Examples of puppets for my idea.
To begin with I started looking at the proportions of puppets and how the joints all connect together.
The puppet below gave me a better understanding on how everything attached and is also a good example of how I could do a free standing puppet.
The puppet below gave me a better understanding on how everything attached and is also a good example of how I could do a free standing puppet.
After looking at a free standing puppet I wanted to investigate into how I could make my puppets move for the scene I would be filming at the end of the project.
Whilst being at my nans the one day showing her my project, I found an old string puppet. This gave me an idea on how I could make my puppets move and be more practically for the scene I would be filming.
Whilst being at my nans the one day showing her my project, I found an old string puppet. This gave me an idea on how I could make my puppets move and be more practically for the scene I would be filming.
The History of puppets.
Puppetry is a very ancient art form, thought to have originated about 3000 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 BC 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. Hieroglyphs also describe "walking statues" being used in Ancient Egyptian religious dramas.
Puppetry was practiced in Ancient Greece and the oldest written records of puppetry can be found in the works of Herodotus and Xenophon, dating from the 5th century BC.
In Great Britain
British Puppet theatre (Punch and Judy style), c. 1770The 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.
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. Don Austen, a British puppeteer, worked with Jim Henson's Creature Shop, and also worked on a number of feature films. 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.
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 BC 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. Hieroglyphs also describe "walking statues" being used in Ancient Egyptian religious dramas.
Puppetry was practiced in Ancient Greece and the oldest written records of puppetry can be found in the works of Herodotus and Xenophon, dating from the 5th century BC.
In Great Britain
British Puppet theatre (Punch and Judy style), c. 1770The 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.
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. Don Austen, a British puppeteer, worked with Jim Henson's Creature Shop, and also worked on a number of feature films. 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.
History of puppets.
String puppets.
String puppets.
Great Britain puppets.
Punch and Judy puppets.
Punch and Judy puppets.
Contemporary puppetry
Puppet theatre in Moscow, Russia in 1958. Performance of the Kstovo Puppet Theatre
From early in the 19th century, puppetry began to inspire artists from the 'high-art' traditions. In 1810, Heinrich von Kleist wrote an essay 'On the
Marionette Theatre', admiring the "lack of self-consciousness" of the puppet.
Puppetry developed throughout the 20th century in a variety of ways. Supported by the parallel development of cinema, television and other filmed
media it now reaches a larger audience than ever. Another development, starting at the beginning of the century, was the belief that puppet theatre, despite its popular and folk roots, could speak to adult audiences with an adult, and experimental voice, and reinvigorate the high art tradition of actors'
theatre.
Sergei Obraztsov explored the concept of kukolnost ('puppetness'), despite Joseph Stalin's insistence on realism. Other pioneers, including Edward Gordon Craig and Erwin Piscator were influenced by puppetry in their crusade to regalvanise the mainstream. Maeterlinck, Shaw, Lorca and others wrote puppet plays, and artists such as Picasso, Jarry, and Léger began to work in theatre.
Craig's concept of the "übermarionette"—in which the director treats the actors like objects—has been highly influential on contemporary "object theatre"
and "physical theatre". Tadeusz Kantor frequently substituted actors for puppets, or combined the two, and conducted each performance from the edge of the stage, in some ways similar to a puppeteer. Kantor influenced a new formalist generation of directors such as Richard Foreman and Robert Wilson who were concerned with the 'object' in theatrical terms "putting it on stage and finding different ways of looking at it" (Foreman).
Innovatory puppeteers such as Tony Sarg, Waldo Lanchester, John Wright, Bil Baird, Joan Baixas, Sergei Obratsov, Philipe Genty, Peter Schumann, Dattatreya
Aralikatte, Jim Henson, Dadi Pudumjee, and Julie Taymor have also continued to develop the forms and content of puppetry, so that the phrase 'puppet theatre' is no longer limited to traditional forms of marionettes, glove, or rod puppets. Directors
and companies like Peter Schumann of Bread and Puppet Theatre, Bob Frith of Horse
and Bamboo Theatre, and Sandy Speiler of In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre have also combined mask and puppet theatre where the performer, puppets and objects are integrated within a largely visual theatre world that minimises the
use of spoken language.
Puppetry is now probably more familiar through television and movies rathear than through live performance, but this still flourishes throughout the world.
In the world of theatre, puppetry continues to be influential, and despite its 'outsider' status acts as an invigorating and rejuvenating influence on its
mainstream relative, and feeds through object and physical theatre many of the most exciting developments in contemporary theatre.
Puppet theatre in Moscow, Russia in 1958. Performance of the Kstovo Puppet Theatre
From early in the 19th century, puppetry began to inspire artists from the 'high-art' traditions. In 1810, Heinrich von Kleist wrote an essay 'On the
Marionette Theatre', admiring the "lack of self-consciousness" of the puppet.
Puppetry developed throughout the 20th century in a variety of ways. Supported by the parallel development of cinema, television and other filmed
media it now reaches a larger audience than ever. Another development, starting at the beginning of the century, was the belief that puppet theatre, despite its popular and folk roots, could speak to adult audiences with an adult, and experimental voice, and reinvigorate the high art tradition of actors'
theatre.
Sergei Obraztsov explored the concept of kukolnost ('puppetness'), despite Joseph Stalin's insistence on realism. Other pioneers, including Edward Gordon Craig and Erwin Piscator were influenced by puppetry in their crusade to regalvanise the mainstream. Maeterlinck, Shaw, Lorca and others wrote puppet plays, and artists such as Picasso, Jarry, and Léger began to work in theatre.
Craig's concept of the "übermarionette"—in which the director treats the actors like objects—has been highly influential on contemporary "object theatre"
and "physical theatre". Tadeusz Kantor frequently substituted actors for puppets, or combined the two, and conducted each performance from the edge of the stage, in some ways similar to a puppeteer. Kantor influenced a new formalist generation of directors such as Richard Foreman and Robert Wilson who were concerned with the 'object' in theatrical terms "putting it on stage and finding different ways of looking at it" (Foreman).
Innovatory puppeteers such as Tony Sarg, Waldo Lanchester, John Wright, Bil Baird, Joan Baixas, Sergei Obratsov, Philipe Genty, Peter Schumann, Dattatreya
Aralikatte, Jim Henson, Dadi Pudumjee, and Julie Taymor have also continued to develop the forms and content of puppetry, so that the phrase 'puppet theatre' is no longer limited to traditional forms of marionettes, glove, or rod puppets. Directors
and companies like Peter Schumann of Bread and Puppet Theatre, Bob Frith of Horse
and Bamboo Theatre, and Sandy Speiler of In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre have also combined mask and puppet theatre where the performer, puppets and objects are integrated within a largely visual theatre world that minimises the
use of spoken language.
Puppetry is now probably more familiar through television and movies rathear than through live performance, but this still flourishes throughout the world.
In the world of theatre, puppetry continues to be influential, and despite its 'outsider' status acts as an invigorating and rejuvenating influence on its
mainstream relative, and feeds through object and physical theatre many of the most exciting developments in contemporary theatre.