Wonderland Puppet Theater Symposium. The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, University of Connecticut, October 25-26, 2024. The article summarizes the presentations of the two-day “Wonderland Puppet Theater Symposium” organized by The Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry, with support from the University of Connecticut, in October, 2024. This exhibition explored the fifty-year interracial collaboration of two pioneering puppeteers, Alice Swann and Nancy Schmale, in the late twentieth century. The symposium investigates the works, influences, and societal challenges faced by Alice Swann and Nancy Schmale, who lived in the Concord Park community inspired by Martin Luther King, Jr.’s vision of …
Category: Articles
Ukrainian Resistance Through the Nativity Puppet Theatre Vertep: Exposure of Russian Aggression in the Images of Moskal and Herod
Tetiana Zinovieva This article delves into the historical and cultural significance of vertep, a traditional Ukrainian portable Christmas puppet theatre, specifically focusing on a character known as Moskal. Vertep, with its multi-tiered structure, showcases both sacred and profane characters, embodying societal and cultural archetypes and stereotypes. Representing a national-ethnic identity, Moskal has a dynamic, often shifting, role within the performance, determined by contextual associations. The following discussion traces the evolution of the Moskal character in traditional Nativity plays, highlighting changing perceptions in light of modern events in Ukraine, particularly the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war since 2014. The focus of the research is on …
Women Karagöz Puppeteers in Turkey: Ambiguous Alliances within a Patriarchal Playing Field
Deniz Başar With karagöz puppetry categorized as a UNESCO intangible cultural heritage in 2009, The Ministry of Culture became the only official accreditation for any or all karagöz artists in Turkey. While this has opened a new door for female karagöz artists to earn certificates of proficiency, juries made up mostly of men have made it difficult, if not impossible, for Turkish women to get accredited. This article analyzes the cultural and institutional barriers that women karagöz practitioners face—including precarious encounters with male shadow masters who are determined to keep women out of the field—while highlighting understudied aspects of their points of entry into the profession. As many women continue to challenge the gender-based gatekeeping …
Animism and Performing Objects in the Processions of Muharram
Salma Mohseni Ardehali In Iran and in Shia Islam, and in the mourning ceremonies of Ashura, some performative/theatrical rituals have developed. One of the most common and prominent of these is the procession. These processions are classified as mass mourning rituals. However, since the process of “performing” has a relatively specific beginning, middle, and end and a predetermined ritual, and more importantly, a large number of people who watch or accompany these processions, in this article we consider such processions to be a kind of ritual “performance” that has highly figurative theatrical elements. These elements (objects and figures) are expressive …
Ukrainian Puppet Theatre with Children and Adolescents During the War
Sofiia Rosa-Lavrentii The current research focuses on the methods and adaptations that the Ukrainian puppet theatre has explored in order to build communication with younger viewers in times of war. In the article, we explore how the modern puppet theatre presents such difficult topics as war and trauma and also how it specifically communicates with its youngest audiences. We explore the question: “What is the role of theatre in speaking and creating narratives on topics provoked by the war?” In discussing the creativity of Ukrainian puppet theatres from this perspective, we single out several distinct themes, each of which is …
Anamorphosis: Puppetry, Animation, and Automation in William Kentridge
Mark Sanders Among contemporary artists, William Kentridge is notable for having worked across multiple media. Of particular note are the ways in which the techniques of his animated films intersect with elements from his collaborations in puppet theatre with Handspring Puppet Company, and how his ideas about automaticity reveal puppetry as a condition of possibility both for filmmaking and for the drawing that, in Kentridge’s filmic work, underpins his Drawings for Projection (1989-2020). Tracing these intersections and ideas, this essay asserts the relevance of anamorphosis as an explanatory concept. Mark Sanders is Professor of Comparative Literature and English at New …
Women and Masks: Reflections on a Conference, a Project, and a Field
Felice Amato During 2021-22, we held a year-long virtual conference entitled “Women and Masks: A Transdisciplinary Arts-Research Conference” through Boston University. This report provides insights into the four weekends of virtual events, which featured presenters from around the world who offered a diverse range of content and experiential opportunities. The conference was inspired by the organizers’ interest in women’s complex experiences with mask practices. It highlighted the paradoxical potential of masks, often revealing the political and cultural narratives surrounding women. The intersection of these two themes exposed both exclusions and acts of agency while illuminating the complex phenomena related to …
Founders of the Field: Nancy Lohman Staub
Bradford Clark This is a profile of Nancy Staub, the founder of the Worlds of Puppetry Museum at the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta, Georgia. The article traces her contributions to world puppetry from the 1950s to the present day. As a performer, director, producer, researcher, and collector, she has collaborated with international puppet artists (including Jim Henson) and scholars to bring awareness of puppet theatre to a wider audience. The article includes a selected bibliography of her publications. Bradford Clark is a professor in the Department of Theatre and Film at Bowling Green State University, Bowling Green, Ohio, …
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 …
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 …
