They seem to be waiting for you. Count Dracula in a black suit, a mamma snake with her baby close by, a parrot, two cranes, a granny in a cotton dress and a chap in a sweater, who is, you’re sure, dying to make chit-chat.
“These aren’t just dolls … they are living characters,” says K. Stephen as he demonstrates how his muppets come alive with just a little help from his hands.
Stephen, 42, is a Tiruchi-based social worker who got attracted to the art of muppetry in 1993, and has since then used it as a means to spread awareness on a wide range of issues. “I first saw muppets being used in a church programme in Chennai, and felt I had to learn how to use them. While I still do work on Christian plays, I also have scripts on general issues. Muppetry is a very effective way of driving home a point,” he says.
Helping him are his wife S Karthiyayini, daughter S Jensy Beulah, son Joshua S Jedheesh and niece NJ Angel Evangeline. “Our muppets have taken us all over the country,” says Stephen, who has toured 18 states with his acts and speaks four languages. “You need to be skilled in not just theatrics, but also ventriloquism, sound engineering and scriptwriting to be a successful muppeteer, because to the viewer, the muppets are representations of his or her own self,” says Stephen.
Skits for good
Stephen has taken his cloth friends to some of the darkest places in the city and beyond … into prisons and correctional centres for delinquent children for instance. “We try and present a short skit to help children from troubled backgrounds overcome their fears and bad habits,” says Stephen. “When people are stuck in jail, their thoughts often turn to suicide. We use muppets to defuse this mental tension, and try to motivate them towards positive thoughts. Many children who have grown up in dysfunctional families often become hard to discipline. Muppet skits show them an easily understandable way of acceptable social interaction,” says Stephen.
He tries to give all his stories a happy ending (Count Dracula, by the way, is the ‘originator of evil thoughts’ in most of Stephen’s plays). “I have been astounded sometimes by the positive effect of our muppets on people from disadvantaged lives,” says Stephen. “Some of the juvenile prisoners we have performed for, have promised to give up crime forever after watching our plays.”
Visual effects are key to the success of a muppet skit. “We never show the limp dolls to the viewer,” says Stephen. “In mono-acting, we always enter the stage with our hand already in the muppet, and start off a dialogue by throwing our voice. The group acts are more complicated, and we are usually invisible to the audience.”
Stephen has a three-tier open-ended cloth stage that is secured within a frame of plastic pipes. “Usually we kneel on the ground and raise our hand to make the muppets enact the stories. Sometimes there can be four or five of us working together in the dark,” says Stephen.
Much juggling of positions later, we get to see the family enact stories with muppet characters. Somehow, it seems to be perfectly normal to chat with a yellow fellow called Babloo who’d like you to buy him a cap and a new sweater.
Learning aid
Stephen’s muppets have a new purpose as of this week … they are being used to educate children with special needs, in a programme that was launched on Wednesday at Pravaag Transitional Centre and School for Children with Autism in Tiruchi.
“I had earlier worked for a student project in a special school, which showed me how muppets could be used as a learning aid,” says Stephen. “This time, we have gone ahead and created an entire curriculum of lessons that will improve the communication skills of autistic children,” he says.
With the relentless travelling, some of the muppets do look a little rough around the edges. “A muppet lasts for around five years,” says Stephen, who buys most of his stock from novelty stores in Chennai and Rajapalayam. A high quality doll costs upwards of ₹3,000.
What does the future hold for Stephen and his muppets? “We’ll continue this for as long as possible. Our children grew up with muppets, and we think they’d like to continue working with them. This cannot be a commercial business, only a passion that is fuelled by love,” he says.
Factoid
Muppet is a blend of ‘marionette’ and ‘puppet’ coined by American cartoonist and puppeteer Jim Henson (1936-1990). His muppet characters Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy and Cookie Monster (to name just a few) are staples of children’s entertainment.
