Famous color woodcut printmaker Gustave Baumann was a superb wood-carver who was captivated by puppet theater. In the 1930s Baumann carved a collection of marionettes for plays he wrote about New Mexico's cultural heritage. Featuring twenty-five marionettes photographed from the permanent collection of the New Mexico Museum of Art, this entertaining book tells the story of Baumann's theater, describing in detail the plays, sets, and costuming, and highlights the extraordinary wood-carving artistry of this master.

Absorbing, entertaining guide provides all the information needed to construct puppets and puppet theaters, including valuable advice on making heads, bodies, wigs, and puppet clothing, manipulating the puppet, setting up and furnishing a stage, lighting scenes, and building miniature pieces of furniture. Complete script for "Beauty and the Beast." Over 200 illustrations.

Although today's children can enjoy professional puppetry on television, there is nothing like experiencing a live performance. Live presentations, most of which are amateur productions, delight children now just as they have done in years past. This book will be a resource for schools, libraries, and other community groups that present puppet shows. The 31 plays are for children, pre-school through the primary grades. Some celebrate seasons and holidays, and others are appropriate for any time of year. Several of the shows invite young viewers to participate, and a final section is "just for libraries," dealing with topics that concern children applying for a library card, borrowing and taking care of books, joining a summer reading club, and visiting the library, both as individuals and with a school class. Each play is accompanied by production notes, so beginners will know exactly how to go about putting on a show. In addition to information about staging the plays, there are suggestions about planning programs, manipulating puppets, pre-taping, and using music to enhance the production. Simple patterns for making both hand and mouth action puppets are also included.

A masterpiece of eighteenth-century Japanese puppet theater, Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees is an action-packed play set in the aftermath of the twelfth-century Genji-Heike wars. It follows the adventures of the military commander, Yoshitsune, as he tries to avoid capture by his jealous older brother and loyal henchmen. The drama, written by a trio of playwrights, popularizes Japan's martial past for urban Edo audiences. It was banned only once in its long history, for a period after World War II, because occupying American forces feared its nationalizing power. In this expert translation by Stanleigh H. Jones Jr., readers learn why Yoshitsune and the Thousand Cherry Trees became one of the most influential plays in the repertoires of both kabuki and bunraku puppet theater. He opens with an introduction detailing the historical background, production history, and major features of the bunraku genre, and then pairs his translation of the play with helpful resources for students and scholars. Emphasizing text and performance, Jones's translation underlines not only the play's skillful appropriation of traditional forms but also its brilliant development of dramatic technique.

Karagiozis -- a form of comic folk drama employing stock puppet figures -- was immensely popular in Greece until recent years, when newer forms of entertainment have virtually eclipsed it. Derived from ancient Byzantine and Greek sources, it takes its name from the principal puppet character, the clever, humpbacked fool-hero Karagiozis, who appears in many guises, surrounded by a cast of folk caricatures from all walks of life. Kostas and Linda Myrsiades present here a tripartite view of Karagiozis: a translation of a typical text taken directly from a live performance; interviews with one of the last master Karagiozis puppeteers; and an analysis of the place of this indigenous genre in Greek life and culture. The first part of the book examines critical issues concerning the context of Karagiozis performance: its place as an expression of an unofficial social world, as a gender statement that reveals the split vision of its culture, as an expression of a pluralistic society, and as an indigenous event shaped by economic, geographic, political, and social forces. The second portion offers insights from interviews with Giorgos Haridimos, until his retirement Greece's preemi-nent Karagiozis player, and a translation of his classic text "Karagiozis Baker" reflecting an actual performance by Haridimos. Through novel verbal and typographic devices, Kostas Myrsiades succeeds in preserving the full flavor of his oral source -- its rhythms and intonations, its linguistic nuances, and even audience reactions -- to convey the actual experience of the theatergoer. This unique translation thus establishes a model for collecting and disseminating oral theatrical tradition. Folklorists, cultural historians, and students of theater will appreciate this introduction to an ancient but little known folkloric form.

The 30 original, reproducible puppet scripts in this collection are designed for the one-person show. Advice and suggestions on all aspects of presenting a puppet show, patterns for puppets, and illustrated instructions for construction accompany the scripts. Grades PreK-3.

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Nations in Southeast Asia have gone through a period of rapid change within the last century as they have grappled with independence, modernization, and changing political landscapes. Governments and citizens strive to balance progress with the need to articulate identities that resonate with the pre-colonial past and look towards the future. Puppets and Cities: Articulating Identities in Southeast Asia addresses how puppetry complements and combines with urban spaces to articulate present and future cultural and national identities. Puppetry in Southeast Asia is one of the oldest and most dynamic genres of performance. Bangkok, Jakarta, Phnom Penh, and other dynamic cities are expanding and rapidly changing. Performance brings people together, offers opportunities for economic growth, and bridges public and private spheres. Whether it is a traditional shadow performance borrowing from Star Wars or giant puppets parading down the street-this book examines puppets as objects and in performance to make culture come alive. Based on several years of field research-watching performances, working with artists, and interviewing key stakeholders in Southeast Asian cultural production-the book offers a series of rich case studies of puppet performance from various locations, including: theatre in suburban Bangkok; puppets in museums in Jakarta, Indonesia; puppet companies from Laos PDR, the National Puppet Theatre of Vietnam, and the Giant Puppet Project in Siem Reap, Cambodia; new global puppetry networks through social media; and how puppeteers came together from around the region to create a performance celebrating ASEAN identity.

