Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance that involves the manipulation of puppets, the inanimate objects, often resembling some type of human or animal figure, that are animated or manipulated by a human called a puppeteer. Such a performance is also known as a puppet production. The script for a puppet production is called a puppet play. Puppeteers use movements from hands and arms to control devices such as rods or strings to move the body, head, limbs, and in some cases the mouth and eyes of the puppet. The puppeteer sometimes speaks in the voice of the character of the puppet, while at other times they perform to a recorded soundtrack.

There are many different varieties of puppets, and they are made of a wide range of materials, depending on their form and intended use. They can be extremely complex or very simple in their construction. The simplest puppets are finger puppets, which are tiny puppets that fit onto a single finger, and sock puppets, which are formed from a sock and operated by inserting one's hand inside the sock, with the opening and closing of the hand simulating the movement of the puppet's "mouth". A hand puppet or glove puppet is controlled by one hand which occupies the interior of the puppet and moves the puppet around. Punch and Judy puppets are familiar examples. Other hand or glove puppets are larger and require two puppeteers for each puppet. Japanese bunraku puppets are an example of this. Marionettes are suspended and controlled by a number of strings, plus sometimes a central rod attached to a control bar held from above by the puppeteer. Rod puppets are made from a head attached to a central rod. Over the rod is a body form with arms attached controlled by separate rods. They have more movement possibilities as a consequence than a simple hand or glove puppet.

Puppetry is a very ancient form of theatre which was first recorded in the 5th century BC in Ancient Greece. Some forms of puppetry may have originated as long ago as 3000 years BCE.

History

thumb|right|A [[wayang golek wooden puppet performance in Indonesia]]

Puppetry is a very ancient art form, thought to have originated about 4000 years ago. Puppets have been used since the earliest times to animate and communicate the ideas and needs of human societies. Some historians claim that they pre-date actors in theatre. There is evidence that they were used in Egypt as early as 2000 BCE when string-operated figures of wood were manipulated to perform the action of kneading bread. Wire controlled, articulated puppets made of clay and ivory have also been found in Egyptian tombs.

Africa

Sub-Saharan Africa may have inherited some of the puppet traditions of ancient Egypt. In Korean, the word for puppet is Kkoktugakshi. Some scholars trace the origin of puppets to India 4000 years ago, where the main character in Sanskrit plays was known as Sutradhara, "the holder of strings". In the late 1800s, another Filipino puppetry developed. Higantes are giant papier-mâché puppets paraded through town during the Higantes Festival. These puppets are made as a devotion to San Clemente and as a mockery against colonial-era land owners who discriminated against Filipinos. Various traditions are connected with the higantes. Since the 20th century, multiple puppet arts have developed in the Philippines.

In Burma, today called Myanmar, an elaborate form of puppet shows, called Yoke thé, evolved, based on royal patronage. The probable date of the origin of Burmese marionettes is given as around 1780, during the reign of King Singu Min, and their introduction is credited to the Minister of Royal Entertainment, U Thaw. From their inception, marionettes enjoyed great popularity in the courts of the Konbaung dynasty. Little has changed since the creation of the art by U Thaw, and the set of characters developed by him is still in use today.

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COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Wajang kulit pop voorstellende Kumbakarna. TMnr 8-276.jpg|Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppet) Kumbakarna, Tropenmuseum Collections, Indonesia, before 1914

COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Wajangfiguur van perkament voorstellende Gatot Kaca TMnr 8-273.jpg|Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppet) Gatot Kaca, Tropenmuseum Collections, Indonesia, before 1914

COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Wajangpop van karbouwenhuid voorstellende Wibisana TMnr 809-29a.jpg|Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppet) Wibisana, Tropenmuseum Collections, Indonesia before 1933

COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Wajangpop TMnr 4833-101.jpg|Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppet) Princess Shinta, Tropenmuseum Collections, Indonesia before 1983

COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Wajang kulit pop voorstellende Yudhistira TMnr 8-264.jpg|Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppet) Yudhishthira, Tropenmuseum Collections, Indonesia before 1914

COLLECTIE TROPENMUSEUM Wajangfiguur voorstellende de hemelnymf Dewi Tari TMnr 883-13.jpg|Wayang Kulit (Shadow Puppet) Princess Tari, Tropenmuseum Collections, Indonesia before 1934

File:Wayang Pandawa.jpg|Wayang kulit, a puppet-shadow play of Java, Bali, and Lombok from Indonesia

File:Yokethe at bagan 2010.JPG|Yoke thé puppets, depicting royal patronage, from Myanmar

File:รัฐบาลเป็นเจ้าภาพเลี้ยงอาหารกลางวันแก่ H.E.Ms.Quentin - Flickr - Abhisit Vejjajiva (12).jpg|Hun krabok, puppets handled by three performers from Thailand

|Higantes, giant papier-mâché puppets paraded during the Higantes Festival from the Philippines

File:Thang Long Water Puppet Theatre2.JPG|Water puppetry, a unique art originating from Vietnam

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India

thumb|[[Kathputli (puppetry)|Kathputli Puppeteer from Rajasthan, India]]

India has a long tradition of puppetry. In the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata there are references to puppets. Another ancient reference to puppetry is found in Tamil classic ‘Silappadikaaram’ written around 1st or 2nd century B.C. Kathputli, a form of string puppet performance native to Rajasthan, is notable and there are many Indian ventriloquists and puppeteers. The first Indian ventriloquist, Professor Y. K. Padhye, introduced this form of puppetry to India in the 1920s and his son, Ramdas Padhye, subsequently popularised ventriloquism and puppetry. Almost all types of puppets are found in India.

thumb|The Ganesh: a puppet from Nepal

There is evidence for puppetry in the Indus Valley civilization. Archaeologists have unearthed one terracotta doll with a detachable head capable of manipulation by a string dating to 2500 BC. Another figure is a terracotta monkey which could be manipulated up and down a stick, achieving minimum animation in both cases. Works like the Natya Shastra and the Kama Sutra elaborate on puppetry in some detail.

String puppets

thumb|[[Sakhi Kandhei (String puppets of Odisha)]]

India has an ancient tradition of string puppets or marionettes. Marionettes with jointed limbs controlled by strings allow far greater flexibility and are therefore the most articulate of the puppets. Rajasthan, Orissa, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are some of the regions where this form of puppetry has flourished. The traditional marionettes of Rajasthan are known as Kathputli. Carved from a single piece of wood, these puppets are like large dolls that are colourfully dressed. The string puppets of Orissa are known as Kundhei. The string puppets of Karnataka are called Gombeyatta. Puppets from Tamil Nadu, known as Bommalattam, combine the techniques of rod and string puppets.

Shadow puppets

Shadow puppets are an ancient part of India's culture and art, particularly regionally as the keelu bomme and Tholu bommalata of Andhra Pradesh, the Togalu gombeyaata in Karnataka, the charma bahuli natya in Maharashtra, the Ravana chhaya in Odisha, the Tholpavakoothu in Kerala and the thol bommalatta in Tamil Nadu. Shadow puppet play is also found in pictorial traditions in India, such as temple mural painting, loose-leaf folio paintings, and the narrative paintings. Dance forms such as the Chhau of Odisha literally mean "shadow". The shadow theatre dance drama theatre are usually performed on platform stages attached to Hindu temples, and in some regions these are called Koothu Madams or Koothambalams. In many regions, the puppet drama play is performed by itinerant artist families on temporary stages during major temple festivals.

During the 19th century and early parts of the 20th century of the colonial era, Indologists believed that shadow puppet plays had become extinct in India, though mentioned in its ancient Sanskrit texts.

