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120-409: 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

240-576: A hôtel particulier in Versailles in 1771. He would go on to perform at the Palace of Versailles in front of royalty. In 1784 Séraphin moved to Paris, performing his shows at his permanent theatre in the newly opened Palais-Royal from 8 September 1784. The performances would adapt to the political changes and survived the French Revolution . Séraphin developed the use of clockwork mechanisms to automate

360-517: A catalyst for social and psychological change in transformative arts . 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

480-530: 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

600-495: A combination of songs and chants . Moreover, there are specific types of performances in Thailand that are political than theatrical like which are called nang kaanmuang . Performances in Thailand were temporarily suspended in 1960 due to a fire at the national theatre. Nang drama has influenced modern Thai cinema , including filmmakers like Cherd Songsri and Payut Ngaokrachang . A more bawdy comedy tradition of shadow play

720-562: A folk tradition. The importance of Marathi artists is evidenced, states Blackburn, from the puppeteers speaking Marathi as their mother tongue in many non-Marathi speaking states of India. According to Beth Osnes, the tholu bommalata shadow puppet theatre dates back to the 3rd century BCE, and has attracted patronage ever since. 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

840-559: A folk tradition. The importance of Marathi artists is evidenced, states Blackburn, from the puppeteers speaking Marathi as their mother tongue in many non-Marathi speaking states of India. According to Beth Osnes, the tholu bommalata shadow puppet theatre dates back to the 3rd century BCE, and has attracted patronage ever since. 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

960-647: A hundred, 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 Filipinos. Various traditions are connected with the higantes . Since the 20th century, multiple puppet arts have developed in the Philippines. A notable Filipino puppeteer is Amelia Lapeña Bonifacio . In Burma , today called Myanmar, an elaborate form of puppet shows, called Yoke thé , evolved, based on royal patronage. The probable date of

1080-689: A living folk tradition in China , India , Iran and Nepal . It is also known in Egypt , Turkey , Greece , Germany , France , and the United States . Shadow play probably developed from "par" shows with narrative scenes painted on a large cloth and the story further related through song. As the shows were mostly performed at night the par was illuminated with an oil lamp or candles. Shadow puppet theatre likely originated in Central Asia-China or in India in

1200-517: 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

1320-553: A major role in shadow play theatre in most parts of India, except in Kerala and Maharashtra. Almost everywhere, except Odisha, the puppets are made from tanned deer skin, painted and articulated. Translucent leather puppets are typical in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, while opaque puppets are typical in Kerala and Odisha. The artist troupes typically carry over a hundred puppets for their performance in rural India. Shadow puppet theatre

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1440-572: A major role in shadow play theatre in most parts of India, except in Kerala and Maharashtra. Almost everywhere, except Odisha, the puppets are made from tanned deer skin, painted and articulated. Translucent leather puppets are typical in Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, while opaque puppets are typical in Kerala and Odisha. The artist troupes typically carry over a hundred puppets for their performance in rural India. Rod puppets are an extension of glove-puppets, but are often much larger and supported and manipulated by rods from below. This form of puppetry now

1560-411: 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

1680-624: 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. 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

1800-548: A shadow play theatre in Tiefurt in 1781. According to Stephen Herbert, the popular shadow theatre evolved nonlinearly into projected slides and ultimately into cinematography . The common principle in these innovations were the creative use of light, images and a projection screen. According to Olive Cook, there are many parallels in the development of shadow play and modern cinema, such as their use of music, voice, attempts to introduce colors and mass popularity. Richard Bradshaw

1920-494: A shadow that looked like her move behind the curtains that the magician had placed around some lit torches. It is often told that the magician used a shadow puppet, but the original text in Book of Han gives no reason to believe in a relation to shadow puppetry. Although there are many earlier records of all kinds of puppetry in China, clear mention of Chinese shadow play does not occur until

2040-647: A stick, achieving minimum animation in both cases. Puppets are described in the epic Mahabharata , Tamil literature from the Sangam era , and various literary works dating from the late centuries BC to the early centuries AD, including the Edicts of Ashoka . Works like the Natya Shastra and the Kama Sutra elaborate on puppetry in some detail. China has a history of puppetry dating back 3000 years, originally in pi-yung xi ,

