Welcome to the second issue of Puppetry International Research. While still relatively new, PIR is already experiencing some shifts and new growth. We initially intended to be a fall/spring publication. However, UNIMA-USA has asked us to move to a summer/winter schedule in order to stagger with the publication calendar of its long-established magazine, Puppetry International. This change accounts for the delay in the launch of our second issue. With the current edition, PIR is also welcoming several new members to the team: Skye Strauss as Book Review Editor, Colette Searls as Performance Review Editor, and Jungmin Song as Exhibition Review Editor. Each is already developing guidelines and working to shape their section. This second issue also inaugurates a new, and what is hoped to be an ongoing offering, a section entitled Founders of the Field. The series brings focus to and understanding of the contributions of significant individuals to the field of puppetry arts, importantly, though not exclusively, in terms of scholarship. Acknowledging the work of senior scholars not only honors those who have paved the way before us, but also helps clarify the history of our field and offers further orientation to the overall landscape of puppetry studies. Following in the model of a similar series published in Asian Theatre Journal, the intention here is to feature articles written by authors with a personal connection to their subject who can give personal as well as critical insights into them and their contributions. Our first essay in the series is on Nancy Lohman Staub written by Bradford Clark who worked with her on expanding the museum at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia.
The peer-reviewed articles in this issue cover a variety of diverse topics. John Bell’s “Pictures and Puppet Performance: Peter Schumann’s Bedsheet Paintings,” introduces readers to recent developments in Bread and Puppet Theater founder Peter Schumann’s artistry. It clarifies the unique position of this important company within US theatre and puppetry arts and analyzes the many ways Schuman’s new series of paintings using bedsheets as a canvas are being incorporated into performance. Bettina Girotti’s “Mane Bernardo and Sarah Bianchi’s Acting Hands: Pantomime of Hands and Modern Puppet Theatre,” originally published in Spanish in Analaes del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas, delves into the history and development of the Argentine troupe Títeres Mane Bernardo Sarah Bianchi’s experiments in using the bare hand as a puppet, work that challenged traditional notions of puppetry in its day. In “Anamorphosis: Puppetry, Animation, and Automation in William Kentridge,” Mark Sanders offers a theoretically sophisticated analysis of the idea of anamorphosis as a concept at work in both the puppetry and animation work of multi-faceted artist William Kentridge, proposing this idea as a unifying feature of Kentridge’s expansive oeuvre.
The Report section offers insight into two conferences demarcating new fields of investigation within puppetry and mask studies. In “Women and Masks: Reflections on a Conference, a Project, and a Field,” Felice Amato shares her thoughts on the multipart conference she organized on this emergent topic, which took place online in 2021-22, bringing together a wide range of artists and perspectives on the subject. My report summarizes the extremely engaging presentations from scholars across a variety of disciplines, including English, Art History, and Medieval Studies, at the Early European Puppetry Studies Conference organized by Michelle Oing and Nicole Sheriko at Yale University in fall of 2023. The weekend of events revealed Early Europe as a rich terrain of material performance. This issue’s book, performance, and exhibition review sections are robust with reviews of two new books, Jo Ann Cavallo’s The Sicilian Puppet Theater of Agrippino Manteo (1884-1947): The Paladins of France in America, reviewed by Enza De Francisci, and Colette Searl’s A Galaxy of Things: The Power of Puppets and Masks in Star Wars and Beyond, reviewed by Kevin Wetmore, four recent productions, and two exhibitions. Notably among these, Jesse Njus takes us through all three shows of Wakka Wakka’s Animalia Trilogy, charting the inter-relationships between the various parts and the broad goals of this expansive project, and Kathy Foley brings the abundant offerings and historical perspectives of the exhibit “The Calling: The Transformative Power of African American Doll and Puppet Making” to readers, allowing this important exhibit to reach a wider audience than may have been able to appreciate during its presentation in New York.
Special thanks are due to the Review Board for this issue: Dawn Brandes, Izabela Brochado, Kathy Foley, Gabriel Levine, Aja Marneweck, and Lawrence Switzky. Each one gave the articles they received their time and expertise and have helped to strengthen work in our field. And, as always, special thanks to our Karen Smith, who has carefully copyedited everything in the issue and Melissa Flowers Gladney, Editorial and Layout Assistant, who continues to develop the look and operations of the journal website as she brings PIR materials online. Thanks as well to Tim Cusack for further, ad hoc, copyediting advice.
PIR is open to submissions for all sections at all times, so there is no need to wait for a specific call for papers to submit an article or run an idea by one of our editors.
A relatively new addition to our journal website is found on the landing page: A section for announcements. This space is specifically for announcements related to puppetry scholarship–conferences, calls for papers, new publications. Please feel free to contact us if you have an announcement you would like to submit, and we will consider it and do our best to post it in a timely fashion.
Claudia Orenstein
Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY
