Tritagoj. Co-created by Kurotani Miyako and Matsuzawa Kayo at the Striped House Gallery, Tokyo. May 29–31, 2024. Kurotani Miyako[1] is a Tokyo-based material artist and founder of the puppetry company entitled genre:Gray. Matsuzawa Kayo,[2] a plastic artist and stage designer also based in Tokyo, is her regular collaborator and the co-creator of Tritagoj, their three-act event staged over three days at the Striped House Gallery. Both artists are known to proceed inductively as they create with an abundance of visual images that eventually formulate a statement. In this case, “never give in” is the message: Tritagoj tells the story of …
Month: February 2026
Performance Review: Ghostly Tales Sung and Materialized: Shinnai Meets Puppetry
Ghostly Tales Sung and Materialized: Shinnai Meets Puppetry. Conceived, directed, and music performed by Sachiyo Takahashi (Okamoto Miya). Puppetry by Rowan Magee and Emma Wiseman. Japan Society, New York, New York. November 7–9, 2024. In November 2024, I had the great privilege and pleasure of attending one of the premiere performances of Shinnai Meets Puppetry at the Japan Society in New York City. What made the evening so memorable was not merely the superb visual imagination and kinetic artistry of puppeteers Rowan Magee and Emma Wiseman, which showcased their virtuoso skills in diverse forms of puppetry, or the exquisite shamisen …
Book Review: Applied Puppetry: The Theory and Practice of Object Ecologies
Applied Puppetry: The Theory and Practice of Object Ecologies. By Matt Smith.London: Bloomsbury, 2024, pp. 185, 20 b/w illustrations. Hardcover $115.00, Softcover $39.95, Ebook (Epub. / Mobile, or PDF) $103.50. I recently encountered the neologism “pracademic”—the term could have been coined for Matt Smith, who himself has been credited with inventing the term Applied Puppetry. His thirty years of experience in theatre-with-objects and interactive puppetry practice saturates this deeply thoughtful and scholarly book. One of the great challenges for practice-based arts researchers is the ephemerality of what we do, and Smith does a great service in capturing on the page …
Report: The Chuncheon World Puppet Festival, May 23 – June 1, 2025
Bradford Clark The article provides an illustrated critical survey of a selection of performances that took place at the May 2025 Chuncheon World Puppet Festival in Chuncheon City, South Korea. Bradford Clark is a Professor of Theatre at Bowling Green State University, Ohio, where he teaches courses in scenic design, puppetry, and Asian theatre. He has designed scenery for BGSU and other venues and has directed and designed puppetry productions as well. Clark studied and researched puppetry performance and craft in several Asian countries. He served as curator for the Worlds of Puppetry Museum for Atlanta’s Center for Puppetry Arts …
