Kathy Foley New Materialism, Thing Theory, and Ecocriticism are affecting current performance and lead to productions like The Plastic Bag Store (2020) by Robin Frohardt, Chimpanzee (2019) by Nick Lehane, Aanika’s Elephants by Annie Evans, and PackRat by Renee Philippi. This focus on material as living brings thoughtful attention to puppetry as a discipline, but may merely reinforce what puppeteers already know. While this theory which, linked to climate change, is likely to grow thematically in coming years, can puppetry get us beyond our tendency to demand a human or humanized subject as protagonist? Is it possible to develop a new animism through …
Category: Current Issue
The Name Succession Investitures of the Youki Marionette Family—Interweaving the Old and the New in Edo String Puppetry
Mari Boyd In name succession ceremonies, exhibiting excellence in traditional skills is considered a guarantee of leadership in developing and transmitting the traditional arts. Two new leaders have risen in the Youki marionette family, with differing perspectives evident in their respective celebrations. Isshi IV honored the traditional procedures while Magosaburō XIII included a new play suggesting where the winds of change may take Edo string puppetry. Mari Boyd is professor emeritus at Sophia University, Tokyo. Researcher of modern Japanese theatre including performing objects and intercultural theatre, she is author of Japanese Contemporary Objects, Manipulators, and Actors in Performance (Tokyo: Sophia …
From the Editor
I am thrilled and honored to introduce the first issue of Puppetry International Research, the online, open access, peer review journal devoted to puppetry, masks, and related arts, a project of UNIMA-USA supported by the CUNY Academic Commons. UNIMA-USA’s magazine, Puppetry International, has been serving the puppetry community since 1995, under the direction of Andrew and Bonnie Periale until 2022, and now with Alissa Mello and Mike Kelly at the helm. In recent years it expanded to include a peer review section, edited by Dassia N. Posner, allowing for more scholarly approaches to material. While these strong projects continue, our …