According to Beth Osnes, the tholu bommalata shadow puppet theatre dates back to the 3rd century BCE. The puppets used in a tholu bommalata performance, states Phyllis Dircks, are "translucent, lusciously multicolored leather figures four to five feet tall, and feature one or two articulated arms". The process of making the puppets is an elaborate ritual, where the artist families in India pray, go into seclusion, produce the required art work, then celebrate the "metaphorical birth of a puppet" with flowers and incense.

The tholu pava koothu of Kerala uses leather puppets whose images are projected on a backlit screen. The shadows are used to creatively express characters and stories in the Ramayana. A complete performance of the epic can take forty-one nights, while an abridged performance lasts as few as seven days. One feature of the tholu pava koothu show is that it is a team performance of puppeteers, while other shadow plays such as the wayang of Indonesia are performed by a single puppeteer for the same Ramayana story.

In other areas, the style of shadow puppetry known as khayal al-zill, a metaphor translated as "shadows of the imagination" or "shadow of fancy", still survives. This is a shadow play with live music, "the accompaniment of drums, tambourines and flutes...also..."special effects" – smoke, fire, thunder, rattles, squeaks, thumps, and whatever else might elicit a laugh or a shudder from his audience"

In Iran, puppets are known to have existed much earlier than 1000 AD, but initially only glove and string puppets were popular . Other genres of puppetry emerged during the Qajar era (18th and 19th centuries) as influences from Turkey spread to the region. Kheimeh Shab-Bazi is a traditional Persian puppet show which is performed in a small chamber by a musical performer and a storyteller called a morshed or naghal. These shows often take place alongside storytelling in traditional tea and coffee-houses (Ghahve-Khane). The dialogue takes place between the morshed and the puppets. A recent example of puppetry in Iran is the touring opera Rostam and Sohrab.

Europe

Ancient Greece and Rome

thumb|Ancient Greek terracotta puppet dolls, 5th/4th century BC, [[National Archaeological Museum, Athens]]

Although there are few remaining examples of puppets from ancient Greece, historical literature and archaeological findings shows the existence of puppetry. The Greek word translated as "puppet" is "νευρόσπαστος" (nevrospastos), which literally means "drawn by strings, string-pulling", from "νεῦρον" (nevron), meaning either "sinew, tendon, muscle, string", or "wire", and "σπάω" (spaō), meaning "draw, pull". Aristotle referred to pulling strings to control heads, hands and eyes, shoulders and legs. Plato's work also contains references to puppetry. The Iliad and the Odyssey were presented using puppetry. The roots of European puppetry probably extend back to the Greek plays with puppets played to the "common people" in the 5th century BC. By the 3rd century BC these plays would appear in the Theatre of Dionysus at the Acropolis.

Italy

Middle Ages and Renaissance

thumb|Illuminated border depicting a puppet show, 1338–1344

The Christian church used marionettes to perform morality plays. Comedy was introduced to the plays as time went by, and ultimately led to a church edict banning puppetry. Puppeteers responded by setting up stages outside cathedrals and became even more ribald and slapstick. Out of this grew the Italian comedy called Commedia dell'arte. Puppets were used at times in this form of theatre and sometimes Shakespeare's plays were performed using marionettes instead of actors. An early depiction of a puppet show within a castelet (shown right) illustrates fol. 54v of Li romans du boin roi Alixandre ('The Romance of the Good King Alexander'), a Flemish manuscript illuminated by the workshop of Jehan de Grise between 1338 and 1344.

Sicilian puppet theatre|thumb|right

In Sicily, the sides of donkey carts are decorated with intricate, painted scenes from the Frankish romantic poems, such as The Song of Roland. These same tales are enacted in traditional puppet theatres featuring hand-made marionettes of wood. In Sicilian this is called "Opera dei pupi", or "Opera of the puppets". The "Opera dei pupi" and the Sicilian tradition of cantastorie, the word for storyteller, are rooted in the Provençal troubadour tradition, in Sicily during the reign of Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, in the first half of the 13th century.