Indonesia is blessed with vast and unique arts and culture-a result of being a melting pot of different cultures that ever visited the archipelago for centuries. One form of performance art that came from China and was warmly received in Java is Wayang Potehi. This hand-puppet performance art went through its own up and downs over the centuries from political circumstances and, yet, today still maintains it original format despite the fact that majority of the artists are now Javanese."WAYANG POTEHI OF JAVA" is a premium coffee-table book that aims to introduce the artistry of the past and current artists to the contemporary Indonesian and international audience. It is also a form of an invitation for Indonesians to appreciate and be proud of Wayang Potehi as a part of the nation's art and culture.Wayang Potehi is an iconic art form of Chinese puppet theatre in Indonesia. In the beginning, its existence was constrained mostly within Chinese temples in Java. But in 1967, the repression of Chinese under the New Order government in Indonesia for 33 years restricted and prohibited its activities and almost killed its existence. Wayang Potehi came back alive during the presidency of Abdurrahman Wahid and now it can be performed without any restrictions.Today, people-Chinese or non-Chinese, elderly or young-are keen on watching Wayang Potehi shows. Many of them idolize and discuss over its main characters such as Sie Djin Koei, Tek Djing, Kwan Kong etc. It slowly gains its popularity back. In rural areas such as Mojoagung, Gudo and Blitar, Wayang Potehi shows are watched mostly by natives. Even the artists (from the puppeteer, musician and puppetmaker) are majority Javanese and Moslem. Although the number of puppetmakers is pretty small, they all have their own unique perception and taste in their creations.Wayang Potehi went through a tremendous adaptation with the local culture during its proliferation and evolution in Java influenced by societal trends and power in politics. Nonetheless, the format and the elements of its original, root traditions embedded in the structure and the flow of the performance, as well as the look and shape of the puppets are still well maintained. It all formed what is called today: WAYANG POTEHI OF JAVA.

Introduce puppets into your storytime programs and make some magic! You'll excite and engage your young patrons, introducing them to the joy and wonder of books, reading, and language. This guide helps you turn your favorite stories or poems into memorable puppet presentations and gives you annotations of nursery rhymes, poems, stories, folk-tales, fables, and songs that are terrific for puppet storytelling. Lowe and Matthew show you how to select and purchase puppets, develop performance techniques, store and preserve these unique tools, and integrate them with children's literature. You'll also appreciate the tips for creating your own puppets with easy-to-find materials. And once your puppets are ready, you'll find step-by-step guidance for incorporating them into your programs. Additional resources include a guide to puppet retailers and materials distributors, a puppet-book index that matches puppets to specific book titles, and a bibliography of additional titles and tools for the novice puppeteer.

Paul McPharlin is one of the 20th century's most important contributors to the art of puppetry. Over a period of nine years he created some 20 productions with marionettes, rod puppets, hand puppets and shadow figures. He was also a prolific writer whose technical, theoretical and historical works contributed significantly to a puppetry revival. His book ""The Puppet Theatre in America"" is considered the definitive history of American puppetry. Though shy and aloof, McPharlin was also energetic. He had an ability to bring people together and used this knack to found a national puppetry organization, Puppeteers of America. Besides the author's extensive research on McPharlin and puppetry, the book draws on significant contributions from McPharlin's wife, puppeteer and author Marjorie Batchelder McPharlin, who allowed the use of her 18 - year correspondence with Paul in the creation of the book. The chapters take the reader through McPharlin's childhood as a loner in Detroit, his maturation and education in New York, and his early, erratic and often unsuccessful attempts at making a living. His puppeteering years, 1929 to 1937, are detailed, as are the later years that saw him first working for the WPA and then being drafted into the army to serve in World War II at age 38. He continued making important contributions to the art of puppetry until a brain tumor took his life at age 45 in 1948. Appendices present two of McPharlin's plays, ""The Barn at Bethlehem: A Christmas Play"" and ""Punch's Circus"". Another appendix details puppetry imprints, including yearbooks, plays, handbooks, worksheets and books. A fourth lists Paul McPharlin's Puppeteers, members of the Marionette Fellowship of Detroit.

Aimed at children's librarians, this text demonstrates how to use puppets and storytelling to enthuse young audiences. This revised edition pays particular attention to literature-based instruction and multicultural themes. Techniques include open-box theatres and sound and action stories.

Puppets of Nostalgia is the first major work in any Western language to examine the ritual origins and religious dimensions of puppetry in Japan. In a lucid and engaging style accessible to the general reader, Jane Marie Law describes the "life, death, and rebirth" of awaji ningyo shibai, the unique form of puppet theater of Awaji Island that has existed since the sixteenth century. Puppetry rites on Awaji helped to maintain rigid ritual purity codes and to keep dangerous spiritual forces properly channeled and appeased. Law conducted fieldwork on Awaji, located in Japan's Inland Sea, over a ten-year period. In addition to being a detailed history and ethnography of this ritual tradition, Law's work is, at a theoretical level, a study of the process and meaning of tradition formation, reformation, invention, and revitalization. It will interest scholars in a number of fields, including the history of religions, anthropology, cultural studies, ritual and theater studies, Japanese studies, and social history. Focusing on the puppetry tradition of Awaji Island, Puppets of Nostalgia describes the activities of the island's ritual puppeteers and includes the first English translation of their performance texts and detailed descriptions of their rites. Because the author has lived on Awaji during extended periods of research, the work includes fine attention to local detail and nuanced readings of religious currents in Japan that affect popular religious expression. Illustrated throughout with rare photographs, the book provides an in-depth view of a four-hundred-year-old tradition never so thoroughly revealed to Western readers. Originally published in 1997. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.