The performing arts are arts such as music, dance, and drama which are performed for an audience. They are different from the visual arts, which involve the use of paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Performing arts include a range of disciplines which are performed in front of a live audience, including theatre, music, and dance.
Glover is a town in Orleans County, Vermont, in the United States. As of the 2020 census, the town's population was 1,114. It contains two unincorporated villages, Glover and West Glover.
Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets – inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a performance is also known as a puppet production. The script for a puppet production is called a puppet play. Puppeteers use movements from hands and arms to control devices such as rods or strings to move the body, head, limbs, and in some cases the mouth and eyes of the puppet. The puppeteer sometimes speaks in the voice of the character of the puppet, while at other times they perform to a recorded soundtrack.
A marionette is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations. A marionette's puppeteer is called a marionettist. Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms of theatres or entertainment venues. They have also been used in films and on television. The attachment of the strings varies according to its character or purpose.
The Bread and Puppet Theater is a politically radical puppet theater, active since the 1960s, based in Glover, Vermont. The theater was co-founded by Elka and Peter Schumann. Schumann is the artistic director.
Shadow play, also known as shadow puppetry, is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment which uses flat articulated cut-out figures which are held between a source of light and a translucent screen or scrim. The cut-out shapes of the puppets sometimes include translucent color or other types of detailing. Various effects can be achieved by moving both the puppets and the light source. A talented puppeteer can make the figures appear to walk, dance, fight, nod and laugh.
Black Ox Orkestar is a quartet that formed in Montreal, Quebec in 2000 who play modern Jewish diasporic music that draws influence from Klezmer, Romani, Arabic, Balkan and other East European traditions alongside indie rock, experimental folk and avant-jazz. The band interprets traditional tunes and composes originals sung primarily in Yiddish.
John F. Ryan IV is an American alternative comics creator, writer, and animator. He created Angry Youth Comix, a comic book published by Fantagraphics, and "Blecky Yuckerella", a comic strip which originated in the alternative newspaper the Portland Mercury and now appears on Ryan's website. He also created Pig Goat Banana Cricket, a TV show made jointly with Dave Cooper that Nickelodeon picked up. He was the story editor for Looney Tunes Cartoons. In a throwback to the days of underground comix, Ryan's oeuvre is generally an attempt to be as shocking and politically incorrect as possible.
Kasperle, Kasper, or Kasperl is a famous and traditional puppet character from Austria, German-speaking Switzerland, and Germany. Its roots date to 17th century, and it was at times so popular that Kasperltheater was synonymous with puppet theater. Kasperltheater includes the following characters: Kasper, Gretel, Seppel, Grandmother, princess, king, witch, robber, and crocodile. The older, more traditional Kasperle shows are very similar to "Mister Punch". There are also "Kasperle versions" of the Grimm and other fairy tales and of "modern fairy tales".
Petrushka is a stock character of Russian folk puppetry. It was first introduced by traveling Italian performers in the first third of the 19th century during a period of Westernization in Russian culture. While most core characters came from Italy, they were soon transformed by the addition of material from the Russian cultural context.' Petrushkas are traditionally hand puppets. The character is a kind of a jester, a slapstick protagonist distinguished by his red dress, a red kolpak, and often a long nose.
Thalias Kompagnons is the name of a German puppet theatre in Nuremberg, managed by the puppeteers and directors Joachim Torbahn and Tristan Vogt. Their repertoire consists of shows for both adults and children.
Great Small Works is a performance collective founded in New York City in 1995. Its six founding members—John Bell, Trudi Cohen, Stephen Kaplin, Jenny Romaine, Roberto Rossi, and Mark Sussman—draw on avant-garde, folk, and popular theater traditions to address contemporary social issues in a various scales, from tiny toy theater spectacles to giant puppet pageants.
Parvathy Baul is a Baul folk singer, musician and storyteller from Bengal and one of the leading Baul musicians in India. Trained under Baul gurus, Sanatan Das Baul, Shashanko Goshai Baul in Bengal, she has been performing both in India and other countries since 1995.
Cheryl Lee Henson is an American puppet builder and philanthropist who has served as the president of the Jim Henson Foundation since 1992. A supporter of puppetry arts and artists, she serves as a board member of The Jim Henson Company. She was honored in 2010 at the LaMama Gala, and in 2011, she won the New Victory Arts Award for her leadership in puppetry.
The Dragon Dance Theatre is a collective theatre and giant puppet company founded in Vermont, USA, in 1976. The company has created and produced original theatre productions and the Pan-American Puppetry Arts Institute in Mexico, Nicaragua, Argentina, Peru, the US, France and Finland. In 2001, the company moved its base to Quebec, Canada, where the company has also had theatre projects.
Randal John Metz is a professional puppeteer and variety/stage performer. He is known for creating puppet productions, and puppet performer for Children’s Fairyland’s Open Storybook Puppet Theater in Oakland, California, the oldest continuously operating puppet theater in the United States. He currently produces seven different puppet shows a year for the theater, and tours his shows throughout California under the name The Puppet Company. He has served several terms as President and Vice-President of the San Francisco Bay Area Puppeteers Guild.
Paul Vincent Davis is an American puppeteer. For over 30 years, he served as Artist in Residence at Puppet Showplace Theater in Brookline, Massachusetts. In the 1980s, UNIMA-USA awarded Davis five Citations of Excellence for his work.
Animal Cracker Conspiracy Puppet Company, or Animal Cracker Conspiracy (ACC), is a contemporary hybrid puppet company co-founded by Iain Gunn and Bridget Rountree that is invested in pushing the boundaries of kinetic performance, creating performances that "decenter expectations, open new avenues of thought, and invoke the uncanny." Their ongoing practice is based on a shared interest and exploration of where fine art, puppetry, performance art, circus, dance, film, and mixed media intersect. They perform nationally and internationally out of a multiplicity of venues such as La Jolla Playhouse in San Diego, California, where the company resides. ACC specializes in inclusive multimedia performances that encourage difficult discussions and foster community through local theater, Street Parades, and national tours.
A giant puppet is a puppet which is tall enough to be easily visible to a street crowd while being manipulated by puppeteers, on the same level. It is therefore most suitable for processions, street theatre and performance art, although some large theatrical animations can be used for the same purpose. Giant puppets are usually articulated and made from a lightweight material. Some are manipulated by puppeteers using rods, strings, stilts, other mechanisms, or a combination of these. Giant puppets have been used worldwide for street entertainment, celebrations or other purposes from ancient times, and they continue in use and in development today. Of the traditional giant rod puppets, the Chinese dragon New Year puppet is "perhaps the most recognized form of the parade puppet". Of the most recent examples, Royal de Luxe of France has produced a notable set of giant string puppets.
Paperhand Puppet Intervention is a puppet theatre company based in Saxapahaw, North Carolina and founded in 1998 by Donovan Zimmerman and Jan Burger. Frequently performing outdoors, the group performs original stories inspired by the relationship between the natural world and humanity. The stories include messages of social commentary and activism especially regarding conservation and race.