18th and 19th centuries

The 18th century was a period in the development of all Italian theatre, including the marionette theatre. The rod puppet was mainly of lower-class origin, but the marionette theatre was popular in aristocratic circles, as a celebration of the Age of Enlightenment. The effects, and the construction of the puppets, the puppet theatres, and the puppet narratives, were all popular, particularly in Venice. In the 19th century, the marionettes of Pietro Radillo became more complex and instead of just the rod and two strings, Radillo's marionettes were controlled by as many as eight strings, which increased control over the individual body parts of the marionettes.

France

Guignol is the main character in the French puppet show which has come to bear his name. Although often thought of as children's entertainment, Guignol's sharp wit and linguistic verve have always been appreciated by adults as well, as shown by the motto of a Lyon troupe: "Guignol amuses children… and witty adults". Laurent Mourguet, Guignol's creator, fell on hard times during the French Revolution, and in 1797 started to practice dentistry, which in those days was the pulling of teeth. To attract patients, he started setting up a puppet show in front of his dentist's chair.

thumb|Guignol de Lyon

His first shows featured Polichinelle, a character borrowed from the Italian commedia dell'arte. By 1804 the success was such that he gave up dentistry altogether and became a professional puppeteer, creating his own scenarios drawing on the concerns of his working-class audience and improvising references to the news of the day. He developed characters closer to the daily lives of his Lyon audience, first Gnafron, a wine-loving cobbler, and in 1808 Guignol. Other characters, including Guignol's wife Madelon and the gendarme Flagéolet soon followed, but these are never more than foils for the two heroes. Guignol's victory is the triumph of good over evil.

Great Britain

thumb|180px|British puppet theatre (Punch and Judy style),

The traditional British Punch and Judy puppetry traces its roots to the 16th century to the Italian commedia dell'arte. The character of "Punch" derives from the character Pulcinella, which was Anglicized to Punchinello. He is a manifestation of the Lord of Misrule and Trickster, figures of deep-rooted mythologies. Punch's wife was originally "Joan", but later became "Judy". In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the familiar Punch and Judy puppet show which existed in Britain was performed in an easily transportable booth. The British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild in the early 20th century instigated a resurgence of puppetry. Two of the Guild's founders, H. W. Whanslaw and Waldo Lanchester, both worked to promote and develop puppetry with publications of books and literature, mainly focusing on the art of the marionette. Lanchester had a touring theatre and a permanent venue in Malvern, Worcestershire, regularly taking part in the Malvern Festival and attracting the attention of George Bernard Shaw. One of Shaw's last plays, Shakes versus Shav, was written for and first performed in 1949 by the company.

From 1957 to 1969, Gerry Anderson produced many television series starring marionettes, starting with Roberta Leigh's The Adventures of Twizzle and ending with The Secret Service. Many of these series employed a technique called supermarionation, which automatically synchronized the pre-recorded character dialogue to the puppets' mouth movements. Anderson returned to puppetry in 1983 with Terrahawks and the unaired pilot Space Police in 1987.

Current British puppetry theatres include the Little Angel Theatre in Islington, London, Puppet Theatre Barge in London, Norwich Puppet Theatre, the Harlequin Puppet Theatre, Rhos-on-Sea, Wales, and the Biggar Puppet Theatre, Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland. British puppetry now covers a wide range of styles and approaches. There are also a number of British theatre companies, including Horse and Bamboo Theatre, and Green Ginger, which integrate puppetry into highly visual productions. From 1984 to 1996, puppetry was used as a vehicle for political satire in the British television series Spitting Image. Puppetry has also been influencing mainstream theatre, and several recent productions combine puppetry with live action, including Warhorse, at the Royal National Theatre and Madam Butterfly at the English National Opera.

Netherlands, Denmark, Romania, and Russia

Many regional variants of Pulcinella were developed as the character spread across Europe. In the Netherlands it is Jan Klaassen (and Judy is Katrijn); in Denmark Mester Jackel; in Russia Petrushka; and in Romania Vasilache. In Russia, the Central Puppet Theatre in Moscow and its branches in every part of the country enhanced the reputation of the puppeteer and puppetry in general.