2160-603: A tradition called nang talung (which uses small, movable figures). Nang yai puppets are normally made of cowhide and rattan and are carried by people in front of the screen compared to behind it. Nang talung shadow play usually occur at domestic rituals and ceremonies or at commercial and temple fairs but they are starting to occur on Thai television. There are different kind of performers in Thailand's shadow play. Nang samai performers are more modern in terms of music and dialogue while Nang booraan performers are more traditional. Performances are normally accompanied by

2280-405: A translucent sheet of cloth, the "shadows" are actually silhouettes seen by the audience in profile or face on. Taiwan's shadow plays are accompanied by Chaochow melodies which are often called "priest's melodies" owing to their similarity with the music used by Taoist priests at funerals. A large repertoire of some 300 scripts of the southern school of drama used in shadow puppetry and dating back to

2400-713: A whole scene, including its background. Unlike their Javanese counterparts, Cambodian shadow puppets are usually not articulated, rendering the figure's hands unmovable, and are left uncolored, retaining the original color of the leather. The main shadow puppet production center is Roluos near Siem Reap. Cambodian shadow puppetry is one of the cultural performances staged for tourists alongside Cambodian traditional dances . The Sbek Thom figures are unlike puppets because they are large and heavy, with no moveable parts. The Sbek Touch , in contrast, are much smaller puppets with movable parts; their shows have been more popular. The Sbek Thom shadow play involves many puppeteers dancing on

2520-531: 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

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2640-526: 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

2760-516: Is a strong tradition of puppetry native to Indonesia , especially in Java and Bali . In Java, wayang kulit , an elaborate form of shadow puppetry, is very popular. Javanese rod puppets have a long history and are used to tell fables from Javanese history. Another popular puppetry form in Indonesia is wayang golek . Thailand has hun krabok , a popular form of rod puppet theatre. Vietnam developed

2880-448: Is a type of puppet that is controlled by one or more fingers that occupy the interior of the puppet. Finger puppets are generally very simple, consisting of a sheath that the person wearing the puppet (the puppeteer ) inserts either one or two fingers into. While the movement of the puppets are limited, multiple finger puppets can be used on each hand, allowing the puppeteer to control many puppets at one time. Due to their simplicity,

3000-598: Is accompanied by Daoqing music, while in Jilin , accompanying Huanglong music forms some of the basis of modern opera. Chinese shadow puppetry is shown in the 1994 Zhang Yimou film To Live . The origins of Taiwan 's shadow puppetry can be traced to the Chaochow school of shadow puppet theatre. Commonly known as leather monkey shows or leather shows, the shadow plays were popular in Tainan , Kaohsiung , and Pingtung as early as

3120-547: Is accompanied by a pinpeat orchestra. The Sbek Thom is based on the Cambodian version of the Indian epic Ramayana , an epic story about good and evil involving Rama , Sita , Lakshmana , Hanuman and Ravana . It is a sacred performance, embodying Khmer beliefs built on the foundations and mythologies of Brahmanism and Buddhism . Cambodian shadow puppets are made of cowhide, and their size are usually quite large, depicting

3240-574: 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. 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

3360-450: 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,

3480-555: Is an Asian invention, hand puppets have a long history in Europe. As European merchant ships sailed in the search of sea routes to India and China, they helped diffuse popular entertainment arts and cultural practices into Europe. Shadow theatre became popular in France, Italy, Britain and Germany by the 17th century. In France, shadow play was advertised as ombres chinoises , while elsewhere they were called "magic lantern". Goethe helped build

3600-412: Is an Australian shadow puppeteer known for his characters like "Super Kangaroo". Bradshaw's puppetry has been featured in television programs made by Jim Henson as well as the long-running ABC children's TV series Play School . The Shadow Theatre of Anaphoria (relocated to Australia from California) combines a mixture of reconstructed and original puppets with multiple sources of lights. The company

3720-495: Is an educational moral to the plays, which usually portray a battle. Malay shadow plays are sometimes considered one of the earliest examples of animation . The wayang kulit in the northern states of Malaysia such as Kelantan is influenced by and similar to Thai shadow puppets, while the wayang kulit in the southern Malay peninsula, especially in Johor , is borrowed from Javanese Indonesian wayang kulit with slight differences in

