Puppetry

History Not certain but puppetry is said to have started in the far east. Used to tell traditional stories but with a real element of entertainment Indonesians used wayang shadow puppets to tell their stories. Shows opened with speech from a holy person and continued to be serious. Bunraku puppets later developed in Japan to replace human actors on stage. Each had three operators in plain sight but dressed in completely black. Also popular in Europe, using them to act out morality plays. By the 19 th century, Pietro Radillo upgraded puppets from two strings and a rod to as many as eight strings allowing more control and believability

Hand.. Most simple is hand Often made from fabric Inside compartment for movable jaw Sock puppets More complex Inside compartment for head and arms Well-known glove puppets – sooty and sweep 17 th century China..and Glove Puppets

Rod Puppets Manipulated with wooden or wire rods. Hinged mouths or fixed facial expressions Rods are attached to arms and hands, allowing them to move Only the top half of the body. Some have dangling legs Rod and Glove Puppets Combination Feature a central rod. Arms and hands controlled by puppeteers fingers

Shona Reppe Studied Theatre and History of Art at Glasgow University (graduating 1991) Also attended the Welsh College of Drama in Cardiff and The London School of Puppetry Established Shona Reppe Puppets in 1996 Dedicated to creating small scale theatre for children and their families Early work included The Elves and the Shoemaker (1996) and Tom Thumb (2000) Cinderella (2002) Total Theatre Award winner 2002 Toured all over the world in a variety of venues Later works include The Ugly Duckling and Potato Needs a Bath Future work includes Huff, an art installation for children, based on The Three Little Pigs

The Little Angel Theatre Established in 1961 Islington-based 100 seat theatre stands next to the workshop where all puppets are developed. Produce own shows which play in-house and tour nationally and internationally. Welcome other companies to perform on their stage Puppetry training

Shadow puppets

History More than 2000 years ago, a famous emperor’s concubine (lover) in china died of an illness; the emperor missed her so much that he lost his desire to rule. One day, a minister (head of government) saw children playing with dolls where the shadows on the floor were rich. Inspired by this scene He made a cotton puppet of the emperor’s lover and painted it. At night time, he invited the emperor to watch a rear- illuminated puppet show behind a curtain. The emperor was delighted. This story recorded in the official history book is believed to be the origin of shadow puppetry.

Materials In recent ages Shadow puppets were first made of paper, later from the hides of donkeys or oxen. Shadow puppetry was very popular during the Dynasties in many parts of China. In more recent times the materials of shadow puppetry have progressed to something more complex such as colour more complex designs with wood and metal. Along with progress in puppet designs the scenes or settings for this entertainment improved to using screens instead of projections. By using more sturdy materials it makes the puppet more flexible and tolerant to movement making it more pleasing to watch and convincing to the audience.

Performance The screen is where the puppet will move in and tell its story. There a many different types of shadow screening. Shadow screens must transmit as much light as possible, but at the same time, be opaque enough to hide the puppeteers. It also needs to be tight enough so that the puppets can be pushed against it lightly without it sagging and thin enough to give sharp edges to the shadows.

Hand Puppets

Hand puppets are storytellers, used to engage with young minds, having a strong appeal to children, it has been shown to increase the attention span of children, therefore using hand puppets as a tool to teach in education Hand puppets have been known to be used in Religion rituals wearing masks and representing religious figures in the Far Eastern, Middle Eastern and South American. Hand puppets were also used in Christianity as the people did not know how to read, monks and priests learned puppetry skills to teach and tell them bible stories. Popular hand puppet show called Avenue-Q live shows, requires two puppeteers, both contributes one hand and arm dresses with a long sleeve and glove, matching the puppet’s costume, which becomes the arms and hands of the puppets.

Burnaku

Introduction Bunraku was originally named after the first theatre it was preformed in. The art form only became well known internatitionly as Bunraku in the late 1800s. It is renowned for the high quality of detail in the puppets and the puppeteers techniques. It is required that every puppet needs 3 puppeteers. Omo zukai- Head puppeteer (controls the head and the dolls right hand) Hidari-zukai- Left hand puppeteer Ashi-zukai- Foot puppeteer

Joruri- The music in Burnaku Joruri- This is a type of chant which is used as a script. Joruri Gidya-Bushi- Is the Joruri narrative to depict the scenes. The objective of Gidya-Bushi is to give an inanimate object the ‘breathe of life’. There are 2 types of music used in Burnaku Utai- Singing Katari- Reacting or chanting The chanter (Taya) recites dialogue, explains the background and the event taking place.

Puppet costumes The detailed costumes of the puppets consist of 5 different sections. Juban- The under robe Kitsuke- The inner Kimono Hoori- The outer jacket Eri – The collar Obi- The belt/ sash To give the puppets depth and softness they were stuffed with cotton.

In Japan the colour black meant ‘nothingness’.Bunraku adopted this and employed black robbed puppeteers. However the due to the talent of the master puppeteers the audience wanted to see the puppeteers, this is known as De-zukai. There has been a Japanese /western styled film based on Bunraku with is called ‘Bunraku’. Which is worth watching if you like the Bunraku style.

Artist research

Paul Klee Bauhaus artist, who originally made puppets for his son as part of a puppet show. Between 1916 and 1925 he created a total of around 50 hand puppets for his son of which 30 are still in existence. For the heads he would use household items: electrical outlets, bristle brushes, nutshells… Some costumes were sewn by Sasha Morgenthaler (who later became a well known puppet maker) but he soon took over the task himself.

Sergey Obraztsov Puppet master who established puppetry as an art form in the Soviet Union and who is considered to be one of the greatest puppeteers of the 20 th Century. Started of studying art, then ventured into acting (at the ‘Moscow Nemirovich-Danchenko Music Theatre’ and the ‘Moscow Art Theatre’)during this time he gave independent vaudeville-style puppet shows and was chosen by the soviet government as the first director of the ‘State Central Puppet Theatre’ He staged 61 plays, including many famous people and directed his theatre until the last days of his life.