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PereDuchesneIllustre6 1 0.png|Polichinelle caricature, France

Teatro dei burattini.jpg|Puppet theater with Gioppino and Brighella, Bergamo Italy

Tchantches.jpg|Traditional puppets from Liège, Belgium

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Germany and Austria

There is a long tradition of puppetry in Germany and Austria. Much of it derives from the 16th-century tradition of the Italian commedia dell'arte. de Falla and Respighi all composed adult operas for marionettes.

In 1855, Count Franz Pocci founded the Munich Marionette Theatre. A German dramatist, poet, painter and composer, Pocci wrote 40 puppet plays for his theatre. Albrecht Roser has made a considerable impact with his marionettes in Stuttgart. His characters Clown Gustaf and Grandmother are well-known. Grandmother, while outwardly charming, is savagely humorous in her observations about all aspects of society and the absurdities of life.

In Lindau, the Lindau Marionette Opera was founded in 2000 by Bernard Leismueller and Ralf Hechelmann. The company performs a large number of operas as well as a marionette ballet, Swan Lake.

In Augsburg, the Augsburg Marionette Theatre was founded in 1943 by Walter Oehmichen. It continues to this day along with an adjoining puppet museum under the grandsons of the founder, Klaus Marschall and Juergen Marschall.

Much earlier in nearby Salzburg, Austria, the Salzburg Marionette Theatre was founded in 1913 by Professor Anton Aicher. The Salzburg Marionette Theatre still continues the tradition of presenting full-length opera using marionettes in their own purpose-built theatre until recently under the direction of Gretl Aicher. It performs mainly operas such as Die Fledermaus and The Magic Flute and a small number of ballets such as The Nutcracker.

There is also a marionette theatre at Schoenbrunn Palace in Vienna founded by Christine Hierzer-Riedler and Werner Hierzer over 40 years ago. The marionette theatre performs world famous operas, musicals and fairy tales.

Czech Republic and Slovakia

thumb|Marionette Theatre in [[Prague]]

thumb|Puppet Theatre in [[Ostrava]]

Marionette puppet theatre has had a very long history in entertainment in Prague, and elsewhere in the former Czechoslovakia and then in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. It can be traced deep into the early part of the Middle Ages. Marionettes first appeared around the time of the Thirty Years' War. Veselý played a key role in founding UNIMA (International Puppetry Association) in 1929, and was elected its first president.

In 1920 and 1926 respectively, Josef Skupa created his puppet characters: Spejbl and Hurvínek, comical father and his rascal son. In 1930, he set up the first modern professional puppet theatre. An important puppet organisation is the National Marionette Theatre in Prague. Its repertoire mainly features a marionette production of Mozart's opera Don Giovanni. The production has period costumes and 18th-century setting. There are other companies, including Buchty a Loutky ("Cakes and Puppets"), founded by Marek Bečka.

In 2016, Czech and Slovak Puppetry was included on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists.

19th century

Throughout this period, puppetry developed separately from the emerging mainstream of actor theatres, and the 'ragged' puppeteers performed outside of theatre buildings at fairs, markets etc., continuing to be classified along with bandits. In the 1960s Peter Schumann's Bread and Puppet Theater developed the political and artistic possibilities of puppet theatre in a distinctive, powerful and immediately recognizable way. At roughly the same time, Jim Henson was creating a type of soft, foam-rubber and cloth puppet which became known collectively as Muppets. Initially, through the children's television show Sesame Street, and later in The Muppet Show and on film, these inspired many imitators and are today are recognised almost everywhere (Henson also branched out into animatronics through the formation of his Creature Shop, as showcased in his films The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth). Wayland Flowers also made a contribution to adult puppetry with his satirical puppet, Madame.

