A puppet is an object, often resembling a human, animal or mythical figure, that is animated or manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. Puppetry is an ancient form of theatre which dates back to the 5th century BC in ancient Greece.
There are many different varieties of puppets, and they are made from a wide range of materials, depending on their form and intended use. They range from very simple in construction and operation to very complex. The puppeteer buses movements of their hands, arms, or 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 often speaks in the voice of the character of the puppet, and then synchronizes the movements of the puppet's mouth with this spoken part. The actions, gestures and spoken parts acted out by the puppeteer with the puppet are typically used in storytelling.
Two simple types of puppets are the finger puppet, which is a tiny puppet that fits onto a single finger, and the sock puppet, which is formed and operated by inserting one's hand inside a sock, with the opening and closing of the hand simulating the movement of the puppet's "mouth." The sock puppet is a type of hand puppet, which is controlled using one hand that occupies the interior of the puppet and moves the puppet around. A "live-hand puppet" is similar to a hand puppet but is larger and requires two puppeteers for each puppet. A marionette is a much more complicated type of puppet that is suspended and controlled by a number of strings connected to the head, back and limbs, plus sometimes a central rod attached to a control bar held from above by the puppeteer.
A rod puppet is constructed around a central rod secured to the head. A shadow puppet is a cut-out figure held between a source of light and a translucent screen. Bunraku puppets are a type of Japanese wood-carved puppet. A ventriloquist's dummy is a puppet, often human-shaped, operated by a ventriloquist performer's hand; the performer produces the puppet's voice with little or no movement of her mouth, which creates the illusion that the puppet is alive. Carnival puppets are large puppets, typically bigger than a human, designed to be part of a large spectacle or parade.
Origins
Medieval knight puppets do battle in the Hortus deliciarum. Each puppet is manipulated by both puppeteers.
Puppetry was practiced in ancient Greece and the oldest written records of puppetry can be found in the works of Herodotus and Xenophon, dating from the 5th century BC.[1][2] The Greek word translated as "puppet" is "νευρόσπαστος" (nevrospastos), which literally means "drawn by strings, string-pulling",[3] from "νεῦρον" (nevron), meaning either "sinew, tendon, muscle, string", or "wire",[4] and "σπάω" (spaō), meaning "draw, pull".[5][6]
The movements of animals may be compared with those of automatic puppets, which are set going on the occasion of a tiny movement; the levers are released, and strike the twisted strings against one another.[7]
In India, puppetry was practiced from ancient times and is known by different names in different parts of the country. Excavation of clay dolls from Indus valley sites serve as an indication.[8] The art of puppetry called Bommalattam is mentioned in Tamil literature Silappadikaram, which is written around 2nd century B.C.[9]
Types of puppet and puppetry
Puppetry by its nature is a flexible and inventive medium and many puppet companies work with combinations of puppet forms and incorporate real objects into their performances. They might, for example, incorporate performing objects such as torn paper for snow, or a sign board with words as narrative devices within a production. The following are, alphabetically, the basic and conventional forms of puppet:
Black light puppet
A black light puppet
The black light puppet is a form of puppetry where the puppets are operated on a stage lit only with ultraviolet lighting, which hides the puppeteer and accentuates the colours of the puppets, which are normally designed using colours that respond to UV light by glowing brightly. The puppeteers perform dressed in black against a black background, with the background and puppeteer's costume normally made of black velvet. The puppeteers manipulate the puppets under the light, while they position themselves unseen against the black unlit background. Puppets of many sizes and types may be used. The original concept of this form of puppetry can be traced to Bunraku puppetry.
Bunraku puppet
Bunraku puppets are a type of wood-carved puppet originally made to stand out through torch illumination. Developed in Japan over a thousand years ago and formalised and combined with shamisen music at the end of the 16th century, the puppeteers dress to remain neutral against a black background, although their presence as a kind of 'shadow' figure adds a mysterious power to the puppet. Bunraku traditionally uses three puppeteers to operate a puppet that varies from 1/3 to 1/2 life size.[10]
Cantastoria
Cantastoria is a form of visual storytelling in which a puppet, illustration, painting, or other visual medium is accompanied by rhythmical speech or song that describes or reenacts events to tell a story.
The Little Girl Giant Puppet in Sri Lanka was a novel initiative to educate on female empowerment.
