Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance

<p>The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance offers a wide-ranging</p><p>perspective on how scholars and artists are currently re-evaluating the theoretical, historical,</p><p>and theatrical significance of performance that embraces the agency of inanimate objects.</p><p>This book proposes a collaborative, responsive model for broader artistic engagement in and</p><p>with the material world. Its 28 chapters aim to advance the study of the puppet not only as a</p><p>theatrical object but also as a vibrant artistic and scholarly discipline.</p><p>This <i>Companion </i>looks at puppetry and material performance from six perspectives: theoretical</p><p>approaches to the puppet, perspectives from practitioners, revisiting history, negotiating tradition,</p><p>material performances in contemporary theatre, and hybrid forms. Its wide range of topics, which</p><p>span 15 countries over five continents, encompasses:</p><p>• visual dramaturgy</p><p>• theatrical juxtapositions of robots and humans</p><p>• contemporary transformations of Indonesian <i>wayang kulit</i></p><p>• Japanese ritual body substitutes</p><p>• recent European productions featuring toys, clay, and food.</p><p>The book features newly commissioned essays by leading scholars such as Matthew Isaac</p><p>Cohen, Kathy Foley, Jane Marie Law, Eleanor Margolies, Cody Poulton, and Jane Taylor.</p><p>It also celebrates the vital link between puppetry as a discipline and as a creative practice</p><p>with chapters by active practitioners, including Handspring Puppet Company’s Basil Jones,</p><p>Redmoon’s Jim Lasko, and Bread and Puppet’s Peter Schumann. Fully illustrated with more</p><p>than 60 images, this volume comprises the most expansive English-language collection of</p><p>international puppetry scholarship to date.</p> <p>Part I: Theory and Practice</p><p>Edited and Introduced by John Bell</p><p>Section I: Theoretical Approaches to the Puppet </p><ol> <p> </p> <li>"The Death of ‘The Puppet’?" by Margaret Williams </li> <p> </p> <li>"Co-presence and Ontological Ambiguity of the Puppet" by Paul Piris </li> <p> </p> <li> "Playing with the Eternal Uncanny: The Persistent Life of Lifeless Objects" by John Bell</li> <p>Section II: Perspectives from Practitioners</p> <p> </p> <li>"Visual Dramaturgy: Some Thoughts for Puppet Theater Makers" by Eric Bass </li> <p> </p> <li>"Puppetry, Authorship, and the Ur-Narrative" by Basil Jones </li> <p> </p> <li>"Petrushka’s Voice" by Alexander Gref and Elena Slonimskaya</li> <p> </p> <li>"Clouds are Made of White!" by Rike Reiniger</li> <p> </p> <li>"Movement is Consciousness" by Kate Brehm </li> <p> </p> <li>"The Eye of Light: The Tension of Image and Object in Shadow Theatre and Beyond" by Stephen Kaplin </li> <p> </p> <li>"The Third Thing" by Jim Lasko</li> <p> </p> <li>"Post-Decivilization Efforts in The Nonsense Suburb of Art" by Peter Schumann</li> <b> </b><p>Part II: New Dialogues with History and Tradition</p> <p>Edited and Introduced by Claudia Orenstein</p> <p>Section III: Revisiting History</p> <p> </p> <li>"Making A Troublemaker: Charlotte Charke’s Proto-Feminist Punch" by Amber West </li> <p> </p> <li>"Life-Death and Disobedient Obedience: Russian Modernist Redefinitions of the Puppet" by Dassia N. Posner </li> <p> </p> <li>"The Saracen of <i>Opera dei Pupi</i>: A Study of Race, Representation and Identity" by Lisa Morse </li> <ol> </ol> <p> </p> <li>"Puppet Think: The Implication of Japanese Ritual Puppetry for Thinking Through Puppetry Performances" by Jane Marie Law </li> <p> </p> <li>"Relating to the Cross: A Puppet Perspective on the Holy Week Ceremonies of the <i>Regularis Concordia</i>" by Debra Hilborn </li> <p>Section IV: Negotiating Tradition</p> <p> </p> <li>"Traditional and Post-traditional <i>Wayang Kulit</i> in Java Today" by Matthew Isaac Cohen </li> <p> </p> <li>"Korean Puppetry and Heritage: Hyundai Puppet Theatre and Creative Group NONI Translating Tradition" by Kathy Foley </li> <p> </p> <li>"Forging New Paths for Kerala's <i>Tolpavakoothu,</i> Leather Shadow Puppetry<i> </i>Tradition" by Claudia Orenstein</li> <p> </p> <li>"Integration of Puppetry Tradition into Contemporary Theatre: The Reinvigoration of the <i>Vertep</i> Puppet Nativity Play after Communism in Eastern Europe" by Ida Hledíková</li> <b> </b> <p>Part III: Contemporary Investigations and Hybridizations</p> <p>Edited and Introduced by Dassia N. Posner</p> <p>Section V: Material Performances in Contemporary Theatre</p> <p> </p> <li>"From Props to Prosopoeia: Making <i>After Cardenio" </i>by Jane Taylor </li> <p> </p> <li>"‘A Total Spectacle but a Divided One:’ Redefining Character in Handspring Puppet Company’s <i>Or You Could Kiss Me</i>"<i> </i>by Dawn Tracey Brandes </li> <p> </p> <li>"Reading a Puppet Show: Understanding the Three-Dimensional Narrative" by Robert Smythe</li> <p> </p> <li>"Notes on New Model Theatres" by Mark Sussman</li> <p>Section VI: New Directions and Hybrid Forms</p> <p> </p> <li>"From Puppet to Robot: Technology and the Human in Japanese Theatre" by Cody Poulton </li> <p> </p> <li>"Unholy Alliances and Harmonious Hybrids: New Fusions in Puppetry and Animation" by Colette Searls </li> <p> </p> <li>"Programming Play: Puppets, Robots, and Engineering" by Elizabeth Ann Jochum and Todd Murphey</li> <p> </p> <li>"Return to the Mound: Animating Infinite Potential in Clay, Food, and Compost" by Eleanor Margolies</li> </ol>