The Image of the Puppet in Italian Theater, Literature and Film. By Federico Pacchioni. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022. x, 125 pp., 1025 b/w, 9 color illustrations. Hardcover $49.99, eBook $39.99. The best way to appreciate this study is as a map of where a variety of puppet types—not just the most famous of all, Pinocchio—appeared in Italian artistic production across time and various media, with an emphasis on contemporary filmic remediations. Throughout the volume’s twelve short chapters, Pacchioni mentions puppet variants ranging from the wooden-head burattino operated through a glove from below, typical of the Po Valley, to the …
Author: Melissa Flower Gladney
Modernism in Tholpavakoothu: Analyzing Contemporary Productions
Rahul Koonathara Tholpavakoothu is a shadow puppet play of Kerala, South India, performed in Hindu temples in specially constructed puppet playhouses called koothumadam. It narrates the whole Kamparamayanam, the Ramayana text by the twelfth-century Tamil Poet Kampan (1180–1250 CE) to mother goddess Bhagavathy (also Bhagavati). From January to May every year, the tale of Rama and Ravana’s fight is presented through songs and dialogues by puppeteers using leather puppets. Performances start each night after a set of opening rituals and go on till early morning. These performances are highly spiritual and done as an offering to the mother goddess. This …
WORKSHOP REPORT: Wayang Workshop
Wayang Workshop: Balimodule, Denpasar, Bali, May 2-7, 2023, UNIMA-USA and University of California, Santa Cruz A workshop in Denpasar in May 2023 by I Nyoman Sedana and I Made Georgiana Triwinadi introduced foreign theatre practitioners to Balinese wayang kulit. Instruction focused on four character types and culminated in a performance based upon Arjuna’s Meditation. The workshop included visits to noted Balinese dalangs (puppet masters) at their sanggars (home studios) and performances of topeng, kecak, and trance dance enacted within temple contexts. Karen Smith is a recent President of UNIMA-USA. As a member of UNIMA International’s Executive Committee, she has been …
Revitalizing Wayang Puppetry through Creative Lighting
Lighting is a very important element in wayang kulit (shadow puppetry). The use of modern lighting effects in wayang sometimes can actually weaken the appearance of the puppets because they are overshadowed by the glitter. The identity of Balinese wayang, with its aesthetic and symbolic values, demands lighting of a high capacity to illuminate, according to the form of the puppets, in a heightened style, creating a dramatic atmosphere via scenery or background in order to accommodate the shift in contemporary puppet audiences who tend toward realism.
Tutur Candra Bherawa: A New Balinese Theatre Work
I Gusti Putu Sudarta and I Gusti Made Darma Putra Pakeliran Tutur Candra Bherawa (Performance of the Teachings of Candra Bherawa), produced in April 2022 in Denpasar, Bali, was a total theatre performance exploring traditional theatre using song in storytelling. The melodies and vocals were not confined to Balinese and Javanese traditions but borrowed from South Asia’s Sufi qawwali and other spiritual song sources. The form was presented in the Balinese sangita (sung drama) form, which combined singing, instrumental music, puppetry, and dance. I Gusti Putu Sudarta has trained as a musician, composer, dancer, and dalang from his childhood in …
Cenk Blonk’s Balinese Shadow Puppetry During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Dru Hendro and I Made Marajaya Cenk Blonk (I Wayan Nardayana) is Bali’s best known shadow puppeteer (dalang). His moniker is the composite of the names of his two favorite punakawan (clown) characters, Cenk and Blonk. During the COVID-19 pandemic, using his Cenk Blonk Channel on YouTube, he presented a series of simple, ten-to-twenty-minute scenes, featuring clown characters. These were meant to educate the public around issues of COVID-19 and promote social distancing in the Balinese community. Dru Hendro is a graduate of and teacher at the Institut Seni Indonesia (ISI, Indonesian Arts Institute) in Denpasar, Bali. His extensive writings …
Surya Sewana in Balinese Wayang Wong Performance at Sanur Village Festival 2022
I Made Sidia Balinese see puppetry as the model and source of dance drama. A dalang (puppeteer) responds flexibly to the change from puppet, to masking, to human dancers and suits the needs of those seeking his/her expertise. To revive tourism, which had fallen due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2022 Sanur Village Festival (Sanfes) took the theme Surya Sewana (Glorifying the Sun). As a dalang, the author I Made Sidia, created a wayang wong (literally,“human puppetry”) performance staged at the festival telling the Ramayana story of the hermit Resi Wiswamitra, Rama, and Lakshmana carrying out the Surya Sewana ceremony …
Bhatara Kala: Sacred Myth in Balinese Wayang Parwa Shadow Puppetry
I Dewa Ketut Wicaksana, Ni Diah Purnamawati, and I Dewa Ketut Wicaksandita The sacred story of Bhatara Kala (God of Time) is presented for the sapuh leger (sweeping impurity) in Balinese shadow puppetry. The tale is derived from lontars (palm-leaf manuscripts) including Kala Tatwa (Reality of Kala), Kala Purana (Myth of Kala), and others. This symbolic story, related to magico-religious thought, provides guidelines for the community. This paper discusses five narratives in lontar versions of the tale, then notes the interpretation/analysis provided by Dalang I Made Sidja, a senior puppet master of the Balinese wayang tradition. Some of these ideas …
Training in Contemporary Balinese Wayang
I Nyoman Sedana The goal in studying Balinese wayang (puppetry) is to understand its traditions, aesthetics, philosophy, and innovations to create productions that appeal to contemporary viewers. Through family- and school-based training, students are taught kawi dalang (the creative art of the puppet master). At Institut Seni Indonesia (ISI, Indonesian Institute of the Arts) in Denpasar, curricular innovations have occurred and theory and practical work combine. Students’ final projects often favor contemporary wayang using new puppets, innovative stories, music, and manipulation techniques. I Nyoman Sedana is a professor at the Indonesian Institute of the Arts (ISI) Denpasar, director of Balimodule, …
The Dissenting Paper in Zero-COVID China
Zhixuan Zhu This article explores how paper became a tool of political dissent in Chinese people’s protests against the government’s authoritarian policies of “zero-COVID” and their collateral humanitarian crises. Paper took center stage in two incidents in 2022: the Chinese college students’ “cardboard dog zeal” during campus lockdown and the national protest/vigil known as the “white paper movement” or “A4 revolution.” In analyzing the two cases, I reveal how quotidian entities transform into puppets and performing objects that empower political expressions with their inherent materiality. Zhixuan Zhu is a PhD student in Theatre and Performance at the Graduate Center, City …
