P U P P E T R Y I N T E R N A T I O N A L PuPPETRy inTERnATionAl – EXTRA: PuPPETRy in ThE AgE of CoViD-19 – TAblE of ConTEnTs

Jewell’s Marionnettes in the Pandemic of 1918-19 by Richard Bradshaw ...... C-2 United Kingdon: Adjusting to COVID-19 by Cariad Astles ...... C-5 Iran: Crowning of Corona Virus by Salma Mohseni Ardehali ...... C-6 France: Extend a Hand by Nicolas Saelens ...... C-8 Indonesia: Investing in Community: Paper Moon Innovates by Claudia Orenstein ...... C-10 RésiliArt: Art and Culture in the Face of Crisis by Kristin Haverty and others ...... C-14 South Africa: Izandla Zobomi by Janni Younge ...... C-23 India: A Roundtable Report by Ranjana Pandey ...... C-24

Susan Linn’s Distance Ventriloquism Ventriloquism bygoes Felice Virtual Amato……………………………………… by Felice Amato ...... C-26 Indian Puppeteers Persevere by Claudia Orenstein ...... C-30 Post-Human Puppetry in the Time of Pandemic by Kelly I. Aliano ...... C-33

Dear Readers,

We include this special supplement on Puppetry in the Age of COVID-19 because it could neither be put off nor ignored. There isn’t a puppeteer anywhere in the world who is not affected by the pandemic in some way, either through the illness or death of loved ones, or by having their livelihood disappear overnight. We are a creative bunch, we movers of objects, we tellers of tales, we sculptors of simulacra. The world over, we puppet artists are finding ways to help ourselves, and to help the others of our tribe. The following are some stories from and about puppeteers, as well as the way UNIMA is bringing puppeteers from around the globe together to share and strategize through a series of online discussions called “RésiliArt.” Courage, friends. We will get through this, and I have no doubt we will learn more about ourselves and each other in the process.

Gesundheit, Andrew (for Bonnie, John, Dassia, Donald, Vince, Lisa, Laurie and the board of UNIMA-USA)

C-1 P U P P E T R Y I N T E R N A T I O N A L Jewell’s Marionettes in Australia and the “Spanish Flu” of 1918-19 a revised version of an article that appeared in Australian Puppeteer, Winter, 2002

by Richard Bradshaw figuREs fRom ThE Cook/mARks CollECTion, DonATED To noRThwEsT PuPPET CEnTER