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3840-634: Is believed that the word marionette originates from the little figures of the Virgin Mary , hence the word "marionette" or "Mary doll. 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

3960-566: Is called wayang in Indonesia , wherein a dramatic story is told through shadows thrown by puppets and sometimes combined with human characters. Wayang is an ancient form of storytelling that renowned for its elaborate puppets and complex musical styles. The earliest evidence is from the late 1st millennium CE, in medieval-era texts and archeological sites. Around 860 CE an Old Javanese charter issued by Maharaja Sri Lokapala mentions three sorts of performers: atapukan, aringgit, and abanol. Ringgit

4080-586: 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. The 18th century was a vital period in the development of all Italian theatre , including the marionette theatre. The rod puppet

4200-520: Is described in an 11th-century Javanese poem as a leather shadow figure. Unlike India's shadow plays that incorporated little to no musical performance, Indonesia wayang includes an assemble of gamelan music. Wayang kulit , a style of wayang shadow play, is particularly popular in Java and Bali . The term derived from the word wayang literally means "shadow" or "imagination" in Javanese ; it also connotes "spirit". The word kulit means "skin", as

4320-486: Is found mostly in West Bengal and Orissa . The traditional rod puppet form of West Bengal is known as Putul Nautch . They are carved from wood and follow the various artistic styles of a particular region. The traditional rod puppet of Bihar is known as Yampuri . Glove puppets are also known as sleeve, hand or palm puppets. The head is made of either papier mâché , cloth or wood, with two hands emerging from just below

4440-716: Is influenced by the Islamic culture. Karagoz , the Turkish Shadow Theatre, has widely influenced puppetry in the region and it is thought to have passed from China by way of India. Later, it was taken by the Mongols from the Chinese and passed to the Turkish peoples of Central Asia. The art of Shadow Theater was brought to Anatolia by the Turkish people emigrating from Central Asia. Other scholars claim that shadow theater came to Anatolia in

4560-552: Is still practised today, though cel animation and computer animation has also been used to imitate the look of shadow play and silhouette animation. By the 1920s, shadow puppetry had breached the world of German Expressionism , through the silent film Warning Shadows . Traditional Chinese shadow puppetry was brought to audiences in the United States in the 1920s and 1930s through the efforts of Pauline Benton . Contemporary artists such as Annie Katsura Rollins have perpetuated

4680-443: Is under the direction of Kraig Grady . Australian company Shadowplay Studios' debut game Projection: First Light was inspired by shadow puppetry and its art style replicates the traditional shadow play canvas using black props and sepia backgrounds. They visited Richard Bradshaw to gain more insight into shadow puppetry, to make their game more authentic and to get references for the game's shadow puppet characters. In Cambodia ,

4800-411: Is usually just a group or collection of physically separate finger puppets, often intended to be used together in a performance. However, sometimes finger puppets are constructed to be an individual unit of multiple physically connected finger puppets. Occasionally these units consist of two or three puppets (intended for adjacent fingers), but they are most commonly created as sets of five, designed to fit

4920-696: 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 . In ancient Greece and ancient Rome clay dolls, and a few of ivory, dated from around 500 BC, were found in children's tombs. These dolls had articulated arms and legs, and in some cases an iron rod extending up from

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5040-714: The Ravana chhaya in Odisha , the Tholpavakoothu in Kerala and 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,

5160-547: 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 ,

5280-634: The Northern Song dynasty (960–1127). A 1235 book mentions that the puppets were initially cut out of paper, but later made of colored leather or parchment. The stories were mostly based on history and half fact half fiction, but comedies were also performed. Shadow play in China is called piyingxi. There are two distinct styles of shadow play: Luanzhou (North China) and Sichuan (South China). Within Sichuan, there are two styles: Chuanbei piyingxi (Northern Sichuan) and Chengdu piyingxi. Cities that are included in

5400-446: 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

5520-560: The Qing dynasty (1644–1911 A.D.). Older puppeteers estimate that there were at least seventy shadow puppet troupes in the Kaohsiung area alone in the closing years of the Qing. Traditionally, the eight to twelve-inch puppet figures, and the stage scenery and props such as furniture, natural scenery, pagodas, halls, and plants, are all cut from leather. As shadow puppetry is based on light penetrating through

