Former soldier finds new role as puppet designer

The workshop of a puppet maker, or officially a designer-constructor, at the Irkutsk Puppet Theater «Aistenok» resembles an ordinary carpentry shop. Machine tools, chisels, metal and wooden blanks. Only small details reveal its unusual purpose: a turned head of theatrical characters and an old figurine of a stork — the very one after which the Irkutsk Puppet Theater is named. The 44-year-old Sergei Shabanov, a former military man now a master puppet maker, works here. His story is in a report by IrCity.

How a VDV intelligence officer ended up in the theater

«I immediately realized you«re a journalist,» Sergei tells me. That this was my subject, with whom I was to have an interview, I also understood instantly, but intuitively. And Sergei is a professional at this. «You can tell from a person»s eyes. We were taught that.»

He joined the army like everyone else. First, the boy from a large family in the Bokhansky District (Irkutsk Oblast) served his compulsory service, and he himself very much wanted and strived to get into service. He says all his relatives served, and he wanted to follow their example and not lose face.

«In general, as a child I didn«t dream of becoming a cosmonaut or a footballer, but I always loved sports. I did weightlifting, wrestling, boxing — the last one, though, not for long, because lefties aren»t very welcome in that sport. My father set up something like a gym on the site of an abandoned hut, and the guys came to play sports,» Sergei recalls. «I also drew a lot, even tried to write poetry. Closer to adolescence I began to think about a military career. Well, joining the army — there wasn«t even a question.»

In his workshop, among the tools and parts, there still hangs a recognizable green-and-blue flag with airplanes and a parachute.

The soldier ended up in the theater by chance and still wonders how these two seemingly polar realities intersected. Moreover, twice, because Sergei had left «Aistenok» once before. His sister Yevgenia Shabanova, who worked there as a production designer, brought him behind the scenes of the puppet theater. That happened in 2012. The theater was preparing for a premiere, and in that hectic time they were left without a designer-constructor — he fell ill, and some of the puppets were not ready.

«Of course, I know how to work with my hands. But when my sister told me about puppets, I was stunned. Where am I, and where are the puppets? These are two different shores, two different continents. It«s like two different planets,» Sergei says of his first reaction.

Nevertheless, he agreed to help. What remained unfinished were the tablet puppets, although he had no confidence he could handle the task. He recalls he didn«t understand how it happened, but his hands crafted everything that was needed on their own.

«After the premiere, the theater director persuaded me to stay. At that time, an old master still worked at «Aistenok», and I learned a lot from him. He didn«t teach me specifically; I just observed very carefully what he did,» says Sergei. «During rehearsals I would get into the essence to understand what was required of me, what the puppet»s role was. It must live in the performance, and I must make it exactly that for the role.»

And yet, in his first period at the theater, the fledgling puppeteer did not immerse himself deeply in this activity. Rather, he used it to distract himself from everyday worries.

«Back then it was a duty for me, like for a soldier: they asked — I did it,» he says.

«The main thing is that everything works smoothly»

So Sergei Shabanov spent two years at the theater. He admits he rarely went to premieres — rehearsals were enough. However, he always brought his daughter to closed screenings, although he never made puppets specifically for her. Then Sergei quit «Aistenok» for personal reasons. As he himself says, he «did all sorts of nonsense» until his sister Yevgenia called him back to the theater in 2018. It turned out that the old master couldn«t work with anyone after Sergei.

«Since then I«ve been working here, now eight years without a break. Although at the beginning I thought I wouldn»t stay long, I«d just help, but in the end I signed a contract and stayed to work at the theater. I didn»t understand how my attitude changed,» says Sergei. «Now I feel in my element, in my place in my workshop. I don«t just do puppets automatically; I»ve been drawn in, I«ve become interested.»

Moreover, he mastered this art not from books but on his own. And he often invents knots and structures himself: it«s not about the pattern, the designer-constructor believes, but about making everything work as needed. He naturally enjoys working on complex projects.

«The hardest are, of course, marionettes. They can be small or large, but they must be mobile. It«s interesting to work with mechanics. How, for example, do you make a puppet cry?» notes Sergei.

Sometimes he sets complex tasks for himself: to make a marionette so that it«s not just «sticks glued on,» but so that everything can be disassembled, assembled, turned on screws, moved, and so that everything works smoothly. A kind of puzzle that makes the work more and more interesting.

«I experiment with materials; I keep some, I don«t take others anymore. I could use fancy plastic, ready-made mechanisms. But that»s not interesting. It«s more interesting to make the mechanism myself, to turn it on a lathe,» says Sergei. «Everything goes into the work; you can even make something from furniture legs. I use birch for some things, linden for others, cedar for others.»

In his global plans, the designer-constructor aims to create a fully mechanized puppet down to the fingers. The image is already in his head; he just needs to find the time.

Once he made a puppet in one night

Each puppet, says Sergei, is complex in its own way, and beloved in its own way. Especially while he is making it.

«I will create it until I achieve how it should work in its role as close to the ideal as possible. Directors, when they see what I«m doing, often ask: »Can it be like this? And like this?« They always want more than what already exists,» says the designer-constructor. «When I manage to anticipate many functions, and the director says, »Wonderful,« and skips away, it means he»s pleased.»

Creating a puppet is as creative a process as creating a performance as a whole. The artist creates the images, and the puppeteer needs to bring them to life. And this is not done offhand; sometimes you need to reflect on the task, and other times the idea comes suddenly in the middle of the night.

«There is never an immediate clear solution as to how and what to do. Sometimes processes start in my head when I take on a specific project. Then many ideas come — in the evening, at night, in the morning. I write them down, come to work, open them, look and think: «No, better do it this way.» And sometimes, on the contrary, you think for several days and nothing comes,» shares Sergei Shabanov.

Once he made a puppet in one night. During the coronavirus pandemic, the theater was staging a New Year«s play «Ever This 345th!», in which one of the episodic characters was the most technically complex. The puppet caught the eye of Igor Kazakov, a director from Belarus.

«The puppet had special mechanics. The control was all from the back, the head worked entirely, and I designed the propeller on top myself. It was all so small, refined, all metal, springs, handles,» recalls the puppeteer. «At rehearsals, you could even see from his eyes that the director liked it. He asked how much it cost. I don«t have a price list, but I know such puppets are very expensive; I named a price, which, of course, turned out to be high for Kazakov.»

So Sergei Shabanov decided to make the puppet simply as a gift; he assembled it in one night, and this copy was even better than the one used in the performance. But despite his tender attitude toward the puppets, the former soldier notes: they are still not living organisms, but creations of human hands. And that too has its own miracle.

«Unlike modern robotic ones, a hand puppet is still more «warm,» so to speak. For the viewer, it is alive. Both a child and an adult look at it as a character, as an actor,» he says. «What evokes more emotion in me is the reaction of children who come to the performances. They immerse themselves in the fairy tale, and I understand that I have contributed to something kind.»