Carnival puppets (also known as body puppets) are usually designed to be part of a large spectacle. These are often used in parades (such as the Mayday parade in Minneapolis, United States and The Cape Town Carnival in South Africa) and demonstrations, and are at least the size of a human and often much larger. One or more performers are required to move the body and limbs. In parades, the appearance and personality of the person inside is not relevant to the spectator. These puppets are particularly associated with large-scale entertainment, such as the nightly parades at various Disney complexes around the world. Similar puppets were designed by Julie Taymor for The Lion King.
The Jim Henson Company also has their version of these puppets called full-bodied puppets. The Sesame Street characters Big Bird and Mr. Snuffleupagus, as well as the titular character from Bear in the Big Blue House, are popular examples of this type of puppet (Snuffleupagus, in particular, requires two puppeteers; one in the front of the puppet, and one in the back).
Carnival Puppet featuring two puppeteers - Minneapolis, USA: May Day Parade
The Little Girl Giant Puppet is an initiative by the MJF Charitable Foundation to promote Puppetry and to spread the message of female empowerment in Sri Lanka. This giant puppet measured 14ft and was built under the direction of Swedish artist Felix Widen Norgren (Director, Compania Pirata) in collaboration with Power of Play PVT LTD, Sri Lanka.
Finger puppet
The finger puppet is a simple puppet variant which fits onto a single finger. Finger puppets normally have no moving parts, and consist primarily of a hollow cylinder shape to cover the finger. Finger puppets are often decorated with eyes and mouths made out of fabric or other materials. This form of puppet has limited application and is used mainly in pre-schools or kindergartens for storytelling with young children.
A hand puppet (or glove puppet) is a puppet controlled by one hand, which occupies the interior of the puppet. The Punch and Judy puppets are familiar examples of hand puppets. Larger varieties of hand puppets place the puppeteer's hand in just the puppet's head, controlling the mouth and head, and the puppet's body then hangs over the entire arm. Other parts of the puppet (mainly arms) are usually not much larger than the hand itself. Often the mouth can also open and close, and special variants exist with eyelids that can be manipulated. A sock puppet is a particularly simple type of hand puppet made from a sock.[11]
British traditional hand or glove puppets, Punch and Judy
Also called a "two-man puppet" or a "live-hand puppet", the human-arm puppet is similar to a hand puppet but is larger and requires two puppeteers. One puppeteer places their dominant hand inside the puppet's head and operates the puppet's head and mouth, while putting their non-dominant hand into a glove and special sleeve attached to the puppet to operate one of the arms. The second puppeteer puts their hand into another glove/sleeve attached to the puppet in order to operate the other arm. This way, the puppet can perform hand gestures and interact with objects with ease. This is a form of glove or hand puppetry and rod puppetry. Many puppeteers, particularly those for Jim Henson'sMuppets, get their start assisting on a human-arm puppet; this is often known as "right-handing".
Some of Henson's Muppets, such as the Muppet character Fozzie Bear and the Sesame Street characters Ernie and Count von Count, are live-hand puppets, as are Yoda and ALF. A variation of this puppet, called a "sack-body" puppet, is built with the puppet's arms directly connected to its base. Popular examples include the Sesame Street characters Cookie Monster and Oscar the Grouch, and the Muppet character Rowlf the Dog. The Swedish Chef, another Muppet character, is operated in a unique way; both of his hands are actual human hands, supplied by the second performer. The technique of the main puppeteer performing a character's head with an assistant performing both arms is also used for Rowlf playing the piano.
"Briegel der Busch" puppet and puppeteer Jan Mixsa, autographing at "Erstes Fantreffen von Bernd das Brot"
"Chili das Schaf" puppet and creators Tommy Krappweis and Erik Haffner, taken at "Erstes Fantreffen von Bernd das Brot"
Light curtain puppet presentations use light to highlight small portions of a performance area, allowing the puppet to be seen while the manipulators remain invisible. The puppets stand on a stage divided into an unlit background and a well-lit foreground, meeting to form a "curtain" of light. The puppeteer dresses in black and remains hidden in the unlit background of the stage while the puppet is held across the light curtain in the lit foreground of the stage. "Light curtain puppet" is an umbrella term, and any puppet which is extended into a well-lit area where its handler remains separated from the puppet by a division of light may be called a light curtain puppet.[12]
Marionette
Marionettes, or "string puppets", are suspended and controlled by a number of strings, plus sometimes a central rod attached to a control bar held from above by the puppeteer. The control bar can be either horizontal or vertical. Basic strings for operation are usually attached to the head, back, hands (to control the arms) and just above the knee (to control the legs).[13] This form of puppetry is complex and sophisticated to operate, requiring greater manipulative control than a finger, glove or rod puppet. The puppet play performed by the Von Trapp children with Maria in The Sound of Music is a marionette show.