5640-883: The Royal National Theatre and Madam Butterfly at the English National Opera . 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

5760-621: The Salzburg Marionette Theatre was founded in 1913 by Professor Anton Aicher and is world-famous. 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 . The Salzburg Marionette Theatre productions are aimed for adults although children are of course welcome. There

5880-406: The gendarme Flagéolet soon followed, but these are never much more than foils for the two heroes. Guignol's inevitable victory is always the triumph of good over evil. 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

6000-695: The wayang behind the cotton screen illuminated by oil lamp or modern halogen lamp, creating visual effects similar to animation. The flat puppet has moveable joints that are animated by hand, using rods connected to the puppet. The handle of the rod is made of carved buffalo horn. On November 7, 2003, UNESCO designated wayang kulit from Indonesia as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity . In Malaysia , shadow puppet plays are also known as wayang kulit . In Malay , wayang means "theater", while kulit means "skin/leather" and refers to

6120-638: The "theatre of the lantern shadows", or as it is more commonly known today, Chinese shadow theatre . By the Song dynasty (960–1279 AD), puppets played to all social classes including the courts, yet puppeteers, as in Europe, were considered to be from a lower social stratum. In Taiwan , budaixi puppet shows, somewhat similar to the Japanese bunraku, occur with puppeteers working in the background or underground. Some very experienced puppeteers can manipulate their puppets to perform various stunts, for example, somersaults in

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6240-585: The 16th century from Egypt . The advocates of this view claim that shadow theatre found its way into the Ottoman palaces when Yavuz Sultan Selim conquered Egypt in 1517. He saw shadow theatre performed during a party in his honour and he was said to be so impressed with it that he took the puppeteer back to his palace in Istanbul where his 21-year -old son, later Sultan Suleyman the Magnificent , developed an interest in

6360-406: The 1920s and his son, Ramdas Padhye, subsequently popularised ventriloquism and puppetry. Almost all types of puppets are found in India. India has a rich and 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

6480-428: The 1930s and thereafter, states Stuart Blackburn, these fears of its extinction were found to be false as evidence emerged that shadow puppetry had remained a vigorous rural tradition in central Kerala mountains, most of Karnataka, northern Andhra Pradesh, parts of Tamil Nadu, Odisha and southern Maharashtra. The Marathi people, particularly of low caste, had preserved and vigorously performed the legends of Hindu epics as

6600-427: The 1930s and thereafter, states Stuart Blackburn, these fears of its extinction were found to be false as evidence emerged that shadow puppetry had remained a vigorous rural tradition in central Kerala mountains, most of Karnataka, northern Andhra Pradesh, parts of Tamil Nadu, Odisha and southern Maharashtra. The Marathi people, particularly of low caste, had preserved and vigorously performed the legends of Hindu epics as

6720-853: The 19th century, puppetry faced competition from other forms of theatre such as vaudeville and music hall , but it adapted to these challenges, for example: by developing stage acts and participating in the new forms of popular theatre, or reinventing itself in other ways and finding audiences at the newly fashionable seaside resorts. The Teotihuacan culture (Central Mexico) of 600 AD made figurines with moveable arms and legs as part of their funerary rites. Native Americans also used ceremonial puppets. In 1519, two puppeteers accompanied Hernando Cortez on his first journey to Mexico. Europeans brought their own puppet traditions with them, but gradually distinctive styles, forms and puppet characters developed in North America . Finger puppet A finger puppet

6840-590: The 19th century. Nowadays, several theatre companies in France are developing the practice of shadow puppets: Le Théâtre des Ombres, Le Théâtre du Petit Miroir, Le Théâtre Les Chaises, and La Loupiote. Shadow puppets are an ancient part of India's culture, particularly regionally as the keelu bomme and Tholu bommalata of Andhra Pradesh , the Togalu gombeyaata in Karnataka , the charma bahuli natya in Maharashtra ,