PhoTos: fRAnCisCo CARTER Her husband, Jesse Jewell, had worked but two passengers were seriously ill in Thomas’s company.1 According to and several had high temperatures, so the late John Phillips, the troupe had the ship was kept in quarantine for a sometimes been called Jewell-Holden, week. It left Sydney on Sunday night, RICHARD BRADSHAW has and it was Mae who was responsible 22 December, arriving in Melbourne and cinemas to be closed. Schools, The theatres remained shut for performed his shadow puppetry for the manipulation of the puppets. on Christmas Eve and the marionettes which were to have reopened after five weeks, and began to open on all over the world. In 2016 he She was known as Madame Jewell. began appearing in the pantomime on the summer holidays on the following 6 March. Goody Two Shoes, still was elected a Member of Honor The Jewells went from England Boxing Day. Monday, were now to remain closed. including Jewel’s Marionette Circus, of the Union International de la to live in the U.S.A in 1904, and Jewel’s Marionettes, were featured New South Wales and Victoria were reopened on Saturday, 8 March, with Marionnette, one of puppetry’s were based there until they stopped halfway through the first half of the separated from the rest of Australia as a “grand vice-regal performance.” highest recognitions. performing in 1935. Jewell’s panto in Circus Day in Toyland. They one quarantine area, so normal travel This was attended by the Governor- marionettes appeared in vaudeville, had an elaborate fit-up, with its own between Sydney and Melbourne was General, the Governor of Victoria, the museums and circus sideshows. audience of marionettes. Acts included possible. Passengers from Victoria to Lord Mayor of Melbourne and the Endnotes Madame Jewell was in charge of a performing elephant that carried its Tasmania had to spend seven days Chief Justice and their wives. 1 Thomas Holden had gone to the U.S.A. the troupe in Australia where they trainer off on its trunk, a lady taming in quarantine at their own expense The season was to have ended on as stage-manager with Bullock’s Royal were consistently advertised as three lions, wire-walkers, dancers, before embarking, and people needed “8-hour Day,” Monday, 7 April, so that Marionetes in 1873. Other members of “Jewel’s Marionette Circus,” rather Buffalo Bill on a bucking bronco, a permit to travel to South Australia. the show could open in Sydney on the that company were his sister Sarah Jane and her husband Henry James Middleton, than “Jewell’s.” They opened at and a lady dancing on the back of a By the time the epidemic ended in following Saturday, but once again the J.C.Williamson’s2 Her Majesty’s Theatre horse. There were also a couple of 1920, over 12,000 Australians had theatres in Sydney were closed. The in Melbourne on Boxing Day, 1918, in Highlanders who would “mysteriously died from it, out of a population of Melbourne season was extended by the pantomime Goody Two Shoes. stretch to a height of seven feet and about five-and-a-half million – a death another week and the panto moved The Great War had ended with with equal suddenness telescope to a rate of about 1 in 500. to the Theatre Royal in Adelaide Many of us have copies of books by the signing of the Armistice on 11 height of one foot.” The show ended On Thursday, 30 January, the instead for a two-week season the English puppeteer H.W.Whanslaw November, but an epidemic was with “a naval action.” Minister of Health received a beginning Easter Saturday, 19 April. It (1883-1965). I met him in London then spreading through the world, “Perhaps the Marionette Circus delegation of theatre and cinema then played in Ballarat (7 & 8 May), in 1964. In Everybody’s Marionette killing many thousands. It was called is almost too ingeniously absurd for owners and managers. The General Geelong (10 May) and left Melbourne Book, originally published in 1935, the “Spanish Flu,” but its origin the youngsters, and appeals more to Manager of J.C.Williamson’s spoke by special train for Sydney on 12 May. “Whanny,”as he was known to his is uncertain, with the first known the baldheads,” the Bulletin declared. for them, saying that 2200 people [They would have needed to change colleagues, revealed that the first case identified on a military base in “The eternal elephant and lion-taming earning a total of £7930 weekly were trains at the border because of the marionettes he saw were Jewell’s Kansas. In December, strict quarantine acts are about the most humorous, now out of work. That sum would railway gauge difference between the Marionettes. He was still at school was in force in the ports of Sydney but the lady on the bare-backed steed now be equivalent to more than two states.] when he saw them at the Victorian and Melbourne. is also capital farce.” Some of these AUS$4 million. Of these people, 1140 Goody Two Shoes finally opened Era Exhibition at Earl’s Court in 1897. The pantomime had opened puppets survive in the huge Alan Cook earning £5,300 weekly worked in in Sydney at Her Majesty’s Theatre Mae Jewell was born Mae in Melbourne a few days before collection now with the Northwest live theatres. In addition, the weekly (in Pitt Street) on 17 May, five weeks Holden, and was a member of a Christmas without the two specialty Puppet Center in Seattle. rentals of theatres totalled £2,300. late, and ran until 4 July. A two- famous English family of marionette acts from America, Jewel’s Marionette During the run there was a very That afternoon the Minister received week season began in His Majesty’s, presenters. Her father, John Holden, Circus and the Kenna Brothers, dramatic turn of events. The flu a delegation of equally concerned Brisbane, on 12 July and, after two had begun the tradition, and her acrobats. They had arrived from the epidemic had arrived and people were theatrical employees. days in Toowoomba the pantomime brothers John, James, Thomas and U.S.A. in the Makura in Sydney (via dying. On Tuesday, 28 January 1919, was to travel to New Zealand.3 sister Sarah Jane were all puppeteers. Auckland) on Friday, 13 December, the Government ordered all theatres

