Puppetry

Puppetry has become a significant force in contemporary theatre and thousands of puppets from various cultures and time periods have been collected by scholars, enthusiasts, and curators, who wisely realized that these material images can teach us much about the societies for which they were created. This book consists of essays by the curators of the most significant puppet collections in the United States and by leading scholars in the field. In addition to the descriptive and analytical essays on the collections, the book includes an overview of American puppetry today, a history of puppetry in the United States, and essays on the theater of Julie Taymor, the Jim Henson Company, Howdy Doody's custody case, puppet conservation, and the development of virtual performance space. The fourteen collections discussed include those of the Smithsonian Institution, the Harvard University Theatre Collection, the Brander Matthews Collection at Columbia University, the American Museum of Natural History, and the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta. Appendices provide a listing of additional puppetry collections and a filmography of puppetry at the New York Public Library Donnell Media Center. The work concludes with a bibliography and index and is illustrated with many beautiful photographs of puppeteers and puppets on display and in performance.

A famous puppeteer gives a fascinating introduction to his art.

An expert conducts readers through every stage of the puppeteer's art, including how to construct several types of puppets, developing distinctive voices for characters, and translating human body language into puppet movement. Other chapters focus on designing stages, writing and adapting plays, directing productions, and performance-related tips. Over 150 black-and-white illustrations.

Introduces the history of puppetry and gives instructions for making various types of puppets, creating stage sets, and producing plays.

In Puppetry in Education and Therapy: Unlocking Doors to the Mind and Heart, one finds enormous variety, ingenuity, and creativity in the types of puppets, and the ways they are used in education and in therapy. Puppeteers, therapists, and educators, articulate what is meant by “puppetry in education” and “puppet therapy” and how it is the same or different from “puppet theatre”. They describe the unique characteristics and theory of puppetry in education and therapy, the skills it takes to be successful in these areas, the skills that are passed on to people who use puppets for personal expression, and how to assess the impact of puppets on learning or behavior change. Twenty-six authors discuss topics such as puppetry and the multiple intelligences; the process versus the product; using puppetry in schools to promote literacy, preserve cultural heritage, and teach music; how puppetry contributes to Core Curriculum Standards, the theoretical underpinnings of therapeutic puppetry, and a range of ways of facilitating growth and development. If you’re already using puppets, this book will inspire you to understand your work differently and to explore new possibilities. If you’re a teacher or a therapist and you’ve never used puppets before, it will open a whole world of possibilities. This book illustrates that puppetry arts can affect learning and behavior and that puppets indeed have the power to unlock doors to the mind and heart.

Puppetry is an exciting, flexible, malleable art form that can engage the creative forces of children or adults. Puppets can not only tell a story, they can be used to enhance the curriculum, present an idea or a concept in a compelling way, or teach any number of necessary skills. Children and adults presenting a puppet play are given a sense of their own inventive power. This reference work offers an A to Z view of working with puppets. It covers everything from the basic strategies of advertising and marketing puppet productions, to assembling the puppets out of household materials such as paper bags, cereal boxes, or gloves, to the more elaborate sculpting of armatures. Stages, curtains and props are also discussed along with the history of puppetry. Numerous illustrations give a visual of many of the finished products. This work concludes with an annotated bibliography and index.

In recent years, puppetry has enjoyed a huge revival on the stages of our theatres, dance venues and opera houses. Large-scale productions such as War Horse and The Lion King have revitalized age-old techniques to attract new audiences and develop the power of storytelling. Puppetry is now seen not only as a specialist art form that exists on its own, but also as a vital tool in the armoury of theatrical storytellers. A Practical Guide to Puppetry offers a comprehensive overview to this versatile art form, exploring established techniques and offering expert instruction on styles from shadow puppetry to group puppetry. Each method is illustrated with practical and accessible exercises, achievable either individually or in a group workshop or rehearsal. With over eighty exercises for improvising, training, designing and directing puppetry, accompanied by 400 illustrations, this new book gives a complete approach to puppeteering with objects, simple puppets and puppets with mechanisms.

Presents a comprehensive guide to puppetry designed to enhance story times and other library events and provides techniques to creating inexpensive props along with thirty-eight folktale scripts.