An Introduction
 Puppet
theatre is a very old
form of expression
 It is found throughout the
world, and each culture has
developed its own specific
style
 Today, in the West, puppetry is
often associated with children
 While it is true that puppetry is
a form of theatre which
enchants children, we will also
see that it can take many
different forms, several of
which are aimed at adults
 Puppetry
is a fascinating medium
which often combines several
forms of art, including sculpture,
painting, design, writing, acting
and music
 Puppets are most commonly
classed according to their
methods of manipulation — the
means used by the puppeteer to
make the puppet move
 For example, there are puppets
which are slipped over the hand,
marionettes manipulated with
strings, shadow theatre in which
characters glide behind a backlit
screen, and many others
 The
repertoire — meaning the
collections of stories which are
performed — the types of
puppets, and the audiences
to which the performances
are addressed, all help to
determine the style of
puppetry
 Today's puppeteers are being
enriched by puppetry's many
traditions — a form of cultural
exchange which is inspiring
new forms of theatre, new
materials and new techniques.
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Indonesia has a rich tradition of puppet
theatre, notably on the islands of Bali
and Java
Two of the most important theatrical
forms are the wayang kulit, a shadow
theatre, and wayang golek, which uses
rod puppets
The stories which are performed are
largely drawn from two Hindu
mythological epics: the Mahabharata
and the Ramayana
Noble princes and princesses, gods and
goddesses, demons and wise clowns
people the many episodes performed
from the epics
They combine daring battles, love
poems, philosophical lessons and
buffoonery, in addition to current events,
local references, jokes and satire
 The
puppeteer, called a
dalang in Indonesia, is the
undisputed master of this
form of theatre
 He animates the shadows or
the puppets, narrates, sings
dialogue and poems, uses a
different voice for each
character, improvises jokes,
and directs the gamelan —
an orchestra composed of
brass gongs
 The dalang is a respected
artist
 The
wayang is a theatre with
several functions: although it is
entertaining and amusing, it
also has a spiritual side
 A wayang spectacle will often
be presented at events which
mark important changes in life,
such as marriages, births or
deaths
 The performance usually
begins at sunset, and can last
all night, with both children
and adults in attendance
 Western
puppet threatre
has also been influenced
by Indonesian puppetry
 At the turn of the
twentieth century,
European puppeteers
began to work with rod
puppets and, today,
these are among the
most commonly-used
types of puppets
In Japan, bunraku developed during
the seventeenth century
 In this theatrical form, majestic dolls
— which can measure as much as
145 cm — are each animated by
three puppeteers, in full view of the
public
 While the puppets play out the
action, a narrator, sitting near the
stage, tells the story, interprets the
voices of the characters, and recites
the poetic text
 A musican accompanies the recital
on a three-stringed musical
instrument, called a shamisen,
contributing to the dramatic
atmosphere

 The
art of bunraku lies in making
the puppet's movement so lifelike
that the audience forgets the
presence of the puppeteers
 In order to make the movements
of bunraku puppets believable,
the three puppeteers must
synchronize their movements
perfectly
 To become a master puppeteer
— the one who manipulates the
puppet's head — a puppeteer
must count on at least 25 years of
training
 Bunraku
is an extremely
sophisticated form of theatre
which presents dramas, often
with tragic endings, in which the
heroes must choose between
passion and duty, and between
love and honour
 It is a theatre which is aimed
primarily at an adult audience
 These dramas, in which the
characters are eighteenthcentury samurai warriors,
aristocrats or representatives of
the middle class, do not really
reflect the problems and
aspirations of modern Japanese
society
 Bunraku
is so important to
Japanese culture that a
permanent theatre dedicated
to the art of bunraku — the
National Bunraku Theatre in
Osaka — opened its doors in
1984
 Bunraku has had a major
influence on the development
of modern puppetry
 This technique is still often
used, and has inspired several
forms of full-view manipulation
 In
the streets of London,
Judy throws herself on
Punch and hammers him
with a stick
 In a park in Lyon, Guignol
rebounds to deal the furious
policeman a good, hard
smack!
 In Munich and Vienna,
Kasperl saves himself just in
time from the crocodile who
wants to snap him up
 Although
these characters
come from different corners of
Europe, they have many
things in common
 All are mischievous, boastful
and provocative, and all are
part of an important tradition:
the tradition of travelling street
theatre
 They are all hand puppets
 These types of puppets can
easily hold an object (a
practical consideration when
the puppet needs to pick up a
stick to hit its opponent!)
A
hand-puppet show was,
and still often is, performed
inside a puppet booth
 The small size of hand puppets
makes it possible to have a
fairly small, portable puppet
booth which folds up
 This is exactly what is needed
by a puppeteer who is moving
from town to town to perform
 The puppeteers traditionally
performed at market day for
audiences of adults and
children alike
The traditional stories of these
travelling puppeteers were amusing
and simple, enabling the puppeteer
to improvise dialogue freely, inspired
by his audience and by local current
events
 Audiences particularly loved it when
heroes defied authority, morality and
the established order
 Today, however, these
performances are more often aimed
at children and, while still amusing,
are less satirical than before
 For the travelling street artist —
musician, puppeteer or juggler —
the same principles remain: travel
light, know how to improvise, and
adapt the show to your audience