C-2 C-3 P U P P E T R Y I N T E R N A T I O N A L

Adjusting to Covid-19 in the UK

by Cariad Astles

A great deal of my work is dedicated to puppetry training and teaching and it soon became obvious that we were not going to be able to run training workshops in person, at least for several months. I work at two Universities: the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and Exeter University, and teach puppetry to BA and MA students there. We hosted talks with professionals; developed making workshops that students could do with simple materials from their own homes; used the context of being “at home” for puppets to reflect on their micro-worlds. Much of the best puppetry has been in the context of the minutiae of the world of the puppet.

A few things were proposed, including online festivals, shared classes, online fora for students to

2 communicate and online his brother-in-law W.H. Lawrence, The American actor J.C.Williamson Postscript and Charles and Jane Webb. Holden, was born in Mercer, PA in 1845 and Jewel’s Marionettes continue in the training workshops. We Lawrence and the Webbs were frst came to Australia with his wife, pantomime “Goody Two Shoes” for the are still considering how with those who lef to be part of Maggie Moore, to act in Struck New Zealand tour from 9 September we might work with these McDonough and Earnshaw’s Royal Oil. They returned to Australia in to 19 November. They played in options over the coming Marionete Theatre early in 1874. 1879 and Williamson began an Wellington, Wanganui, Hawera, year. The pandemic could It was this company that brought entrepreneurial career that led to Auckland, Dunedin and Christchurch. effect a return to the the Webbs to Australia in 1875, and J.C.Williamson Ltd. becoming the popular roots of puppetry: with another ex-member, Charles leading theatrical organizaton in According to a mention of the outdoor performances in Australia and New Zealand. Although marionettes in a report in The Troter, they lef to create their own public spaces, or micro- company based in Australia. Webb he died in 1907, the company Dominion, (Wellington), 15 Sept., 1919: theatre performances, for and Troter were second cousins, contnued operatng untl 1976. “This form of entertainment once so with grandfathers who were popular is now but rarely presented. tiny audiences. Puppetry Middletons. Thomas Holden had 3 The actor Roy Redgrave (Sir Nothing as clever or more gorgeously has always adjusted to its already lef the American company Michael’s father) had been on tour equipped has been seen in Wellington circumstances, and this is before its tour of Australia and New for J.C.Williamson’s in New Zealand than this show.” no exception. Zealand and went on to become during the fu outbreak, and afer one of the best known marionete a series of colds was admited to In the Evening Post (Wellington), showmen in Europe, especially in Dunedin Hospital. He escaped the 15 Sept., 1919 (on the marionette France. It is interestng to note that fu, however, and back in Australia audience): Thomas Holden’s Marionetes were a leter from him in a magazine “One member smoked, the ladies I also ran some performance workshops, using the frame of the screen at Lent’s Museum in St Petersburg, advertsement put that down to his gracefully toyed with their fans, and like a stage; to practice entrances, exits, the relationship between the Russia in 1882-3 because in early use of Clement’s Tonic, the local an old gentleman puppet was sternly puppeteer and puppet and to develop short monologues and dialogues, 1883 Webb and Troter’s company fortfer that is stll available, and rebuked by his marionette wife for focusing on the precision of movement. I started to consider how we from Australia played in that which is remembered in the name his too keen interest in a bespangled might approach the sacred nature of the puppet from a private, limited of the Sydney suburb Clemton Park. circus rider.” same venue. world. I also set up some international meetings with University puppetry [Roy Redgrave died in Sydney in 1922, and his grave is in the South teachers, to share experiences and to look for opportunities to collaborate Head Cemetery, Vaucluse.] during online teaching.