The marotte is a simplified rod puppet that is just a head and/or body on a stick. It was used by jesters in renaissance times. In a marotte à main prenante, the puppeteer's other arm emerges from the body (which is just a cloth drape) to act as the puppet's arm. Some marottes have a small string running through the stick attached to a handle at the bottom. When the handle is squeezed, the mouth opens.
Motekar
Motekar or wayang motekar is a kind of shadow puppet theater known in Sundanese, Javanese, and Indonesian as 'wayang (kulit)', that is, (leather) shadow puppet. While most shadow puppets cast black silhouettes from behind a screen, motekar shadow puppets can be in full color. They use plastic materials, transparent dyes, a special light system, and a special type of screen to make this happen. Motekar puppet shows can be performed by one or several puppeteers and usually feature music, singing, and a series of dances.
Not all forms of puppetry need specially created items to puppet. Object puppets can be created with found everyday objects either assembled in advance or during performance. Señor Wences was a Spanish ventriloquist who became popular through his appearances on the American program The Ed Sullivan Show. His characters included Johnny (a face drawn on his hand) and Pedro (a gruff head in a box) who would talk when Wences opened the box. Similarly, chinface puppetry involves puppet features drawn or attached onto an upside-down chin.
Pull string puppet
A pull string puppet is a puppet consisting of a cloth body where in the puppeteer puts his/her arm into a slot in the back and pulls rings on strings to make certain movements such as waving the arms or moving the mouth.
Push puppet
A push puppet consists of a segmented character on a base which is kept under tension until the button on the bottom is pressed. The puppet wiggles, slumps and then collapses. Push puppets are usually intended as novelty toys, rather than as part of professional puppet theatre.
Rod puppet
A rod puppet is a puppet constructed around a central rod secured to the head. A large glove covers the rod and is attached to the neck of the puppet. A rod puppet is controlled by the puppeteer moving the metal rods attached to the hands of the puppet (or any other limbs) and by turning the central rod secured to the head. The best known examples of rod puppets are Jim Henson's Muppets, most notably Muppet characters such as Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Gonzo and others, many Sesame Street characters such as Elmo, Bert, Grover and Abby Cadabby, and the main cast of Fraggle Rock.
The Avenue Q musical uses a mixture of rod and live-hand puppets.
Shadow puppet
A shadow puppet is a cut-out figure held between a source of light and a translucent screen. Shadow puppets can form solid silhouettes or be decorated with various amounts of cut-out details. Colour can be introduced into the cut-out shapes to provide a different dimension and different effects can be achieved by moving the puppet (or light source) out of focus. Javanese shadow puppets known as Wayang Kulit are the classic example of this.[14] In China, it became popular from the Song dynasty.[15]
A sock puppet is a puppet formed and operated by inserting a hand inside a sock. The hand is opened and closed to simulate the movement of the puppet's "mouth" and give the impression of speaking. Sometimes eyes and other facial features are added to the sock in order to make the puppet more realistic. Sock puppets are popular in many puppet performances, as they are simple to make and easy to use. They are mostly used in satirical or children's works.
A table top puppet is a puppet usually operated by rod or direct contact from behind, on a surface similar to a table top (hence the name). Shares many characteristics with Bunraku.
Ticklebug
A Ticklebug is a type of hand puppet created from a human hand to have four legs, where the puppet features are drawn on the hand itself. The middle finger is lifted as a head, and the thumb and forefinger serve as a first set of two legs on one side, while the ring finger and little finger serve as a second set of two legs on the opposite side.[citation needed]
Toy theatre
The toy theatre is a puppet cut out of paper and stuck onto card. It is fixed at its base to a stick and operated by pushing it in from the side of the puppet theatre. Sheets of puppets and scenery were produced from the 19th century for children's use.
Ventriloquism dummy
The Ventriloquist's Dummy is a puppet shaped like a small human which is operated by a ventriloquist performer to focus the audience's attention away from the performer's activities and heighten the illusion that the dummy is speaking. They are called dummies because they do not speak on their own. The ventriloquist dummy is controlled by one hand of the ventriloquist. Ventriloquism acts are not always performed with a traditional dummy; occasionally other forms of puppetry are used.
Edgar Bergen, seen with Charlie McCarthy, is one of America's best-known ventriloquists.
Ventriloquist Ramdas Padhye has been performing in India for over 40 years.