Marionettes are able to imitate
humans, because they have both
arms and legs
 Performances featuring marionettes
often strive to feature the most
realistic human movement possible.
 Towards the end of the seventeenth
century, permanent theatres were
built, in which marionettes
performed pieces taken from the
world of live theatre, opera and
ballet
 In contrast with hand puppets,
marionettes were more often
associated with audiences that were
aristocratic or middle class

During the twentieth century, Czech
puppet theatre — and the puppet
theatre of Eastern European
countries (former Soviet republics,
former Yugoslavia, Hungary,
Bulgaria, Poland, Romania, etc.) —
experienced considerable
development
 Using the model of the former Soviet
Union, permanent national theatres
which were well equipped and
subsidized by the state were
established in several cities
 Schools and programmes
specializing in the art of puppetry
were developed, providing a very
favourable environment for research
and artistic exploration

 As
far back as the 1940s,
puppeteers in Eastern Europe
were using rod puppets, masks
and full-view manipulation
 They then began
experimenting with
performances which
combined several types of
puppet, or combined live
actors with puppets
 All of this experimentation
contributed greatly to the
development of modern
puppetry as we know it today
 With
the advent of television,
puppetry found a new means
of production and reaching
the masses
 The first contact that most of
us have with puppets is often
made through children's
educational programming
 Engaging and endearing
characters help us learn how
to spell or count, or find
themselves in situations which
make us laugh and make us
think
 The
specific context of studio
production and the technical
possibilities offered by the
camera have enabled new
ways of manipulating puppets,
and have also given risen to
new forms of puppetry
 If you look closely at the
celebrated Muppets created
by American puppeteer Jim
Henson, for example, you can
see that their style is closely
tied to the medium of
television
 The
puppets are made of
flexible materials like fabric,
foam and polystyrene,
instead of rigid materials like
wood
 They are also given large,
mobile mouths (which gives
them the name moving
mouth puppets)
 These characteristics give
the puppets a wide variety
of expressions, which makes
the dialogue, filmed in
close-up, very dynamic
 In
a studio production,
puppeteers manipulate their
puppets by watching a video
monitor, which feeds them the
puppet's image
 This enables the puppeteer to
see exactly what the viewer sees
 Therefore, the puppeteer can
constantly adjust the puppet's
movements
 This differs greatly from a stage
production, in which the
puppeteer must manipulate the
puppet live and must often
"sense" the audience's reaction
 The
puppeteer who works for a
large national theatre or a
television production company is
primarily concerned with the
manipulation of the puppet and,
depending on the context, to the
creation of the characters' voices
and to acting
 The puppeteer's responsibility for
a good performance is shared
with the stage directors, set
designers, camera operators,
lighting technicians, composers,
sound engineers, costumers, the
artists who make the puppets,
and others
A
puppeteer who works alone
or in a small troupe, travelling
from school to school or town
to town, must be able to do
everything, or almost
everything, in order to
produce a show including
writing, directing, manipulating
the puppets and creating the
actual puppets — not to
mention that he or she also
has to have good business
sense in order to keep the
theatre company going
 In
Canada, there is no school
dedicated to the art of puppetry
 Many puppeteers have theatrical
training; others learn their craft by
working with other puppeteers
 Sometimes they will perfect their
techniques by undergoing an
apprenticeship, or by studying
abroad
 Some specialize in televised
productions; others combine
television work with theatrical
productions
 They can work as freelancers in
puppet theatre companies, or
found their own companies
 You
have to be a master
of many skills in order to
make it as a puppeteer
 Remember that, when the
puppets dance, fly, cry,
sing and seem to breathe,
it is thanks to the multiple
talents of the puppeteers!