A research journal dedicated to puppetry, masks, and related arts

Puppetry International Research (PIR)  is a global, interdisciplinary, academic journal dedicated to puppetry and the allied areas of masks, performing objects, and material performance. Its mission is to foster scholarship on puppet theatre and related arts as practiced in the past and present around the world and deepen historical and theoretical understanding of the field. Its empirical, analytical, and theoretical peer-reviewed articles, as well as critical book, performance, and exhibition reviews, and field reports aim to strengthen puppetry studies as an academic discipline. The journal welcomes submissions from scholars and reflective practitioners from all related disciplines. A project of UNIMA-USA, growing out of the peer-review section of its acclaimed magazine, Puppetry International, PIR publishes twice a year on the CUNY Academic Commons.

Founding Editor: Claudia Orenstein, Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY, New York

ISSN: 2994-7944

Photo: performances & workshops at the 28th Annual NATIONAL PUPPETRY CONFERENCE; photographed: June 9-17, 2018 at Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Waterford, CT. Photograph by Richard Termine ¬© 2018 RICHARD TERMINE.

Fig. 7. Duke Orsino (left) and Lady Olivia (right). (Image: from “Program for the Investiture of Magosaburō XIII” 2021).

In the land where time is suspended, the grandfathers who fought in the war share a train ride while an origami crane chases them down with a message. The grandfathers are played by the grandchildren, Lott and Kikuchi, wearing masks. From left to right: Spencer Lott, Maiko Kikuchi. (Photo: Maria Baranova)

Fig. 4. Isshi IV rehearses the Princess Yaegaki role. The precious magic helmet seems to float above. (Photo: Courtesy of Isshiza).

Visits to the home of practicing dalangs allowed us to see grandparent and grandson co-demonstrate. (Photo: Kathy Foley)

Figure 4. Ni Sendy, winner of female dalang competition. (Photo: Kathy Foley)

a project of UNIMA-USA

This project is supported in part by an award from
the National Endowment for the Arts.

ANNOUNCEMENTS

New Publication: Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Objets, Volume 2

The second volume of the two-volume anthology, Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Objects, edited by Claudia Orenstein and Tim Cusack, has just come our from Routledge.

Volume II, Contemporary Branchings: Secular Benedictions, Activated Energies, Uncanny Faiths, a companion to Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Objects, Volume I, aims to explore the many types of relationships that exist between puppets, broadly speaking, and the immaterial world.

The allure of the puppet goes beyond its material presence as, historically and throughout the globe, many uses of puppets and related objects have expressed and capitalized on their posited connections to other realms or ability to serve as vessels or conduits for immaterial presence. The flip side of the puppet’s troubling uncanniness is precisely the possibilities it represents for connecting to discarnate realities. Where do we see such connections in contemporary artistic work in various mediums? How do puppets open avenues for discussion in a world that seems to be increasingly polarized around religious values? How do we describe, analyze, and theorize the present moment? What new questions do puppets address for our times, and how does the puppet’s continued entanglement with these concerns trouble or comfort us? The essays in this book, from scholars and practitioners, provide a range of useful models and critical vocabularies for addressing this aspect of puppet performance, further expanding the growing understanding and appreciation of puppetry generally.

This book, along with its companion volume, offers, for the first time, robust coverage of this subject from a diversity of voices, examples, and perspectives.

New Publication: Paperback edition of THE SICILIAN PUPPET THEATER OF AGRIPPINO MANTEO

THE SICILIAN PUPPET THEATER OF AGRIPPINO MANTEO (1884-1947)

Book Summary

This study reconstructs the history of the Manteo family marionette theater in New York City, provides translations of eight selected plays and 270 extant summaries, and offers comparative analyses uncovering how Agrippino Manteo’s scripts creatively adapt Italian Renaissance chivalric poems and nineteenth-century prose compilations.

About the Author

Jo Ann Cavallo (Ph.D., Yale, 1987), Professor of Italian at Columbia University, has published widely on Italian chivalric epic, including The World beyond Europe in the Romance Epics of Boiardo and Ariosto and The Romance Epics of Boiardo, Ariosto, and Tasso: From Public Duty to Private Pleasur

https://anthempress.com/the-sicilian-puppet-theater-of…

Call for Papers: Routledge Focus: Ecodramaturgies 

Call for papers for the volume on Ecodramaturgies for Routledge Focus on Dramaturgy series, edited by Magda Romanska: 

https://www.routledge.com/Focus-on-Dramaturgy/book-series/RFOD

The term “ecodramaturgy,” coined by Theresa May in 2007, implies how the environment and climate change are interrogated and promoted through performance. While connections between storytelling and the natural world go back to the earliest forms of theatre, it has only been recently that theatre scholars have begun to probe the ways that theatre can be used to address climate change or connect audiences back to nature, as evidenced in the work of Chantal Bilodeau, Una Chaudhuri, and Lisa Woynarski, among others. 

This volume attempts to illustrate the scope of the many ecodramaturgies at play around the world. For the collection, I am seeking brief chapters (app. 2,500 words, including notes and bibliography) on ecodramaturgies, that fall under the broad categories of staging and practices, voices and narration, climate justice, and ecocriticsm. Chapters may include case studies of individual works, statements by or interviews with theatre artists and companies, as well as essays. 

Possible topics to consider include ways in which the following themes are engaged and interrogated through the performing arts, including theatre, dance, and puppetry: 

• Climate justice 
• Community engagement in environmental activism 
• Connections between 2SLGBTQIA+ activism and climate activism 
• Ecocriticism 
• Ecoscenography and Environmental staging 
• Indigenous knowledges 
• The post-Anthropocene 
• Sustainability in design 
• Voices of nature 

For the collection, I am particularly interested in chapters that reflect perspectives from First Nations, Indigenous, and other Global South communities and cultures. 

Please send abstracts of up to 300 words, along with a brief bio (50 words) to hdenyer@fullerton.edu by August 31, 2024. Accepted notifications will be sent by September 30, 2024, and first drafts of chapters will be due by March 30, 2025.