Puppet Placement

 

 

            Puppets know their place. In America, it is performing before an audience of youngsters. If you were to look for a puppet show, you would find a listing in the entertainment section of the newspaper under “Fun for the Kids”. Toy departments generally stock puppets. The local library often sponsors puppet performances. If you were to attend, you would find the show either in the children’s department or in the basement. A top ten list of traditional entertainment for a kiddie’s birthday party would reveal a puppet show trailing just behind a clown, a caricature artist and a pony ride. Even the New York Times has their finger on the pulse of people’s puppet perceptions: “Puppets are generally thought of as smallish figures designed for children's entertainment” (Kampel). It is hardly anyone’s fault for thinking this way. Television, and to a lesser extent film, keep puppetry confined to public supported stations and the Disney Channel.

 

 

 

            From Barney and Friends to The Wubbulous World of Dr. Seuss, American audiences are fed this one flavor of puppetry. It’s no wonder that puppeteers are perceived as working “in a field where many audiences are four-year-olds at birthday parties” (Blumenthal). In social settings, I will sometimes reveal during conversation that I am a puppeteer. Most people think it’s “cute”. Leslee Asch, executive director of the International Festival of Puppet Theater, shared, “’If you said you were a puppeteer, people would do this.' She formed her hand into a jabbering creature and made a high-pitched squeal” (Biederman). This goes to show how not only puppets but the production and performer are all seen as puerile.

 

            Yet, for every ten or twenty Pajanimals televised, there is at least one helping of puppetry art. In my day it was The Spirit of Christmas performed by the Mabel Beaton Marionettes. Bell Telephone hosted the presentation of this 1950 gem every year around Christmas. This had a great influence on me as did the children’s show, The Friendly Giant. Most puppeteers got their calling after watching a children’s puppet show. One of America’s greatest puppeteers, Bob Baker saw his first puppet show at the age of seven. As he tells it, “By the time I was eight, I had acquired enough puppets and a puppet stage to do a variety show (Remier). Fifty years later, he is still performing. As he and the majority of puppeteers in America work for young audiences, they will in turn inspire the next generation to pick up the strings and take the art a few steps further.

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

 

Biederman, Marcia. "Make Way For Grown-Ups." New York Times 24 Jan. 1999. Academic          

           OneFile. Web. 7 Nov. 2013.http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%

           7CA150050785&v=2.1&u=colu91149&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=d19150

            ccfb898fdde46b339bdd438b09

 

Blumenthal, Eileen. "String theory: a puppetry summit down under displays the potential and the             pitfalls of the form." American Theatre Sept. 2008: 50+. Academic OneFile. Web. 7 Nov.      

            2013.http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.doid=GALE7CA185460042&

            v=2.1&u=colu91149&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=d012d772d061219658ec04ffd4cf72b8

Kampel, Stewart. "The Magic Behind Puppets." New York Times 15 Dec. 1996. Academic              

            OneFile. Web. 7 Nov. 2013.
            http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE7CA150419601&v=2.1&u=colu91149&it=r&p=

             AONE&sw=w&asid=24473e0f2a34bac7dda67426f33f2efe

Remier, A.C. "Bob Baker: The Man Behind the Puppets." KCET . KCETLink, 17 July 2012.        

           Web. 7 Nov. 2013. http://www.kcet.org/arts/artbound/counties/los-angeles/bob-baker-

           the-man-behind-the-puppets.html

 

As a treat for having read this far . . .

Today's Puppet Song

My first marionette, 1967

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kQC5bQKPj6o

 

A Puppets World View:

Beyond the American Playboard

 

Inside the Salzburg marionette theater.

            Puppet shows rarely come to the American mind when thinking of high drama. However, the term “high drama” was coined with puppets in mind. In Burma (present day Myanmar), it was unlawful for anyone to physically be above the head of the king. Fortunately, puppetry was held in such high esteem that a royal proclamation was declared near the end of the eighteenth century. Puppet plays were given permission to be performed on a raised stage an called “high drama” while performances by humans such as dance, music and theater would be called “low drama” and performed on the ground (Foley). Over the centuries and throughout the world, puppetry has been an important part of people’s religious rituals and folk traditions. Today, international audiences understand puppetry to be a true art form.

