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.
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=
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
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