Beauty Is The Blood Of Puppets

By Author: Stuart Swift
Total Articles: 25
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A puppet is a lifeless object or emblematic figure animated or manipulated by an entertainer, who is called a puppeteer. It is applied in puppetry, which is a very ancient shape of theatre. Puppets are of various types and varieties. They are prepared from a wide range of materials, on account of their form and intended use. They may be highly complex or simpler in their composition.

In Ancient Greece, the puppetry was practiced. The oldest written document of puppetry can be seen in the works of Xenophon and Herodotus, dating from the 5th century BC. In Greek the meaning of puppet is “drawn by strings, string-pulling”. In his work, On the Motion of Animals, Aristotle has discussed about puppets. The following is a quote from this work – “The movements of animals may be compared with those of automatic puppets, which are set going on the occasion of a tiny movement; the levers are released, and strike the twisted strings against one another.”

By its nature puppetry is an innovative and flexible medium, and many puppet companies try to juxtapose puppets with real objects into their performance. For example, ...
... they may incorporate “performing objects” such as torn paper for snow. There are various forms of puppets. They are discussed below.

• The puppets which are made to act on a stage lit with ultraviolet lighting are called the Black Light Puppet. In the form of puppetry the puppeteer remains hidden. The real colors of the puppets are also not clear. The puppeteers maneuver the puppets under the light, while they are keeping themselves hid behind a black unlit background. Monitoring what the spectators watch is a chief responsibility of any puppet player.

• There is a type of wood-carved puppets which are called the Bunraku Puppets. They are made to act in the torch illumination. It originated in Japan a thousand years ago. From sixteenth century they are made to perform in combination with shamisen music. The puppeteers, here also, remain neutral in his black costume behind a black background.

• There is another type of puppet the name of which is Carnival or Body Puppet. They are normally produced to become a part of a large spectacle. They are generally used in demonstration and parades, and are at least the size of a human and often much more. There is requirement of more than one performer to move the limbs and the body, as a whole.

• The Finger puppet is an awfully simple puppet which fits onto a finger. Finger puppets usually are without moving parts, and consist mainly a hollow cylinder shape to wrap the finger. This type of puppet has restricted application, and is used chiefly in kindergartens or nursery schools for storytelling with young kids.

• The sock puppet is a type of puppet prepared from a sock and is made to play by inserting a hand inside the sock. Then the puppeteer moves his fingers up and down to create an impression of puppet speaking.

• Some other puppets are hand puppet, human-arm puppet, light curtain puppet, marionette etc.

If we dive deep into further detail, the discussion will continue for an indefinite number of pages. But, that is not possible. To experience a large variety of puppets, you are requested to visit www.thepuppetshop.ie.

The puppetshop.ie is an exciting place to know more and more about puppet and puppetry.