Punch and Judy.

            Just over ten years ago, the Czech Republic had well over 1500 puppet theaters (Bogatyrev). China is able to claim puppet troupes having existed in families for generations (Chen and Clark). A few examples of the lengthy career puppets have had are those featured in the Szopka of Poland having had their start in the thirteenth century (Tattenbaum), in Japan, the 17^th century dramatist Chikamatsu wrote over 100 plays for puppet theater (Battista) and during the same century in Italy, Commedia dell'Arte performers had introduced Pulcinella to European puppetry (Katritzky). You may know Pulcinella as Punch. While Punch and Judy shows have a definite appeal for children, puppets continue to have relevance for adult international audiences.

Grand Marionnettiste clock in Charleville-Mezieres, France.

 

            Since 1961, every three years the small town of Charleville-Mezieres in the Andennes region of France becomes the puppet capital of the world (Marsh). Not only is it the site of the Festival of World Puppetry, but it is also the home of the Institut International Superieure des Arts de la Marionette a world renowned school for puppetry. Over a ten day period the festival offers 600 puppet shows, almost as many street performances, and dozens of exhibits (Marsh).on In the early eighties, South African puppeteer Gary Friedman created Puns en Doedie, also known as Puppets against Apartheid, a hand puppet show for adults (Kruger). Marie Kruger wrote of Friedman’s ground-breaking puppetry in her article for the South African Theatre Journal. She states that Friedman’s next project Puppets against AIDS “has had an impact on a number of Southern and East African countries (most notably Kenya and Tanzania), which adopted the puppet as an interventional tool for adults and to address sensitive social issues” (Kruger).

            One might point to the show War Horse, currently having a very successful run on Broadway as an example of puppetry attracting an adult American audience. However, the show originated at the National Theatre in London (War Horse). My point being that the use of puppets in a theatrical production is still viewed as a novelty by American audience whereas abroad, audiences accept puppets as they would any form of theater.

Works Cited

Battista, Carolyn. "PUPPETS ARE NOT JUST FOR CHILDREN ANYMORE." New York Times 17 Mar. 1985. Academic OneFile. Web. 2 Nov. 2013. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA176601017&v=2.1&u=colu91149&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=1d8904044f9e2f4ad4fe27c8880bb978

Bogatyrev, Pyotr. "Czech Puppet Theatre and Russian Folk Theatre." TDR [Cambridge, Mass.] 4 3.3 

          (1999): 97. Academic OneFile. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.

       http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA55981177&v=2.1&u=colu91149&it=r&                    p=AONE&sw=w&asid=2c8399c59dddfa7a6d90a03951baf25f

Chen, Fan Pen Li, and Bradford Clark. "A survey of puppetry in China (summers 2008 and 2009)." Asian Theatre Journal 27.2 (2010): 333+. Academic OneFile. Web. 2 Nov. 2013.
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.doid=GALE7CA245167967&v=2.1&u=colu91149&it= r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=0df928b688944cde6b332ad367efe94c

Foley, Kathy. "Burmese Marionettes: Yokthe Thay in Transition." Asian Theatre Journal 18.1         ( 2001): 69. Academic OneFile. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.
        http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA72984121&v=2.1&u=colu91149&it=r&           

        p=AONE&sw=w&asid=7fdc56995b00465aa3f1a155b8d8a991

Kruger, Marie. “Puppets and adult entertainment in South Africa: a tale of a tentative start,          

       evolving prejudices, new and lost opportunities, and a fresh momentum.” South African      

       Theatre Journal. 25.1 (Mar. 2011): p13. From Literature Resource Center. Web. 1 Nov. 2013.

       http://www.tandfonline.com.libproxy.howardcc.edu/action/about    ThisJournal?

       show=aimsScope&journalCode=rthj20

Marsh, Janine. "The Biggest Puppet Show in the World." The Good Life France. N.p., 2013.        

