Puppetry
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.
There are many different varieties of puppets, and they are made of a wide range of materials, depending on their form and intended use. They can be extremely complex or very simple in their construction. The simplest puppets are finger puppets, which are tiny puppets that fit onto a single finger, and sock puppets, which are formed from a sock and operated by inserting one's hand inside the sock, with the opening and closing of the hand simulating the movement of the puppet's "mouth". A hand puppet or glove puppet is controlled by one hand which occupies the interior of the puppet and moves the puppet around. Punch and Judy puppets are familiar examples. Other hand or glove puppets are larger and require two puppeteers for each puppet. Japanese bunraku puppets are an example of this. Marionettes 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. Rod puppets are made from a head attached to a central rod. Over the rod is a body form with arms attached controlled by separate rods. They have more movement possibilities as a consequence than a simple hand or glove puppet.
Puppetry is a very ancient form of theatre which was first recorded in the 5th century BC in Ancient Greece. Some forms of puppetry may have originated as long ago as 3000 years BCE. Puppetry takes many forms, but they all share the process of animating inanimate performing objects to tell a story. Puppetry occurs in almost all human societies, where puppets are used for the purpose of entertainment through performance, as sacred objects in rituals, as symbolic effigies in celebrations such as carnivals, and as a catalyst for social and psychological change in transformative arts.
History
Puppetry is a very ancient art form, thought to have originated about 4000 years ago. Puppets have been used since the earliest times to animate and communicate the ideas and needs of human societies. Some historians claim that they pre-date actors in theatre. There is evidence that they were used in Egypt as early as 2000 BCE when string-operated figures of wood were manipulated to perform the action of kneading bread. Wire controlled, articulated puppets made of clay and ivory have also been found in Egyptian tombs. Hieroglyphs also describe "walking statues" being used in ancient Egyptian religious dramas. 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.Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa may have inherited some of the puppet traditions of ancient Egypt. Certainly, secret societies in many African ethnic groups still use puppets in ritual dramas as well as in their healing and hunting ceremonies. Today, puppetry continues as a popular form, often within a ceremonial context, and as part of a wide range of folk forms including dance, storytelling, and masked performance. In the 2010s throughout rural Africa, puppetry still performed the function of transmitting cultural values and ideas that in large African cities is increasingly undertaken by formal education, books, cinema, and television.Asia
East Asia
China has a history of puppetry dating back 3000 years, originally in pi-yung xi, the "theatre of the lantern shadows", or as it is more commonly known today, Chinese shadow theatre. By the Song dynasty, puppets played to all social classes including the courts, yet puppeteers, as in Europe, were considered to be from a lower social stratum.Glove puppetry, a variant of hand puppet theatre originating in Fujian and popular in Taiwan, is performed with puppeteers working behind or beneath the stage.
Japan has many forms of puppetry, including the bunraku. Bunraku developed out of Shinto temple rites and gradually became a highly sophisticated form of puppetry. Chikamatsu Monzaemon, considered by many to be Japan's greatest playwright, gave up writing kabuki plays and focused exclusively on the puppet-only bunraku plays. Initially consisting of one puppeteer, by 1730 three puppeteers were used to operate each puppet in full view of the audience. The puppeteers, who dressed all in black, would become invisible when standing against a black background, while the torches illuminated only the carved, painted and costumed wooden puppets.
Korea's tradition of puppetry is thought to have come from China. The oldest historical evidence of puppetry in Korea comes from a letter written in 982 A.D. from Choe Seung-roe to the King. In Korean, the word for puppet is Kkoktugakshi. Gagsi means a "bride" or a "young woman", which was the most common form the dolls took. A kkoktugakshi puppet play has eight scenes.
Southeast Asia
The Indonesian wayang theater was influenced by Indian traditions. Some scholars trace the origin of puppets to India 4000 years ago, where the main character in Sanskrit plays was known as Sutradhara, "the holder of strings". Wayang is a strong tradition of puppetry native to Indonesia, especially in Java and Bali. In Java, wayang kulit, an elaborate form of shadow puppetry, is very popular. Javanese rod puppets have a long history and are used to tell fables from Javanese history. Another popular puppetry form in Indonesia is wayang golek.Thailand has hun krabok, a popular form of rod puppet theatre.
Vietnam developed the art form of water puppetry, unique to that country. The puppets are built out of wood and the shows are performed in a waist-high pool. A large rod under the water is used by puppeteers to support and control the puppets, creating the appearance of the puppets moving over water. The origin of this form of puppetry dates back 700 years when the rice fields would flood and the villagers would entertain each other. Puppet show competitions between Vietnamese villages eventually led to the creation of secretive and exclusive puppet societies.
The Philippines first developed its art of puppetry during the Spanish colonial period. The oldest known Filipino puppetry is the carrillo, also known as kikimut, titire, and potei. It was first recorded in 1879. It involves small carts used in puppet plays with figures made of cardboard utilized for shadow plays. In the late 1800s, another Filipino puppetry developed. Higantes are giant papier-mâché puppets paraded through town during the Higantes Festival. These puppets are made as a devotion to San Clemente and as a mockery against colonial-era land owners who discriminated against Filipinos. Various traditions are connected with the higantes. Since the 20th century, multiple puppet arts have developed in the Philippines. A notable Filipino puppeteer is Amelia Lapeña Bonifacio.
In Burma, today called Myanmar, an elaborate form of puppet shows, called Yoke thé, evolved, based on royal patronage. The probable date of the origin of Burmese marionettes is given as around 1780, during the reign of King Singu Min, and their introduction is credited to the Minister of Royal Entertainment, U Thaw. From their inception, marionettes enjoyed great popularity in the courts of the Konbaung dynasty. Little has changed since the creation of the art by U Thaw, and the set of characters developed by him is still in use today.
India
India has a long tradition of puppetry. In the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata there are references to puppets. Another ancient reference to puppetry is found in Tamil classic ‘Silappadikaaram’ written around 1st or 2nd century B.C. Kathputli, a form of string puppet performance native to Rajasthan, is notable and there are many Indian ventriloquists and puppeteers. The first Indian ventriloquist, Professor Y. K. Padhye, introduced this form of puppetry to India in the 1920s and his son, Ramdas Padhye, subsequently popularised ventriloquism and puppetry. Almost all types of puppets are found in India.There is evidence for puppetry in the Indus Valley civilization. Archaeologists have unearthed one terracotta doll with a detachable head capable of manipulation by a string dating to 2500 BC. Another figure is a terracotta monkey which could be manipulated up and down a stick, achieving minimum animation in both cases. Puppets are described in the epic Mahabharata, Tamil literature from the Sangam era, and various literary works dating from the late centuries BC to the early centuries AD, including the Edicts of Ashoka. Works like the Natya Shastra and the Kama Sutra elaborate on puppetry in some detail.