A water puppet is a Vietnamese puppet form, the "Múa rối nước". Múa rối nước literally translates to "dance underwater" or "dancing underwater". This is an ancient tradition that dates back to the 10th century. The puppets are built out of wood and the shows are performed in a waist-deep pool. A large rod supports the puppet under the water and is used by the puppeteers to control them. The appearance is of the puppets moving over the water. When the rice fields would flood, the villagers would entertain each other using this puppet form.
The water also provides the setting for traditional stories depicting day-to-day village life. Water puppets bring wry humor to scenes of farming, fishing, festival events such as buffalo fights, and children's games of marbles and coin-toss. Fishing turns into a game of wits between the fisherman and his prey, with the fisherman getting the short end (often capturing his surprised neighbor by mistake). Besides village life, scenes include legends and national history. Lion dogs romp like puppies while dragons exhale fire and smoke and shoot sprays of water at the audience. Performances of up to 18 short scenes are usually introduced by a pig-tailed bumpkin known as Teu, and accompanied by a small folk orchestra.[16]
Rajasthani Puppet
Painted wooden heads, hands made just by stuffing clothes or cotton into the sleeve of the dress, with painted appearances, angled eyebrows, mustache for men and nose ring for ladies, and huge expressive eyes all over, manikins are hung with dresses produced using sequined old textures.[citation needed] The puppeteers, known as "Kathputliwalas" skillfully manipulate the puppets while also providing voice and narration for the characters. They use their hands and feet to control the strings and often perform with live music, using instruments like the dholak (a double-headed drum) and the sarangi (a bowed string instrument).
Rajasthan puppetry performances are typically accompanied by lively folk songs and dances, creating a vibrant and engaging atmosphere. The stories depicted in the puppet shows often revolve around historical events, mythological tales, social issues, and moral lessons. The performances are not only entertaining but also serve as a medium to convey cultural and social messages to the audience.
The word puppet can mean a political leader installed, supported and controlled by powerful external forces without legitimacy in the country itself. In modern times, that usually implies no democratic mandate from the country's electorate; in earlier times, it could have meant a monarch imposed from outside, who was not a member of a country's established ruling dynasty or was unrecognised by its nobility. "Puppet government", "puppet regime" and "puppet state" are derogatory terms for a government that is in charge of a region or country but only through being installed, supported and controlled by a more powerful outside government. An example is Vidkun Quisling, a Norwegian fascist leader during the Second World War who collaborated with Nazi Germany and led a puppet government.
In a more general sense, a puppet is any person who is controlled by another by reasons of (for instance) undue influence, intellectual deficiency, or lack of character or charisma. Science fiction writer Robert A. Heinlein's novel The Puppet Masters depicts alienparasites who attach themselves to human beings and control their actions.
Poppet, a word that sounds similar, is sometimes a term of endearment, similar to "love", "pet", "doll" or "dear". It alludes to folk-magic and witchcraft, where a poppet is a special doll created to represent a person for the purpose of casting healing, fertility, or binding spells.
Sock puppet is used on social media as a term to describe fake accounts used to spread political disinformation.
A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object called a puppet to create the illusion that the puppet is alive. The puppet is often shaped like a human, animal, or legendary creature. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the audience.
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.
A sock puppet, sockpuppet, sock-puppet, or sock poppet is a puppet made from a sock or a similar garment. The puppeteer wears the sock on a hand and lower arm as if it were a glove, with the puppet's mouth being formed by the region between the sock's heel and toe, and the puppeteer's thumb acting as the jaw. The arrangement of the fingers forms the shape of a mouth, which is sometimes padded with a hard piece of felt, often with a tongue glued inside.
Bunraku is a form of traditional Japanese puppet theatre, founded in Osaka in the beginning of the 17th century, which is still performed in the modern day. Three kinds of performers take part in a bunraku performance: the Ningyōtsukai or Ningyōzukai (puppeteers), the tayū (chanters), and shamisen musicians. Occasionally other instruments such as taiko drums will be used. The combination of chanting and shamisen playing is called jōruri and the Japanese word for puppet is ningyō. It is used in many plays.
Children's Fairyland, U.S.A. is an amusement park, located in Oakland, California, on the shores of Lake Merritt. It was one of the earliest "themed" amusement parks in the United States. Fairyland includes 10 acres (4.0 ha) of play sets, small rides, and animals. The park is also home to the Open Storybook Puppet Theater, the oldest continuously operating puppet theater in the United States.
