How It Works

(Page 3 of 6)

Michael Haverty ’02

Atlanta, Georgia
Puppeteer and artistic director of Haverty Marionettes, which he founded in 2004

The Product

Two years ago, Michael decided to adapt William Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying for his puppet theater. It took him over a year to carve the puppets for the show, but that was only the beginning of the challenge.

The Problem

“In the book, you see the same scenes over and over through different characters’ eyes. So my problem was: How do I shift back and forth between characters and have people understand what’s going on?” “In the book, you see the same scenes over and over through different characters’ eyes. So my problem was: How do I shift back and forth between characters and have people understand what’s going on?”

The Solution

“On either side of the main stage we had little doors and on them we painted portraits of the characters with names over the tops of them. The doors would swing open and we would do the scene specifically for that character. We could have several doors open at the same time showing the same thing, but from the different point of view.”

Why It Works

It’s flexible. “I could do dream-like or nightmarish sequences within these doors and it would be accepted as an inner vision. No one in the audience was confused—at least, no more confused then they would have been by the Faulkner.”