C-4 C-5 P U P P E T R Y I N T E R N A T I O N A L

For my puppet manipulation family was not possible for all, but it course, I asked the class was the only way. After one week, I representative to make a group on received their videos one by one, and WhatsApp consisting of all people I was greatly “surprised.” Puppetry and Pandemic: of the class. I just knew their names Of course their wonderful films motivated to do their exercises, and Always, after great chaos, a and hadn’t seen many of them in were not the exact theatrical pieces as we continued with the explanations catastrophe, or important historical Crowning of the Corona Virus the real world! We started virtually… we think of them. If we consider the about more manipulating rules and events like revolutions, wars, epidemic I still didn’t know if my plan would simultaneous presence of a performer doing exercises with wooden sticks, diseases or natural disasters, there by Salma Mohseni Ardehali work and be useful. At first I started and audience in one place as a everyday objects and making and will be an opportunity for artists to sending some articles on the subject necessary condition of a theatrical improvising with a puppet of brown rethink their arts, revive, transform Last winter was a very tough period new year). We thought that the to make a proper atmosphere for the event (even a theatre class exercise), paper (with table top style) and a and reform our ideas. In the age of of time for us; the political and educational centers would start their virtual class. I would know that there the works we’ve done are placed in funny exercise with basic Muppet- the crowning of the corona virus and social situations had profoundly activities at most two weeks after were not group exercises, that all another kind of medium. The question style puppets based on a lip-sync lifelessness, what is the new function negative effects on collective spirit Nowruz holidays, but it didn’t happen. exercises would be done individually is, if a theatrical or quasi-theatrical with “They don’t care about us,” by and prophecy of puppetry as an art and especially on the university Universities launched online classes. and that there would not be “real” event happens in a different place and Michael Jackson. that can enliven? It is said we have students. They were depressed and But our field is practical and collective improvisations and interactivities. time (live stream or not) and not in Of course, not all of them sent to wear face masks, and we must; unmotivated and, as a teacher, I had in many ways. Our job is theatre, and I usually start these puppet front of the physical presence of the their work. Some cared about my but we puppeteers have been behind to think about a solution for a useful it stopped, and it was a big shock. manipulation courses for beginners audience, is the product “theatre” or deadlines and some didn’t. Some our masks, puppets and booths and positive advancement of the Many of my colleagues around the by working with the body – especially some other medium? Certainly it’s said that they were depressed for centuries to entertain and raise class every session. At the beginning world experienced this weird feeling hands – and using everyday objects been many years since puppetry as and unmotivated, or their family awareness. It is said we should wash of the new semester at Soore and still feel it. and natural things like sticks, leaves a pioneer art has mixed technology, or themselves were challenged our hands frequently, and I’m willing University, I received the list of new And staying at home, we had to and stones to teach the basics of multimedia and digital images as with COVID-19 or they didn’t have to wash my mind, wash my dreams students of my puppet manipulation entertain our little daughter and the puppeteering. For this offline aspects of its performative form and hardware facilities or internet access; and wash my beliefs as well and class; I didn’t know any of them, educate her about corona virus and virtual class, the attractive book of almost every different and strange but most of them tried to send their replace them with better ones… . and this is always an attractive the reason for these lockdowns. We “Mervyn Millar” which has recently work in this field will be acceptable. footage. Then we would determine an moment for me: new students, new would listen to the horrible news been one of my teaching sources Students had different views exact time to talk about their works SALMA MOHSENI ARDEHALI spirits, new friendships and new and had to control our anxiety; then was really helpful. Hand exercises on doing exercises. Some added in the WhatsApp group. I hadn’t seen is an Iranian Puppet artist, scholar learnings. The first two sessions of after the beginning of the online were chosen and translated from visual and musical effects to their most of them in person and knew and university lecturer. explaining about the process and classes we had to encourage the the book Puppetry – How to Do It works and other just turned on the them through their works. But it was the rules of the class, our definition students to retain their patience and were sent to the group. I asked camera and improvised in front of it. difficult and strange to communicate. This essay is dedicated to my amazing of the puppet and performing and peace of mind. Online teaching them to read and not to hesitate to In all cases, it was the camera angle I wished we could warm up in students in Online Puppet Manipulation objects, warm ups and icebreaking of theoretical courses is absolutely ask their questions. They were then that told us how, where and from rehearsal rooms, listen to the music class at Soore University: Mostafa, exercises passed, and there were possible. But what would happen to do the exercise, film it and send it to which viewpoint we should watch and immerse ourselves in the world Shaghayegh, Jeiran, Shahrzad, Ali, many absent students, because the our practical courses – the ones that me. I knew that they didn’t have the the scene, but all of these factors of puppets in one big group, but Kianaz, Parham, Negah, Melina, Nooshin, classes hadn’t formally begun yet. should be done in rehearsal rooms same facilities, everyone was off in a were acceptable for me as a teacher COVID-19 makes us stay at home. Our Motahare, Fozhan, Nikdokht, Masoume, Then it happened: All universities and workshops, collectively and different corner of the country, and because I should acknowledge that we bedroom has become our studio and Sara, Sahar, Mahdie, Ghazal, Fa’eze, and other public places were closed interactively? Educational centers internet access and having a proper were about to experience a different the small camera on our cellphones Ghazal, Mohadese and Sogol. due to the coronavirus epidemic. didn’t have plans to eliminate these cellphone and getting help from the field. They were so creative and has become the audience view. We This closure extended until the two- kinds of courses, and so we had to tried to accept the new world of our htps://independent.academia.edu/ week holidays of Nowruz (Iranian begin again and go on. art, go on and never give up. SalmaMohseni C-6 C-7 P U P P E T R Y I N T E R N A T I O N A L Extend a hand! by Nicolas Saelens

