the last 20-25 years, international puppet festivals have grown like mushrooms. This has enabled the dissemination of ideas to happen much faster. One of the characteristics of British puppet theatre until recently is that it has been the theatre of an island, not so exposed to outside influences.”
Links were also forged between NPT and the (sadly now defunct) Green Apple puppet theatre of Helsinki. Luis directed a number of projects for them. This collaboration culminated in a co-production of The Snow Queen, with a cast made up of puppeteers and musicians from both theatres, which toured the UK in the autumn of 2000.
The production of The Imaginary Book which he directed for La Baldufa and the Teatro Nacional de Catalunya was performed at Norwich Playhouse as part of the 2007 puppet festival. Luis has also directed for Theatre Taptoe of Ghent. Skroetsj (an adaptation of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol) was performed at NPT in February 2004 and for the Christmas season in 2005. Recently he has been directing their new show, Doctor Frankenstein.
Although the work has constantly received the highest critical acclaim, the 2008 restructuring of Arts Council priorities saw the withdrawal of core funding from NPT. This led to the post of artistic director being made redundant and all in-house productions being suspended. The theatre has been forced to operate as a touring house and provider of puppet-making workshops until alternative sources of funding could be found. As I write, the future of Norwich Puppet Theatre is still not secure although the ‘green shoots of recovery’ are starting to show.
Luis is currently living back in Spain where, as well as working as a freelance director, he is re-launching his own company Siesta with four of the shows he created at NPT, which now belong to him: Jack and the Beanstalk, Snow White, Pinocchio and Harlequin along with his production of The Emperor’s New Clothes. I can only hope that Luis’ leaving of the UK is temporary and that we will see his distinctive style of puppet theatre over here again before too long. I leave the last words on his time at NPT to him:
“It’s a privilege to have a black room and a group of people that I want to work with and who share an interest in the work. To be able to do this for eighteen years (unlike the experience of a freelance director) has been a real privilege. To work in a medieval building is a really beautiful experience. The people I have worked with, the audiences who have supported us. There have been narrow-minded people who have said this work is not for children (children have never said this), or that the work is not right for a rural area. I think that if theatre is good, it is suitable for everyone.
I feel proud that the shows we have done in tiny village halls and schools in rural Norfolk are exactly the same shows which we have performed internationally up to the highest level.”