6960-423: The 1st millennium BCE. By at least around 200 BCE, the figures on cloth seem to have been replaced with puppetry in Indian tholu bommalata shows. These are performed behind a thin screen with flat, jointed puppets made of colorfully painted transparent leather. The puppets are held close to the screen and lit from behind, while hands and arms are manipulated with attached canes and lower legs swinging freely from

7080-511: The 5th century BC in Ancient Greece . Some forms of puppetry may have originated as long ago as 3000 years BC . Puppetry takes many forms, but they all share the process of animating inanimate performing objects to tell a story. Puppetry occurs in almost all human societies where puppets are used for the purpose of entertainment through performance, as sacred objects in rituals , as symbolic effigies in celebrations such as carnivals , and as

7200-528: The Czech Association of Friends of Puppet Theatre and in 1912 advocated the publication of the oldest specialist puppet-theatre magazine still published today, Loutkář . 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 most famous puppet characters: Spejbl and Hurvínek , comical father and his rascal son. In 1930, he set up

7320-585: 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 ,

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7440-503: The Islamic conquest of the region. The shadow puppet play, states Banham, probably came into vogue in the Middle East after the Mongol invasions and thereafter it incorporated local innovations by the 16th century. Little mention of shadow play is found in Islamic literature of Iran, but much is found in Turkish and 19th-century Ottoman Empire-influenced territories. While shadow play theatre

7560-544: 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 historic 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,

7680-739: The Northern Sichuan are Bazhong, Nanchong, and Guangyuan. Shadow theatre became quite popular as early as the Song dynasty , when holidays were marked by the presentation of many shadow plays. During the Ming dynasty there were 40 to 50 shadow show troupes in the city of Beijing alone. The earliest shadow theatre screens were made of mulberry paper . The storytellers generally used the art to tell events between various war kingdoms or stories of Buddhist sources. Today, puppets made of leather and moved on sticks are used to tell dramatic versions of traditional fairy tales and myths. In Gansu province, it

7800-451: 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. Sub-Saharan Africa may have inherited some of

7920-458: The air. Japan has many forms of puppetry, including the bunraku. Bunraku developed out of Shinto temple rites and gradually became a highly sophisticated form of puppetry. Chikamatsu Monzaemon , considered by many to be Japan's greatest playwright, gave up writing kabuki plays and focused exclusively on the puppet-only bunraku plays. Initially consisting of one puppeteer, by 1730 three puppeteers were used to operate each puppet in full view of

8040-502: The art form of water puppetry , unique to that country. The puppets are built out of wood and the shows are performed in a waist-high pool. A large rod under the water is used by puppeteers to support and control the puppets, creating the appearance of the puppets moving over water. The origin of this form of puppetry dates back seven hundred years when the rice fields would flood and the villagers would entertain each other. Puppet show competitions between Vietnamese villages eventually led to

8160-410: The audience. The puppeteers, who dressed all in black, would become invisible when standing against a black background, while the torches illuminated only the carved, painted and costumed wooden puppets. Korea 's tradition of puppetry is thought to have come from China. The oldest historical evidence of puppetry in Korea comes from a letter written in 982 A.D. from Choe Seung-roe to the King. In Korean,

8280-403: The cabaret Le Chat Noir, together with an original theatre and painted backdrops, as well as two magic lanterns for projecting scenes. So far, the shadow plays identified are La Marche a l'étoile (introduced by Henri Rivière), Le Sphinx (introduced by Amédée Vignola), L'Âge d'or and Le Carneval de Venise . The shadow puppets were presumably created for a tour in France or abroad at the end of

8400-550: The country enhanced the reputation of the puppeteer and puppetry in general. 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 . The German version of the British character of 'Punch' is called Kasperle of Kaspar while Judy is called Grete . In the 18th century, operas were specifically composed for marionette puppets. Gluck , Haydn , de Falla and Respighi all composed adult operas for marionettes. In 1855, Count Franz Pocci founded

8520-436: The creation of finger puppets is a common craft project for parents and small children and its origin as an art form is unknown. In addition to their popularity as arts and craft creations, premade finger puppets are sold in a variety of venues and are often included as companions to children books. In at least one known instance, a finger puppet has been sold as a cleaning utensil. Finger puppets often come in sets. A set