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 skilled puppeteer can make the figures appear to walk, dance, fight, nod and laugh.
A hand puppet is a type of puppet that is controlled by the hands that occupies the interior of the puppet. A glove puppet is a variation of hand puppets. Rod puppets require one of the puppeteer's hands inside the puppet glove holding a rod which controls the head, and the puppet's body then hangs over most or all of the forearm of the puppeteer, and possibly extends further. Other parts of the puppet may be controlled by different means, e.g., by rods operated by the puppeteer's free hand, or strings or levers pulled the head or body. A smaller variety, simple hand puppets often have no significant manipulable parts at all. Finger puppets are not hand puppets as they are used only on a finger.
Digital puppetry is the manipulation and performance of digitally animated 2D or 3D figures and objects in a virtual environment that are rendered in real-time by computers. It is most commonly used in filmmaking and television production but has also been used in interactive theme park attractions and live theatre.
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.
Tholu bommalata is the shadow puppet theatre tradition of the state of Andhra Pradesh in India with roots dating back to 3rd century BCE. Its performers are part of a group of wandering entertainers and peddlers who pass through villages during the course of a year and offer to sing ballads, tell fortunes, sell amulets, perform acrobatics, charm snakes, weave fishnets, tattoo local people and mend pots. Tholu bommalata has a history of consistent royal patronage. It is the ancestor of Wayang, the Indonesian puppet theatre play which has been a staple of Indonesian tourism and designated by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
Togalu gombeyaata is a puppet show unique to the state of Karnataka, India. Togalu gombeyaata translates to "a play of leather dolls" in the native language of Kannada. It is a form of shadow puppetry. Karnataka Chitrakala Parishat has undertaken research on this art and has a good collection of leather puppets.
A finger puppet is a type of puppet that is controlled by one or more fingers that occupy the interior of the puppet. Finger puppets are generally very simple, consisting of a sheath that the person wearing the puppet inserts either one or two fingers into. While the movement of the puppets are limited, multiple finger puppets can be used on each hand, allowing the puppeteer to control many puppets at one time.
David Alan Barclay is a British puppeteer who had worked on some projects of The Jim Henson Company. He has been at the cutting edge of animatronic puppetry since 1979. Barclay, who hails from London, is a Master Puppeteer, Animatronic Designer and Supervisor, a CG key frame Animator, and Director and Producer of animatronic and animation projects for film and television.
Hachioji Kuruma Ningyo is a Japanese puppet theater company that has been in the family of the founder of the kuruma ningyo style of puppetry since the 19th century. The company was named an Intangible Cultural Asset by the city of Tokyo and an Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property by the Japanese government. Since the mid 1990s, the company has been directed by Koryu Nishikawa V, who has brought the art form to international attention, touring mostly Europe and the Americas.
Nina Yakovlevna Simonovich-Efimova was a Russian artist, puppet designer and one of the first professional Russian puppeteers. Together with her husband Ivan Efimov she founded the tradition of Soviet puppet theater, acting as the driving force behind the Efimovs' presentations.
Russian puppet theater appears to have originated either in migrations from the Byzantine Empire in the sixth century or possibly by Mongols travelling from China. Itinerant Slavic minstrels were presenting puppet shows in western Russia by the thirteenth century, arriving in Moscow in the mid-sixteenth century. Although Russian traditions were increasingly influenced by puppeteers from western Europe in the eighteenth century, Petrushka continued to be one of the principal figures. In addition to glove puppets and marionettes, rod puppets and flat puppets were introduced for a time but disappeared in the late nineteenth century.
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.
Bommalattam is a type of puppetry using inanimate objects from Tamil Nadu. While the origin of the art is uncertain, it has existed as an art form for years. It uses various doll marionettes, manipulated by rods and strings by puppeteers behind a screen, lighted by traditional lamps. It is usually accompanied by music and story telling.
Olive Blackham was a British puppeteer. She was the director of the experimental Roel Puppets theatre company, author of Shadow Puppets (1961) and “one of the leading authorities on all forms of puppetry”. In 1948 she was one of the first puppeteers to appear on television, in a broadcast from Alexandra Palace.
↑ "Puppet Forms of India". Centre for Cultural Resources and Training, Ministry of Culture, Government of India. Archived from the original on 15 May 2013. Retrieved 24 June 2013.
↑ Adachi, Barbara C., Backstage at Bunraku, Weatherhill, 1985 . ISBN0-8348-0199-X
↑ Currell, David, Introduction to Puppets and Puppet making, p.7
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