       Web. 3 Nov. 2013. http://www.thegoodlifefrance.com/the-biggest-puppet-show-in-the-

       world/

Tattenbaum, Mark F. "A good show: traditional and nontraditional puppet theater in Poland:       

        interview with Pawel Chomczyk and Dagmara Sowa." Sarmatian Review 27.1 (2007):               

        1257+. Academic OneFile. Web. 31 Oct. 2013.
        http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA157036620&v=2.1&u=colu91149&it=r           

        &p=AONE&sw=w&asid=229ba1aa9ddc1599041487c2c8dfccd8

War Horse. National Theatre of Great Britain, n.d. Google. Web. 3 Nov. 2013.            

       http://www.warhorseonstage.com/news .

Leslie Caron and puppeteer Burr Tillstrom in Lili, 1953

A treat for you for having read this far!

Today’s puppet song:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yjatYPuVr4

 

For Adults Only

 

 

For Adults Only

 

 

            A theatrical show that publicizes it is “for adults only” will cause one to conjure up images of raunchy, salacious acts of the seamier side. A case in point is the 2003 Tony Award winning musical Avenue Q. Along with the musical numbers and satire was a scene of sexual hijinks between two of the puppet actors. Not that all or even most of the puppetry offered as entertainment for an adult audience is risqué. There is, however, a burgeoning scene of short-form puppetry that finds its roots more in burlesque than in vaudeville.

 

            Allow me to present, the Puppet Slam. What began as a casual gathering of puppeteers after the annual Puppeteers of America Festival has grown into an international happening (Puppet Slam Network). The Puppet Slam Network, a website launched by IBEX Puppetry, works towards connecting, supporting, and raising awareness for the Puppet Slam Nation (Puppet Slam Network). There are over seventy puppet slams in North America, Europe and Australia performing for adult audiences in small venues usually late at night. Right here in the Baltimore area we have Puppet Slamwich presented by Black Cherry Puppet Theater, the Puppet Co., and Puppet Underground Cabaret in D.C. who combine their entertainment efforts with local grassroots organizing efforts (Puppet Underground).

            During a telephone interview with Christian from the Puppet Co., I was amazed to find out just how successful puppet slams are. “Our theater is small. We only have one hundred seats, but we sold out for both of our last two puppet slam performances.” After revealing the theme of my blog project to Christian, he shared that the puppet slam was originated by Eric Brooks for reasons similar to my blog argument: the need for outreach to an adult audience for puppetry. “We also use it as exposure for our children’s shows.”

 

            Having attended puppet slams in Philadelphia, I am a bit skeptical as to the ability of this form of theater to maintain a high level of attracting audiences. During one of the shows I attended, the artist used a chair as a puppet and the only manipulation of it was to drag it about the stage. Perhaps it was too avant-garde for me.  Perhaps I should be more inclusive of artists coming from different backgrounds.  My concerns were mirrored in an article by Marcia Biederman for The New York Times. She wondered if the avant-garde artists using puppets in their work can continue to share the stage with traditional children’s entertainers. In their attempt to gain legitimacy, a few avant-garde artists seem to give their artistic expressions more weight while putting down the kids’ stuff.  Biederman quotes Jim Bowen of Puppetworks in New York as saying, “Some of the avant-garde stuff tends to get really self-indulgent.” He continues, “Children would never let you get away with that” (Biederman).

King Kong at the Regent Theatre in Melbourne, Australia.
http://jimsmash.blogspot.com/2013/07/king-kong-puppet.html

 

            Fighting within families is not uncommon. As long as all of the varied forms of puppetry lead to increased appreciation by adults and children alike, the future seems bright. From the busker performing on the street to the latest sensation on stage, puppetry is consistently reaching out to that elusive adult audience.

 

 

Works Cited

 

            Biederman, Marcia. “Make Way For Grown-Ups.” New York Times 24 Jan. 1999. Academic OneFile. Web. 17 Oct. 31, 2013. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id= GALE%7CA150050785&v=2.1&u=colu91149&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=d19150ccfb898fdde46b339bdd438b09

            Puppet Slam Network. Awesome, Inc., 3 Aug. 2012. Web. 31 Oct. 2013. <http://puppetslam.blogspot.com/2012/08/history-of-puppet-slam-network.html>.

            Puppet Underground. N.p., 11 June 2013. Web. 31 Oct. 2013. <http://puppetunderground.blogspot.com/>.

