Tom Fish The Doll’s Head Trail is a grassroots, low-art installation nestled within a Southeast Atlanta wildlife preserve. Constructed by volunteers and visitors from decades of environmental debris, the trail converts waste into folk art-inspired “junk” displays. The creative upcycling ranges from a miniscule shrine to “Toxic Masculinity” to a stark shoe pile commemorating child gun violence. This article details how queer theory’s “temporal turn” provides insights into material performance as collaborative regeneration. The curious vignettes playfully invert hierarchies, revealing the merits of small-time memorialization. Through these defiantly unofficial grassroot performances, the Doll’s Head Trail both remembers and restores community …
Author: Claudia Orenstein
EXHIBITION REVIEW: Ralph Chessé: A San Francisco Century
Ralph Chessé: A San Francisco Century. Curated by Glen Helfand, May 16–August 18, 2024. Jewett Gallery, San Francisco Main Library, San Francisco, California Ralphael Alexandre Chessé (“Ralph,” 1900–1991) creator of Brother Buzz, the long running children’s program that captivated San Francisco youth from 1952 to 1969, was a founding father of Bay Area puppetry. Through his company, his leadership in the Works Progress Administration (WPA) in the 1930s, and his teaching at San Francisco State College, Chessé played a key role in shaping puppetry in the region (see Bruce Chessé n.d., 2020; Ralph Chessé 1964, 1987; Fisler 2019, Comier with Foley 2022, …
EXHIBITION REVIEW: Puppets: Expressions of Cultures
Puppets: Expressions of Cultures. Exhibition curated by Chen Wan-Ping, Lee Tai-Ling, Kuo Chao-Ling, and Fang Jiann-Neng. National Taiwan Museum, Taipei, Taiwan, December 31, 2024–August 31, 2025. On view at the National Taiwan Museum until August 31, 2025, the exhibition Puppets: Expressions of Cultures offers a glimpse into one of the world’s most comprehensive archives of puppetry arts and provides a rich, multifaceted journey through diverse performance traditions. Initially housed in the Taiyuan Asian Puppet Theatre Museum, founded by Dr. Paul Lin, the collection was transferred to the National Taiwan Museum in 2020 after more than two decades of private stewardship. From a …
PERFORMANCE REVIEW: Phantom Loss
Phantom Loss. Created and performed by Oanh Vu. Directed by Kurt Hunter. In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theater, Minneapolis, MN, March 28–April 7, 2024. Oanh Vu’s Phantom Loss stands out for its elevation of Vietnamese traditions and their role in a modern American setting. Vu, a Minneapolis-based puppeteer and educator, created and performed in this evening-length puppet performance that balanced cultural understanding and innovative puppet design. The tragicomedy was performed by a team of four puppeteers (Tri Vo, Sofia Padilla, Andrew Young, and Oanh Vu) at the historic Avalon Theater, home of In the Heart of the Beast Puppet …
BOOK REVIEW: Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Objects; Volume I Sacred Roots: Material Entities, Consecrating Acts, Priestly Puppeteers
Puppet and Spirit: Ritual, Religion, and Performing Objects; Volume I Sacred Roots: Material Entities, Consecrating Acts, Priestly Puppeteers. Edited by Claudia Orenstein and Tim Cusack. New York: Routledge, 2024. 278 pp., 35 b/w illustrations. Hardback $133.00, Paperback $54.99, eBook $49.49. Puppet and Spirit looks at the many ways puppets, as material objects that perform, often maintain a unique connection to the unseen, to the spirit world. The international roster of authors who have contributed to this book includes both scholars and practitioners in many disciplines and at different points within their career. The essays describe practice, history, culture, and theory relating to puppetry. …
BOOK REVIEW: In the Beginning Were Puppets: Towards a Poetics of Puppetry
In the Beginning Were Puppets: Towards a Poetics of Puppetry. Edited by Sabine Coelsch-Foisner and Lisa Nais. Heidelberg: Universität Verlag Winter, 2023. 240 pp., 37 b/w, 56 color illustrations.1 Hardcover €46,00, Paperback€45,00. In the Beginning Were Puppets: Towards a Poetics of Puppetry is a bilingual collection of fourteen scholarly essays in English and German developed from the first Salzburg Puppet Theatre conference (2020), which was inspired in turn by the Salzburg Marionette Theatre’s 2019 production of Mozart’s opera Bastien and Bastienne, originally mounted by founder Anton Aicher in 1913. UNESCO listed the marionette theatre as Intangible Cultural Heritage for its unique playing technique, and it is one of …
From Samarkand to Spain: Islamic Tales in the Wayang Purwa Repertoire Traditions of Central Javanese Puppetry
Rudy Wiratama Wayang kulit (Javanese shadow puppetry) has long interacted with the global world resulting in the adaptation of repertory making the Indian Mahabharata and Ramayana (wayang purwa)[1] the main tradition of lakons (stories)[2]. But Javanese dhalangs (puppeteers) also had other narratives to be performed with wayang purwa, local mythologies (lakon jawa)[3], and the “branch” tales (lakon carangan)[4] that are offshoots from the main tradition. Some dhalangs also adapted stories from the Javanese Islamic literature about Abrahamic prophets, Islamic holy figures, and allegories from suluk[5] texts from popular manuscripts. Though there are specific puppetry genres dedicated to these narratives, such …
Le Médecin malgré lui in the Context of Karagöz and Karagiozis
Peri Efe The influence of Molière, whose plays were translated and performed in different languages spoken in the Ottoman Empire, extends to shadow theatre. The focus of this article is on the plays inspired by Molière’s Le Médecin malgré lui (The Doctor in Spite of Himself), which are included in the karagöz repertoire under the title Hekimlik (Doctor) and in the karagiozis repertoire under the title Ο Καραγκιόζης γιατρός (Karagiozis Doctor). Despite the existence of other Molière-inspired shadow theatre plays being documented, Le Médecin malgré lui is the sole common play in the repertoires of karagöz and karagiozis. This article …
FOUNDERS OF THE FIELD: Jane Taylor
Lawrence Switzky This article surveys the art and thought of Jane Taylor, one of the most adventurous and virtuosic minds in the study and creation of puppetry. The first section considers Jane’s scripts for puppets and actors: Ubu and the Truth Commission (1996) and Zeno at 4am/Zeno Confessions of Zeno (2002), both collaborations with Handspring Puppet Company and William Kentridge, as well as After Cardenio (2011) and PAN: A Performance Lecture (2018/19). The second section turns to Jane’s wide-ranging theoretical writing on puppetry, particularly her investigations of how puppetry manifests the formation of subjectivity, acts of projection and recognition, the multiplicity of agency and identity, and the body …
REPORT: A Journey Through Puppetry in Africa
Fedelis Kyalo In “A Journey Through Puppetry in Africa,” Fedelis Kyalo highlights the UNIMA Africa Commission’s efforts to promote puppetry as a cultural art form. The article discusses the “Tomorrow’s Puppets in Africa” training program and the “Pro-Vocation: Roots and Wings” conference in Cape Town, titled “An International Exchange on Puppetry Arts in Africa.” These events celebrated and explored African puppetry’s rich traditions and new ideas. They included three training courses, international meetings, a puppet festival, and an inter-African seminar, promoting collaboration and growth in puppetry across Africa. The attendees engaged in meaningful discussions and developed a ten-year plan to …