8640-560: The creation of secretive and exclusive puppet societies. The Philippines first developed its art of puppetry during the Spanish colonial period. The oldest known Filipino puppetry is the carrillo , also known as kikimut , titire , and potei . It was first recorded in 1879. It involves small carts used in puppet plays with figures made of cardboard utilized for shadow plays. In the late 1800s, another Filipino puppetry developed. Higantes are giant papier-mâché puppets, numbering more than

8760-565: The daytime, spatial viewing, and viewing the shadows from both sides of the screen. Shadow play is popular in various cultures, among both children and adults in many countries around the world. More than 20 countries are known to have shadow show troupes. Shadow play is an old tradition and is listed as a Syrian intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO . It also has a long history in Southeast Asia , especially in Indonesia , Malaysia , Thailand , and Cambodia . It has been an ancient art and

8880-455: The dialogue, the movement of the puppet and the beat of the dholak are well synchronised and create a dramatic atmosphere. In Kerala , the traditional glove puppet play is called Pavakoothu . Afghanistan has produced a form of puppetry known as buz-baz . During a performance a puppeteer will simultaneously operate a marionette of a markhor while playing a dambura (long-necked lute). Middle Eastern puppetry, like its other theatre forms,

9000-535: The early part of the Middle Ages. Marionettes first appeared around the time of the Thirty Years' War . The first noted Czech puppeteer was Jan Jiří Brat, who was born in 1724. He was the son of a local carpenter and created his own puppet theatre. Matěj Kopecký was the most famous 19th-century Czech puppeteer, and was responsible for communicating the ideas of national awareness. In 1911, Jindřich Veselý co-founded

9120-471: The end of the 17th century, probably via Italy. It is known that several Italian showmen performed in Germany, France and England during this period. In 1675 German polymath and philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz imagined a kind of world exhibition that would show all kinds of new inventions and spectacles. In a handwritten document he supposed it should include shadow theatre. French missionaries brought

9240-410: The entire hand of the performer like a glove, intended so all five puppets can be used simultaneously on one hand. Figurative mentions of finger puppets in the context of expository writing sometimes invoke them metaphorically: That's the most we can explain it without putting on a finger puppet show. In the movie Hans Christian Andersen , the title character (played by Danny Kaye ) tells

9360-401: 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. There are regional differences within India in the puppet arts. For example, women play

9480-399: 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. There are regional differences within India in the puppet arts. For example, women play

9600-586: 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 numerous other companies, including Buchty a Loutky ("Cakes and Puppets"), founded by Marek Bečka . Puppets have been used extensively in animated films since 1946. Jiří Trnka

9720-463: The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries has been preserved in Taiwan and is considered to be a priceless cultural asset. A number of terms are used to describe the different forms. In Plato 's allegory of the cave (circa 380 BCE), Socrates described a kind of shadow play with figures made out of stone, wood, or other materials, presented to prisoners who in all of their life could see nothing more than

9840-490: The function of transmitting cultural values and ideas that in large African cities is increasingly undertaken by formal education, books, cinema, and television. 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

9960-510: The glove puppet comes alive. The tradition of glove puppets in India is popular in Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, West Bengal and Kerala. In Uttar Pradesh , glove puppet plays usually present social themes, whereas in Orissa such plays are based on stories of Radha and Krishna. In Orissa , the puppeteer plays a dholak (hand drum) with one hand and manipulates the puppet with the other. The delivery of

10080-467: The knee. The evidence of shadow puppet theatre is found in both old Chinese and Indian texts. The most significant historical centers of shadow play theatre have been China, Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent. According to Martin Banham, there is little mention of indigenous theatrical activity in the Middle East between the 3rd century CE and the 13th century, including the centuries that followed

10200-508: The management of Rodolphe Salis . Behind a screen on the second floor of the establishment, the artist Henri Rivière worked with up to 20 assistants in a large, oxy-hydrogen back-lit performance area and used a double optical lantern to project backgrounds. Figures were originally cardboard cut-outs, but were replaced with zinc figures since 1887. Various artists took part in the creation, including Steinlen , Adolphe Willette and Albert Robida . Caran d'Ache designed circa 50 cut-outs for

