Puppets, Masks, and Performing Objects

by John Bell (Editor)

This volume, which originally appeared as a special issue of TDR/The Drama Review, looks at puppets, masks, and other performing objects from a broad range of perspectives. Puppets and masks are central to some of the oldest worldwide forms of art making and performance, as well as some of the newest. In the twentieth century, French symbolists, Russian futurists and constructivists, Prague School semioticians, and avant-garde artists around the world have all explored the experimental, social, and political value of performing objects. In recent years, puppets, masks, and objects have been the focus of Broadway musicals, postmodernist theory, political spectacle, performance art, and new academic programs, for example, at the California Institute of the Arts.This volume, which originally appeared as a special issue of TDR/The Drama Review, looks at puppets, masks, and other performing objects from a broad range of perspectives. The topics include Stephen Kaplin's new theory of puppet theater based on distance and ratio, a historical overview of mechanical and electrical performing objects, a Yiddish puppet theater of the 1920s and 1930s, an account of the Bread and Puppet Theater's Domestic Resurrection Circus and a manifesto by its founder, Peter Schumann, and interviews with director Julie Taymor and Peruvian mask-maker Gustavo Boada. The book also includes the first English translation of Pyotr Bogatyrev's influential 1923 essay on Czech and Russian puppet and folk theaters. Contributors
John Bell, Pyotr Bogatyrev, Stephen Kaplin, Edward Portnoy, Richard Schechner, Peter Schumann, Salil Singh, Theodora Skipitares, Mark Sussman, Steve Tilllis

206 pages, Paperback

First published April 16, 2001

Reviews

[Diana · Rating 5 out of 5]

عروسک، ماسک و اشیای نمایشی و آشغالی که درحال خوندنشه. من. من یک آشغالم
_خط اول مونولوگ زندگی من

"آیا غیر از راما و خدایان دیگر کسی به تماشای فرم‌های از مدافتاده می‌نشیند؟
_بله
و اگر مردم به تماشای آن‌ها بنشینند، در آنچه تئاترهای زنده‌ی عروسکی به تصویر می‌کشند، چه می‌بینند و از آن چه می‌فهمند؟
_آن‌ها امکانات فوق‌العاده‌ی اندیشه و کنش را می‌بینند."

[Dean Jones · Rating 5 out of 5]

Puppets, Masks, and Performing Objects is a semi-entertaining book on the topic of puppets, masks, and other performing objects as a historical look at this subject in a series of essays from antiquity to the modern times. The Book is rich in interesting photographs that highlight the content. (It would be hard to write about this topic without visual aids referring to the text.) The writing is not user-friendly or would be entertaining to anyone who was not a student of theater or the history of puppetry. The writing is specific enough to be excellent for the target audience but not really worth it for someone who is new to the topic or has just a casual interest. I found it to be a very entertaining and informative read but it is not something I would recommend to just anyone. (That being said I will most likely purchase the book as it’s worth having in my own Library)
This work is fairly detailed in the historical content and would be a great addition to an Academic Library in a University that has a theater program or for an academic writing on the topic of Puppets.

[Nima Jahanbin · Rating 1 out of 5]

خیلی کتاب ضعیف و بدی هستش. شامل مقالات و مصاحبه و گزارش که ارزش علمی کمی دارند. ببیشتر از اینکه یه کتاب باشه ترجمه ای از یه مجله هستش. که مفاله های قدیمی و مصاحبه های تاریخ گذشته داره. . نسبت به قیمت و حجمی که داره اصلا توصیه به خوندنش نمیکنم. ویکی پدیا اطلاعات جامع تری داره

[Justin K. Rivers · Rating 2 out of 5]

Collection of academic essays on the subject of puppetry. A mixed bag. The editor, John Bell, skews the discussion towards the radical political puppetry (Bread and Puppet Theater) that he is associated with. While I don't share their politics, I've no problem with their inclusion, but this viewpoint seems to exclude the more mainstream or narrative applications of puppetry to modern theater.

Radical politics and folklore are, of course, important facets of puppet theater, but these topics neglect the more structural topics, of how puppets interact with meaning in narrative, of the tension between human and puppet characters, in the development or application of modern theater and acting techniques in the implementation of puppetry.

This volume is now sadly outdated. In the decade since it was published, we have seen major advancements in digital technology, such as the Henson Performance System and other CGI-puppetry hybrids, as well as a slew of new stop-motion animation work, and new mainstream puppet productions, such as Avenue Q. It seems a good time for a new, revised edition.