Sid and Marty Krofft are two of Americas puppeteers and were mainly known for their live action children's TV series in the 60s and 70s.

Puppets also have been used in the Star Wars films, notably with the character of Yoda. His voice and manipulation was provided by Frank Oz.

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File:EdgarBergenandCharlieMcCarthyStageDoorCanteen1.jpg| Edgar Bergen and his puppet Charlie McCarthy

File:Bread and puppet puppets glover vermont.jpg|Puppets in the Bread and Puppet Theater Museum in Glover, Vermont, USA

File:Mallory Lewis and Lamb Chop.jpg|Mallory Lewis and Lamb Chop

File:Puppet Bleeckie and Leslie Fleming c.jpg|Leslie Madeline Fleming and Bleeckie, a character from a series of web videos.

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Australia

The Aboriginal peoples of Australia have a long tradition of oral storytelling which goes back many thousands of years. They used masks and other objects to convey themes about morality and nature. Masks were carved from wood and heavily decorated with paint and feathers.

In Australia in the 1960s, Peter Scriven founded the Marionette Theatre of Australia and staged marionette productions such as The Tintookies, Little Fella Bindi, The Explorers and The Water Babies.

Phillip Edmiston, who worked alongside Peter Scriven at the Marionette Theatre of Australia, went on to mount in 1977 a lavish marionette production of The Grand Adventure under the umbrella of his own company, Theatrestrings. With 127 marionettes, the A$120,000 production opened in Nambour in the Civic Hall on 28 May 1977 and subsequently toured to Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. The musical was composed by Eric Gross with book and lyrics by Hal Saunders. The story broadly told of Captain James Cook's South Sea Island voyage with botanist Joseph Banks on HMS Endeavour. Edmiston went on to tour Queensland throughout the 1980s and 1990s with numerous productions with his new company Queensland Marionette Theatre.

Bilbar Puppet Theatre, established by Barbara Turnbull and her husband Bill Turnbull, toured Australia extensively under the auspices of the Queensland Arts Council in the 1970s and 1980s. Their shows included The Lucky Charm, Funnybone, Mozart's opera Bastien and Bastienne, and Lazy Liza. Bilbar Puppet Theatre's puppets are now held at the Queensland Performing Arts Centre, Brisbane. David Poulton toured marionette shows via the Queensland Arts Council along his 'Strings and Things' with his wife Sally for many years from the late 1970s. Gwen and Peter Iliffe also toured with Puppet People. One of their shows was Bees Hey using the music of Bizet. Another successful group were Ehmer Puppets.

David Hamilton tours independently and formerly toured under the auspices of the Queensland Arts Council. Some of his puppets were displayed in a special puppet exhibition mounted at the Queensland Performing Arts Complex in 2018.

Comedian and radio broadcaster Jamie Dunn was famous for his Muppet-style character, Agro, who featured on several Seven Network television programs throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Formally trained in the United States by puppeteers from the Jim Henson Company, Brett Hansen and his Brisbane-based Larrikin Puppets company is one of only a few Muppet-style puppeteers actively performing in Australia. Cabaret Puppet Theatre, based in Brisbane's Redlands area, also tours with productions for children and adults.

In Melbourne, Handspan Theatre (1977–2002) evolved from humble collective beginnings to a large, design-rich theatre format dubbed 'Visual Theatre', and became a hothouse for innovative projects and multimedia collaborations within Australia and around the world. In 2021, Melbourne Puppet Kerfuffle was formed by Rob Irvin and teacher Chris Elkington with the vision of touring schools and kindergartens providing educational puppet shows based on curriculum topics. They have since expanded into providing entertainment for shopping centres and festivals across Victoria and interstate.

A post-graduate course existed at the Victorian College of the Arts, University of Melbourne in the late 1990s, but has since been discontinued.

Australian puppeteer Norman Hetherington was famous for his marionette, Mr. Squiggle, who featured on an Australian Broadcasting Commission television program from 1 July 1959 until 9 July 1999. In every episode he would create several pictures from "squiggles" sent in by children from around the country.