10320-473: The material from which the puppet is made is thin perforated leather sheets made from buffalo skin. Performances of shadow puppet theater in Bali are typically at night, lasting until dawn. The complete wayang kulit troupes include dalang (puppet master), nayaga ( gamelan players), and sinden (female choral singer). Some of the nayaga also perform as male choral singers. The dalang (puppet master) performs

10440-744: The morshed and the puppets. A recent example of puppetry in Iran is the touring opera Rostam and Sohrab . 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

10560-463: The motto of a prominent 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 simply the pulling of teeth. To attract patients, he started setting up a puppet show in front of his dentist's chair. His first shows featured Polichinelle ,

10680-605: The neck, arms, waist and knees and manipulated from rods in their back and held by the finger of the puppet master. The hide is worked until it is semi-transparent; then it is colored, resulting in colorful projections. Karagöz theatre was also adapted in Egypt and North Africa. In the 1910s, the German animator Lotte Reiniger pioneered silhouette animation as a format, whereby shadow-play-like puppets are filmed frame-by-frame . This technique has been kept alive by subsequent animators and

10800-421: The neck. The rest of the figure consists of a long, flowing skirt. These puppets are like limp dolls, but in the hands of an able puppeteer, are capable of producing a wide range of movements. The manipulation technique is simple the movements are controlled by the human hand, the first finger inserted in the head and the middle finger and the thumb in the two arms of the puppet. With the help of these three fingers,

10920-443: 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

11040-520: 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. India has

11160-590: The plays. 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

11280-771: 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

11400-575: The puppet drama play is performed by itinerant artist families on temporary stages during major temple festivals. Legends from the Hindu epics Ramayana and the Mahabharata dominate their repertoire. However, the details and the stories vary regionally. 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. In

11520-470: The puppet drama play is performed by itinerant artist families on temporary stages during major temple festivals. Legends from the Hindu epics Ramayana and the Mahabharata dominate their repertoire. However, the details and the stories vary regionally. 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. In

11640-536: The puppet master lit the oil lamp. The show could be introduced by a singer, accompanied by a tambourine player. The background and scenery would sometimes include moving ships, riders moving on horseback, swaying palm trees and even dragons. The sound effects included songs and various voices. Puppets were made to be about 15 inches or 35–40 centimeters high and oiled to make them look translucent. The puppets were made of either horse, water buffalo or calf skin. They had movable limbs and were jointed with waxed thread at

11760-440: The puppet traditions of ancient Egypt. Certainly, secret societies in many African ethnic groups still use puppets (and masks ) in ritual dramas as well as in their healing and hunting ceremonies. Today, puppetry continues as a popular form, often within a ceremonial context, and as part of a wide range of folk forms including dance, storytelling, and masked performance . In the 2010s throughout rural Africa, puppetry still performed

11880-472: 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

12000-422: 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

12120-402: The puppets sometimes include translucent color or other types of detailing. Various effects can be achieved by moving both the puppets and the light source. A skilled puppeteer can make the figures appear to walk, dance, fight, nod and laugh. There are four different types of performances in shadow play: the actors using their bodies as shadows, puppets where the actors hold them as shadows in

12240-490: The puppets that are made out of leather. There are four types of shadow theaters in Malaysia: wayang kulit Jawa, wayang kulit Gedek, wayang kulit Melayu, and wayang kulit Siam. W ayang kulit Jawa and wayang kulit Melayu can be traced back to Javanese Shadows while wayang kulit Gedek and wayang kulit Siam are traced back to Southern Thailand's shadow theaters. Stories presented are usually mythical and morality tales. There

12360-401: 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

12480-464: 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. 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

12600-493: The screen, each puppeteer playing one character of the Ramayana , while separate narrators recite the story accompanied by an orchestra. There are several myths and legends about the origins of shadow puppetry in China. The most famous one has it that Chinese shadow puppetry originated when the favorite concubine of Emperor Wu of Han (156 BCE – 87 BCE) died and magician Shao-weng promised to raise her spirit. The emperor could see

12720-476: The shadow play is called Nang Sbek Thom , or simply as Sbek Thom (literally "large leather hide"), Sbek Touch ("small leather hide") and Sbek Por ("colored leather hide"). It is performed during sacred temple ceremonies, at private functions, and for the public in Cambodia's villages. The popular plays include the Ramayana and Mahabharata epics, as well as other Hindu myth and legends. The performance

