PUPPETRY

the making and manipulation of puppets for use in some kind of theatrical show. A puppet is a figurehuman, animal, or abstract in formthat is moved by human, and not mechanical, aid. These definitions exclude a child's doll or any kind of automaton such as a windup toy unless it is worked or introduced as part of a show by the hand of the puppeteer. A brief account of puppetry follows. For full treatment, see Puppetry. Puppets may be two- or three-dimensional and exist in a wide variety of types. They vary in size from finger puppets to bigger than life size and range from simplest shapes to elaborately articulated figures. A puppet may itself be controlled by several puppeteers or may be one among many simultaneously controlled by one puppeteer. The four most common kinds of puppet are glove puppets, rod puppets, shadow puppets that are operated from below, and string puppets, or marionettes, that are operated from above. This difference has an important bearing on the kind of stage adopted. Whichever puppet the puppeteer uses, he has traditionally sought to hide his presence by clothing that merges with his background or by a booth that screens him from the spectators. It has become increasingly common, however, for the puppeteer to be fully visible throughout the performance. The origins of puppetry may lie with ritual magic, and, undoubtedly, primitive people made puppets before the invention of writing. From its beginnings in tribal society, puppetry has been part of every subsequent civilization. Ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome recorded it, and later the Christian church incorporated puppets in biblical plays and finally outlawed them. Forced onto the streets, and from town to town, wandering showmen continued to present their repertoire of farce, slapstick, and bristling phantasmagoria. In the 17th century the strutting puppet character, then as ever a type rather than an individual, appeared as Pulcinella in Naples, Polichinelle in France, Petrushka in Russia, and Punch in London. Despite a similar foundation in folklore and heroic drama, Far Eastern puppetry developed along somewhat different lines. Like other puppets they are modeled, carved, and dressed in materials that are durable, light, and capable of being worked to a high degree of expressiveness. The shadow puppets of Java, Bali, and Thailand are sometimes flat and sometimes rounded, but they are manipulated by rods against a transparent screen lit from behind. In 18th-century Japan the puppet master Uemura Bunrakuken gave his name to the most stylized and sophisticated puppetry yet devised. Bunraku puppets are less than life size but are operated by the puppet master who controls the head, eyes, and right arm of the puppet, while one assistant moves the left arm, and another the legs. By the 18th century, puppetry in Europe had become so popular that showmen, once itinerant, set up permanent theatres. Although contemporary opera was often parodied by puppets, two prolific composers of serious opera, Alessandro Scarlatti and Josef Haydn, wrote operas specially for marionettes. The Italian Antonio Bibiena, a theatre designer, painted scenery for a marionette production in London in 1780. Puppet theatres sprang up in both Americas, and the new puppet satires and burlesques were frequented by the rich and famous, as well as the masses. At no other time have puppets been so widely accepted. However, no puppeteer became a household name, and the great artists briefly associated with puppet theatres had lent their skills from other spheres. In the 19th century large traveling shows performed pantomimes, and collecting toy theatres became a popular domestic pastime. Puppet cabarets, some displaying breathtaking ingenuity, were given in private drawing rooms. By 1900 many puppet acts had been shortened to vaudeville turns, although the traditional Punch and Judyalong with Baby, Policeman, and Hangmansurvived. The revival of puppetry has attempted to win back adult audiences, meeting with some success. The writer and theatrical visionary Edward Gordon Craig encouraged dramatists to discard the limitations for the potentialities of the puppet, and in the 1920s the German Lotte Reiniger exploited film techniques to produce a remarkable series of silhouette shows based on shadow figures. In the second half of the 20th century, puppets reached a large audience through television. The Muppets, created by American puppeteer Jim Henson and made famous in the educational television show Sesame Street, are now popular in many parts of the world. Touring companies presenting the time-honoured stories of the French Guignol, the Italian Arlecchino, and the German Kasperle are today joined by others with new tales or those combining puppets with masks, acrobatics, and acting. Different again, but equally significant, are the lavish and imaginative productions sponsored by governments in eastern Europe. the making and manipulation of puppets for use in some kind of theatrical show. A puppet is a figurehuman, animal, or abstract in formthat is moved by human, and not mechanical, aid. These definitions are wide enough to include an enormous variety of shows and an enormous variety of puppet types, but they do exclude certain related activities and figures. A doll, for instance, is not a puppet, and a girl playing with her doll as if it were a living baby is not giving a puppet show; but, if before an audience of her mother and father she makes the doll walk along the top of a table and act the part of a baby, she is then presenting a primitive puppet show. Similarly, automaton figures moved by clockwork that appear when a clock strikes are not puppets, and such elaborate displays of automatons as those that perform at the cathedral clock in Strasbourg, Fr., or the town hall clock in Munich, Ger., must be excluded from consideration. Puppet shows seem to have existed in almost all civilizations and in almost all periods. In Europe, written records of them go back to the 5th century BC (e.g., the Symposium of the Greek historian Xenophon). Written records in other civilizations are less ancient, but in China, India, Java, and elsewhere in Asia there are ancient traditions of puppet theatre, the origins of which cannot now be determined. Among the American Indians, there are traditions of puppetlike figures used in ritual magic. In Africa, records of puppets are meagre, but the mask is an important feature in almost all African magical ceremonies, and the dividing line between the puppet and the masked actor, as will be seen, is not always easily drawn. It may certainly be said that puppet theatre has everywhere antedated written drama and, indeed, writing of any kind. It represents one of the most primitive instincts of the human race. This article discusses the various types of puppets as well as historical and contemporary styles of puppet theatre around the world. Some specific national styles of puppetry are treated in the articles East Asian arts and Southeast Asian arts. Additional reading A.R. Philpott, Dictionary of Puppetry (1969), a brief but comprehensive guide to every aspect of the subject; Charles Magnin, Histoire des marionnettes en Europe: depuis l'antiquit jusqu' nos jours, rev. ed. (1862, reprinted 1981), the classic history, not yet superseded; Bil Baird, The Art of the Puppet (1965, reprinted 1973), a magnificently illustrated general survey; Margareta Niculescu (ed.), The Puppet Theatre of the Modern World (1967; originally published in German, 1965), an international presentation sponsored by UNIMA; George Speaight, The History of the English Puppet Theatre, rev. ed. (1990), an exploration of European puppets up to the 17th century, and The History of the English Toy Theatre, rev. ed. (1969); Paul McPharlin, The Puppet Theatre in America: A History, 15241948, rev. ed. (1969), with a supplement covering developments since 1948 by Marjorie Batchelder McPharlin, including a selected bibliography; John Wright, Rod, Shadow, and Glove: Puppets from the Little Angel Theatre (1986), a practical guide on puppet making; David Currell, The Complete Book of Puppet Theatre, rev. ed. (1985), with special emphasis on educational uses of puppetry; and Ann Hogarth and Jan Bussell, Fanfare for the Puppets (1985), an account of a lifetime of experience as performers. George Speaight