Richard Bradshaw OAM is another Australian puppeteer. He is a past president of UNIMA Australia, former artistic director of the Marionette Theatre Company of Australia, and does shadow puppetry and writing in the field.

Rod Hull also made a contribution with his puppet Emu. In the 1960s, Hull presented a children's breakfast television programme in Australia.

Snuff Puppets is one of Australia's modern puppet theatre troupes. Based in Melbourne, their work contains black humour, political and sexual satire.

There is an annual winter festival of puppets at the City of Melbourne's ArtPlay and at Federation Square in Melbourne.

In Sydney, Jeral Puppets, founded by John and Jackie Lewis in 1966, regularly performs at Puppeteria Puppet Theatre and on tour.

Spare Parts Puppet Theatre of Fremantle, Western Australia was founded by Peter Wilson, Cathryn Robinson, and Beverley Campbell-Jackson in 1981, as part of an artist-in-residency program initiated by the WA Institute of Technology (now Curtin University of Technology). The company's first project was a puppet adaptation of Christopher Marlowe's Doctor Faustus for the 1981 Festival of Perth.

Sergei Obraztsov explored the concept of kukolnost ('puppetness'). Others, including Edward Gordon Craig and Erwin Piscator were influenced by puppetry. Maeterlinck, Shaw, Lorca and others wrote puppet plays, and artists such as Picasso, Jarry, and Léger began to work in theatre.

The Jim Henson Foundation, founded by puppeteer and Muppet creator Jim Henson, is a philanthropic, charitable organization created to promote and develop puppetry in the United States. It has bestowed 440 grants to innovative puppet theatre artists. Puppetry troupes in the early 21st-century such as HomeGrown Theatre in Boise, Idaho continue the avant garde satirical tradition for millennials.

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Snuff-scarey-skullies.jpg|Snuff Puppets Skullies from Scarey

Puppentheater Moskau.jpg|Puppet theatre in Moscow, Russia in 1958

C0614-Kstovo-puppet-theatre-at-Auchan.jpg|Performance of the Kstovo Puppet Theatre

Puppets, a 2002 photo of a lithograph from xerographic direct imaging of two 20th century hand puppets.png|Two 20th-century hand puppets

Little Amal at Barnsley 30 October 2021 (30).JPG|The animatronic puppet Little Amal, 2021

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Events

The International Puppet Festival (PIF) has taken place annually mid-September in Zagreb, Croatia since 1968.

The Puppet Festival Mississauga has taken place annually in March in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada since 2020.

Types

Method

  • Digital puppetry
  • Hand puppet
  • Shadow puppetry
  • Water puppetry

By Culture

  • Vertep
  • Russian puppet theater
  • Glove puppetry

See also

  • The Little Marionette Company
  • List of highest grossing puppet films
  • Pardeh show
  • State Puppet Theatre of Fairy Tales
  • UNIMA – International Puppetry Association
  • World Puppetry Day
  • Lisa Sturz; Red Herring Puppets

Notes

References

Books and articles

  • The Center for Puppetry Arts – Puppetry Museum and Theater in Atlanta, GA, US.
  • The Puppetry Homepage – Contains links and information about all types of puppets and puppetry.
  • Union Internationale de la Marionnette – International organization of puppeteers and puppet enthusiasts
  • Puppet Notebook - Articles on puppet history, theory and contemporary international puppetry in magazine published by British UNIMA.
  • Puppets in Prague – Traditional Czech marionette making workshops conducted by Mirek Tretjnar, master puppeteer
  • British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild – Puppet collection and information and regular articles on puppets and puppetry publishing hard copy and online journal
  • Cabaret Puppet Theatre – Information on puppet making workshops in Australia conducted by David Logan, master puppeteer
  • Marguerite G. Bagshaw Collection – Research collection of puppetry resources, part of Toronto Public Library