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.

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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

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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.

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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.

A treat for those of you

reading to the end of my post.

Today's Puppet Song Selection:

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