As a treat for having read this far along . . .

today's puppet song!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fXnM5_TFGc

 

 

 

 



Believe in Make-Believe

  
 

          Puppetry combines choreography, acting, music, storytelling, scriptwriting, lighting, sound, costume and scenic design and should be taken seriously as an art form. This is not to say that Puppet Theater is a hodgepodge or subcategory of these (Twist). A lot goes into these shows where wooden headed gloves jump about with dolls attached to strings. Such shows have always been a huge hit with children, yet not so much with adults. Is it due to an inhibition in the mature audience member to believe? It is nothing short of magic when you are able to believe that an inanimate object comes to life (Twist). Perhaps Daniel Grzywacz hit the old proverbial nail on the head in the when he remarked, “It’s simply much more difficult to make adults forget there is a hand in the puppet long enough for them to enjoy the narrative (Grzywacz).

          A few puppeteers who have broken through the adult acceptance barrier would be Jim Henson and Julie Taymor. The Henson Foundation, which sponsors the International Festival of Puppet Theater in New York, was formed in order to promote puppetry in the United States (Wren). Taymor’s colossal success with The Lion King brought puppet theater mainstream recognition (Horwitz). This is not to say serious works with puppets did not exist before. In 1958, George Latshaw, the dean of American puppetry, worked with the Detroit Symphony in a collaboration of Aaron Copland’s ballet Billy the Kid (Fox). Mr. Latshaw also created a great deal of children’s theater.  “You get a repertory of folk and fairy tales and it’ll last you an entire career, whereas if you’re talking to adults, first, you have to have something to say and then you have to get them to sit still long enough so that you can say it effectively (Fox).



The author as the title character in
Wilbur Whippersnapper's Holiday Special, Philadelphia, 1996.

                The adult audience was always kept in mind as scripts were being written in preparation for my own puppet shows which were performed in libraries and at festivals. Certainly, the vast majority of my audience would be children.  However, it was something of a personal challenge to tap the inner child of my older patrons. Not wanting to let the grown-ups miss out on the fun, their attention would be gently coaxed by occasional witticisms aimed just over the heads of the kids. By the end of the show, everyone in the audience believed in the world created by the puppet actors. For the show to be engaging, a good script and special effects are all well and good.

                With puppetry, a bit more has to come from the viewer. Once the person in the audience stops trying to figure out how the actors are manipulated, “there comes a moment when suddenly the puppet takes on a life of its own. It can be a movement, an expression, or perhaps a turn of the head when the puppet is transformed from an object unto a being, when it becomes endowed with life. From this moment on, the puppet stage becomes a place of magic, a place where anything can happen” (Engdahl). Even when I perform in full view of people, there comes an instant of change when the puppeteer becomes invisible and the puppet is a real entity. It would be cheeky of me to assume it was all do to talent, when I know with all of my being that the bit of wood and felt on my hand was granted legitimacy as a being with a soul.

Works Cited

     Engdahl, Eric. "Face a Face." Theatre Journal 46.2 (1994): 257+. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 28 Oct. 2013. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA15263653&v =2.1&u=colu91149&it=r&p=LitRG&sw=w&asid=ee66c536c97d57f258fb8358793ccb20

Fox, Margalit. "Title: George Latshaw, 83, Dies; Made Puppetry Into an Art." The New York Times 24 Dec. 2006: 27. Academic OneFile. Web. 17 Oct. 2013. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=DA-SORT&inPS=true&prodId=AONE&userGroupName=colu91149&tabID=T004&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=Advan>.

Grzywacz, Daniel. "Puppet Show Enchants All Audiences." Daily Trojan 25 Jan. 2012 [California] . Web. 28 Oct. 2013.< http://dailytrojan.com/2012/01/25/puppet-show-enchants-all-audiences/>.

Horwitz, Simi. "Puppets Abound on Local Stages: A New Aesthetic?" Back Stage 44.47 (21 Nov. 2003): 3-4. Rpt. in Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 290. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Literature Resources from Gale. Web. 27 Oct. 2013.

