Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance

"As an art form, puppetry has enjoyed a significant expansion over the past twenty years. This can be seen both in terms of its popularity in mainstream theatre and in the amount of attention that it now receives from an academic audience. This increasedpresence in the practical and theoretical realms is also underlined by a diversification in the definition of puppetry itself, with the term now being used to cover everything from found or traditional 'performing objects' to super high-tech projections and constructions"--

List of contents

Part I: Theory and Practice
Edited and Introduced by John Bell
Section I: Theoretical Approaches to the Puppet

1. "The Death of ‘The Puppet’?" by Margaret Williams


2. "Co-presence and Ontological Ambiguity of the Puppet" by Paul Piris


3. "Playing with the Eternal Uncanny: The Persistent Life of Lifeless Objects" by John Bell
Section II: Perspectives from Practitioners


4. "Visual Dramaturgy: Some Thoughts for Puppet Theater Makers" by Eric Bass


5. "Puppetry, Authorship, and the Ur-Narrative" by Basil Jones


6. "Petrushka’s Voice" by Alexander Gref and Elena Slonimskaya


7. "Clouds are Made of White!" by Rike Reiniger


8. "Movement is Consciousness" by Kate Brehm


9. "The Eye of Light: The Tension of Image and Object in Shadow Theatre and Beyond" by Stephen Kaplin


10. "The Third Thing" by Jim Lasko


11. "Post-Decivilization Efforts in The Nonsense Suburb of Art" by Peter Schumann
Part II: New Dialogues with History and Tradition
Edited and Introduced by Claudia Orenstein
Section III: Revisiting History


12. "Making A Troublemaker: Charlotte Charke’s Proto-Feminist Punch" by Amber West


13. "Life-Death and Disobedient Obedience: Russian Modernist Redefinitions of the Puppet" by Dassia N. Posner


14. "The Saracen of Opera dei Pupi: A Study of Race, Representation and Identity" by Lisa Morse


15. "Puppet Think: The Implication of Japanese Ritual Puppetry for Thinking Through Puppetry Performances" by Jane Marie Law


16. "Relating to the Cross: A Puppet Perspective on the Holy Week Ceremonies of the Regularis Concordia" by Debra Hilborn
Section IV: Negotiating Tradition


17. "Traditional and Post-traditional Wayang Kulit in Java Today" by Matthew Isaac Cohen


18. "Korean Puppetry and Heritage: Hyundai Puppet Theatre and Creative Group NONI Translating Tradition" by Kathy Foley


19. "Forging New Paths for Kerala's Tolpavakoothu, Leather Shadow Puppetry Tradition" by Claudia Orenstein


20. "Integration of Puppetry Tradition into Contemporary Theatre: The Reinvigoration of the Vertep Puppet Nativity Play after Communism in Eastern Europe" by Ida Hledíková
Part III: Contemporary Investigations and Hybridizations
Edited and Introduced by Dassia N. Posner
Section V: Material Performances in Contemporary Theatre


21. "From Props to Prosopoeia: Making After Cardenio" by Jane Taylor


22. "‘A Total Spectacle but a Divided One:’ Redefining Character in Handspring Puppet Company’s Or You Could Kiss Me" by Dawn Tracey Brandes


23. "Reading a Puppet Show: Understanding the Three-Dimensional Narrative" by Robert Smythe


24. "Notes on New Model Theatres" by Mark Sussman
Section VI: New Directions and Hybrid Forms


25. "From Puppet to Robot: Technology and the Human in Japanese Theatre" by Cody Poulton


26. "Unholy Alliances and Harmonious Hybrids: New Fusions in Puppetry and Animation" by Colette Searls


27. "Programming Play: Puppets, Robots, and Engineering" by Elizabeth Ann Jochum and Todd Murphey


28. "Return to the Mound: Animating Infinite Potential in Clay, Food, and Compost" by Eleanor Margolies

About the author

John Bell is Director of the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry and Associate Professor of Dramatic Arts at the University of Connecticut. An active puppeteer with Great Small Works and Bread & Puppet Theater, as well as a theatre historian, his publications include American Puppet Modernism (2008) and Puppets, Masks, and Performing Objects (2001).
Claudia Orenstein is Associate Professor of Theatre at Hunter College and the Graduate Center at CUNY. Publications include The World of Theatre: Tradition and Innovation, and Festive Revolutions: The Politics of Popular Theatre and the San Francisco Mime Troupe. She is a board member of UNIMA-USA and Associate Editor of Asian Theatre Journal.
Dassia N. Posner is Assistant Professor of Theatre at Northwestern University. A theatre historian, dramaturg, and puppeteer, she is the author of numerous articles and chapters on Russian theatre, the history of directing, and puppetry and is Peer-Review Editor for Puppetry International. Recent dramaturgy includes Three Sisters and Russian Transport at Steppenwolf.

Product details

• Authors: John Posner Bell, Dassia N. Posner, Dassia N. Bell Posner, Dassia N. Orenstein Posner
• Assisted by: John Bell (Editor), Claudia Orenstein (Editor), Orenstein Claudia (Editor), Dassia Posner (Editor), Dassia N. Posner (Editor), Posner Dassia N. (Editor)
• Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd.
• Languages: English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 15.07.2014
• EAN: 9780415705400
• ISBN: 978-0-415-70540-0
• No. of pages: 352
• Series: Routledge Companions; Routledge Companions
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Theatre, ballet; PERFORMING ARTS / Theater / General, Industrial / commercial art & design, Performance Art, Theatre Direction & Production, Design, Industrial and commercial arts, illustration, Theatre direction and production, Puppetry, miniature & toy theatre, PERFORMING ARTS / Puppets & Puppetry, Puppetry, miniature and toy theatre