Guest Blog: Puppet Designer Yvonne Stone On Creating FRANKENSTEIN's Monster

Who wouldn't love making a monster? Surely it's the ultimate creative challenge - spending the days in my workshop as a modern day Frankenstein bringing to life to all these inanimate parts.

The process started back in January, when I spoke to the fantastically organised Adrian McDougall, artistic director of Blackeyed Theatre, and Eliot Giuralarocca, the director of the production. It was refreshing to be contacted so early on in the process - too many companies make puppets an afterthought, and it showed a real respect for the art form.

As with all puppets the first things to consider were what actions it needed to achieve ("everything" apparently!), what the aesthetic of the piece was to be, and most importantly why they wanted to use a puppet in the first place. There were lots of practicalities to take in to consideration too, like the number of operators we would need at any one time. I was instantly excited by their vision for the project and couldn't wait to get started.

The production aims to be very true to Shelley's book and we were keen to create the sense of the story being told by Frankenstein on Walton's ship. It made sense that the monster should come from this reality, and I was drawn to the materials of the ship, the ropes and rigging suggesting the rugged sinewy limbs of the creature.

I went away and played with these thoughts, creating maquettes with limbs crafted from woven rope. I wanted to find a happy medium in the design that reflected the horror of the creature's character and yet allowed the audience to feel a sympathy for him too. He was to be a big beast, 6'3" tall, so I wanted to achieve some subtleties of movement too. The hand grasping for his creator and the miraculous breath seemed vital to capture.

Once the designs were agreed upon I scaled up my models to create full-size patterns to work from. At such a large size weight was definitely an issue. I've been fortunate to work on some fantastic shows, The Lion King and War Horse to name a couple, so I've experienced working with some great materials. I strove to find the right balance between being lightweight and durable. The creature is constructed from an aluminium framework covered in low-density foam, which is then carved to resemble rope and muscle structure.

By August we had chosen the cast and the puppet was really starting to come together, so it was time for our research and development day. It gave me a chance to see if I needed to make any major structural changes and also allowed our team of performers to get in a little bit of groundwork before rehearsals started.

As a puppet-maker you want to make things as easy as possible for your puppeteers. If the puppet could stand itself up and walk itself across the stage on the first day that would be amazing, but that's never going to happen and besides, where would be the fun in that? However, we all left that day with the stark realisation of quite how much work and time it was going to take during rehearsals to bring the creature to life.

So it was back to the workshop for all the covering and final finishing, and then the fun really began. There is much to love about my field of work; it's such a complete and rounded process. Once all of the designing and building is complete, I then get to go into rehearsals and work with the performers to develop how the puppet moves. It's all very well making a beautiful sculpture, but a puppet is nothing if it's not brought to life.

There was much to discover. We once spent an entire afternoon working out how to get the Creature to go from standing to lying down on its side. We tried to identify what he did best and utilise that to its full advantage. The three weeks of rehearsals passed in a flash, but by the opening night I really felt that we had managed to capture the power of his character and his inner torment.

As a maker, there are probably always things you would do differently next time, but ultimately I am hugely proud of everything we've achieved. He is most definitely "alive"!

Blackeyed Theatre's Frankenstein is touring the UK until 22 March, 2017. Full dates and venues here

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