12840-515: The shadow show from China to France in 1767 and put on performances in Paris and Marseilles , causing quite a stir. In time, the ombres chinoises ( French for "Chinese shadows") with local modification and embellishment, became the ombres françaises and struck root in the country. The popularity of ombres chinoises reflected the chinoiserie fashion of the days. French showman François Dominique Séraphin first presented his shadow spectacle in

12960-522: The shadows on the wall in front of them. This was an imaginative illustration of ideas about (false or limited) the relations between knowledge, education and a truthful understanding of reality. Plato compared a wall that screens off the people who carry the figures to the kind of partitions used by puppet ( marionette ) players to hide behind. Apparently, there was no existing form of shadow theatre known in ancient Greece that Socrates/Plato could refer to. Shadow plays started spreading throughout Europe at

13080-543: The show. His nephew took over the show after Séraphin's death in 1800 and it was continued by his heirs until the theatre closed in 1870. In 1775, Ambrogio (also known as Ambroise and Ambrose) staged ambitious shows in Paris and London. The art was a popular entertainment in Paris during the 19th century, especially in the famous Paris nightclub district of Montmartre . The cabaret Le Chat noir ("The Black Cat") produced 45 Théatre d'ombres shows between 1885 and 1896 under

13200-449: The story and performance. The puppets are made primarily of leather and manipulated with sticks or buffalo horn handles. Shadows are cast using an oil lamp or, in modern times, a halogen light, onto a cotton cloth background. They are often associated with gamelan music. Shadow theatre in Thailand is called nang yai (which used large and steady figures) ; in the south there is

13320-426: The story of Thumbelina by singing to and manipulating a small finger puppet he has created to represent the fictional character. Shadow play#China Shadow play , also known as shadow puppetry , is an ancient form of storytelling and entertainment which uses flat articulated cut-out figures (shadow puppets) which are held between a source of light and a translucent screen or scrim . The cut-out shapes of

13440-408: The sultan. Every quarter of the city had its own Karagöz. The Karagöz theatre consisted of a three sided booth covered with a curtain printed with branches and roses and a white cotton screen by about three feet by four which was inserted in the front. The performance had a three man orchestra who sat at the foot of a small raised stage where they would play for the audience. The show would start when

13560-466: The techniques of rod and string 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

13680-496: The tops of their heads. This rod was used to manipulate the doll from above, as it is done today in Sicilian puppetry. A few of these dolls had strings in place of rods. Some researchers believe these ancient figures were simply toys and not puppets, due to their small size. Italy is considered by many to be the early home of the marionette due to the influence of Roman puppetry. Xenophon and Plutarch refer to them. The Christian church used marionettes to perform morality plays . It

13800-508: The very popular 1888 show L'Epopée . Musée d'Orsay has circa 40 original zinc figures in its collection. Other cabarets would produce their own versions; the ombres evolved into numerous theatrical productions and had a major influence on phantasmagoria . In Italy, the Museum of Precinema collezione Minici Zotti in Padua houses a collection of 70 French shadow puppets, similar to those used in

13920-475: The word for puppet is Kkoktugakshi . Gagsi means a "bride" or a "young woman", which was the most common form the dolls took. A kkoktugakshi puppet play has eight scenes. The Indonesian wayang theater was influenced by Indian traditions. 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". Wayang

14040-584: Was an acknowledged leader in this area. Miroslav Trejtnar is a master puppeteer and teacher of traditional Czech marionette-making skills. In 2016, Czech and Slovak Puppetry was included on the UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists . 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 and gypsies. In

14160-497: 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 artful and complex 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

14280-522: Was widespread throughout the Ottoman Empire , possibly since the late 14th century. It was centered around the contrasting interaction between the figures Karagöz and Hacivat : an unprincipled peasant and his fussy, educated companion. Together with other characters they represented all the major social groups in Ottoman culture. The theatres had an enormous following and would take place in coffee houses and in rich private houses and even performed before

14400-403: 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 (the most famous of which was Thunderbirds ) employed a technique called Supermarionation , which automatically synchronized

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