Twist, Basil. "The thing happens: a third-generation puppeteer aims to create the puppetry equivalent of abstract painting." American Theatre Feb. 2004: 34+. Academic OneFile. Web. 27 Oct. 2013. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA113458828&v=2.1&u=colu91149&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=d48bd6523214652bdee73916d72570f6

Wren, Celia. "Awash in puppeteers: Henson festival & 'Symphonie Fantastique.' (Jim Henson Foundation's International Festival of Puppet Theater; stunning off-Broadway abstract puppet festival)(Column)." Commonweal 125.17 (1998): 16+. Academic OneFile. Web. 28 Oct. 2013. http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA21227664&v=2.1&u=colu91149&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=01e6eb2d3be8247b71d88671034d9096

For reading to the end, a treat for you!

Today's puppet song.



Author as Micah the Maccabee for Hanukkah in Philadelphia, 2005.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IpQI5mznEA4

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The World on a String

Bunraku puppets from Japan.

           
          Take a moment to close your eyes and think of the word “puppet”. Did Ernie and Bert or Cookie Monster pop immediately into your head? Did the characters Tokubi and Ohatsu, Mahabarat, or Punch and Judy come to mind? More than likely you thought of the stars of Sesame Street or the Muppets. I am arguing that, “The popular perception of puppetry today is of Disneyesque entertainment for children, akin to animation. We don't always remember its layered history as a sacred ritual, and sophisticated art form: China's pi ying xi, Java's Wayang, Japan's Bunraku, or bommalattam back home” (“When puppets came alive”).

 

Puppets from the author's personal collection:
Wayang Golek rod puppet upon his horse from West Java (left),
two Pi Ying Xi shadow puppets from China (center)
and a Kathputli string puppet from India (right).

             My theory was later confirmed by Jacqueline Marks, CFO of The International Puppetry Museum (IPM) in Pasadena, California. When I asked her if puppetry is appreciated around the world by a larger adult audience more so than it is in the United States she responded with, “You are correct! International puppetry is much more sophisticated” (Marks). Has this always been the case? Is this peculiar to American audiences?



German-born master puppeteer Bernd Ogrodnik of Iceland
with his hand-carved marionettes.

             Twenty years ago, I stood backstage with master puppeteer Bernd Ogrodnik after one of his awe inspiring shows. He shared something with me that turned out to be the seed for this essay. He said, "I performed this same show in Germany to an audience of five hundred people. In the United States I only attract twenty and mostly children." At the time, I had only ever performed in front of not more than fifty people. I found it to be remarkable that puppetry could reach such a large gathering.




Children at a Parisian puppet theatre, 1963.

          While puppet plays are somewhat foreign to American adult audiences the puppet shows they do see, they tend to think of as purely children's entertainment. “Puppetry tends to get relegated to the children’s department somewhere downstairs in the back of the library” Wayne Kefting, president of Puppeteers of America. “It really isn’t a kiddie show, but it’s a real theatrical art” (Fox). Bart P. Roccoberton, director of the Institute of Professional Puppetry Arts at the Eugene O'Neill Theater Center concurs, "Puppetry is not just for children.” He adds, “In other countries, people have a better sense of what puppetry can do" (quoted in Battista). I will examine this dichotomy and illuminate how puppetry is a true art form.

 

 

Reference

Battista, Carolyn. "PUPPETS ARE NOT JUST FOR CHILDREN ANYMORE." New York Times 17 Mar. 1985. Academic OneFile. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.

Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA176601017&v=2.1&u=colu91149&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=1d8904044f9e2f4ad4fe27c8880bb978

Fox, Margalit. "Title: George Latshaw, 83, Dies; Made Puppetry Into an Art." The New York Times 24 Dec. 2006: 27. Academic OneFile. Web. 17 Oct. 2013

Document URL

http://go.galegroup.com/ps/retrieve.do?sgHitCountType=None&sort=DA-SORT&inPS=true&prodId=AONE&userGroupName=colu91149&tabID=T004&searchId=R1&resultListType=RESULT_LIST&contentSegment=&searchType=Advan>.

Marks, Jacqueline. “Puppetry Question(s).” Glenn Lash. Email. 20 October, 2013.

"When puppets came alive." The Hindu [English] 2 Oct. 2010. Academic OneFile. Web. 20 Oct. 2013.

Document URL
http://go.galegroup.com/ps/i.do?id=GALE%7CA238513725&v=2.1&u=colu91149&it=r&p=AONE&sw=w&asid=e07098a266a584656b021e3d41605a93



Author as Sir Reginald Tickleton III 1/2.