We have been experiencing a health crisis due to the virus for several months now: COVID-19. In March, in France, we were confined for two months. All our activities have been suspended. The resumption of our actions since the end of quarantine remains very complicated. We have to apply a protocol that obliges us to wear masks, to restrict the gatherings in the theatres, and the actor/pup- peteers must keep the necessary distance (1 meter) between them on the stage. PhoTo of PETE AnD ThE bAnD by ChRis hunT* In spite of these conditions (which strongly distort the very essence of our An Email from Kristin Haverty art)– the meeting, the conviviality, the presence of living bodies in the same space-time– artistic teams have been able to resume rehearsals and perform For my part, I was able to con- The Times of COVID-19 have been Despite being in sort of a suspended While budget, of course, is always (especially in the open air). They were tinue my work as a director from a tough here in Atlanta, but I feel grate- purgatory of not knowing anything on my mind as a Producer, just as im- able to continue their research through distance. We were, during the con- ful and lucky all at the same time. In about the future or even the present, portant are all of the lives that bud- remote exchanges with the tools of the finement, in the process of develop- early March, I attended the incredible everything still has a timeline of ASAP, get represents. How can I make the Internet. However, this crisis is calling into ing the text of the next show: “The Festival de Casteliers in Montréal. A meaning we needed this yesterday in argument that the world community question all the planned work schedules Faces of the Earth.” In this show, a theater full of international guests that precious moment between never- of artists, makers and joy producers and will weaken the entire performing question arises: “Where will you go watched a screening of the Shanghai ending Zoom calls. Our amazing team are essential, now and forever? arts sector in the long term. The eco- far from the faces of the earth?”. Puppet Theatre’s beautiful shadow plunged head first into digital program- I’m grateful to be on the UNIMA- nomic recession will generate a social and This desire to overpower, which is play Mulan and we mourned that the ming. We already had this in place USA board during this time. I want political crisis. characteristic of our time, makes us artists could not be there in person through our Digital Learning department to find more ways to connect our In France, the compensation system forget the essential elements. And due to the COVID-19 outbreak in but that has always been quite a differ- membership with the larger UNIMA for artists and technicians in the perform- this health crisis reminds us of our China. Little did we know what was ent department from onsite Production, community. I’m buoyed by the op- ing arts will be maintained until August fragility, the fragility of the living. about to happen around the world. Education and Museum efforts, with its portunity during this time to connect 2021. The State has also strongly inter- This situation has only increased Upon returning to the office, we own specific programming catered to in new and exciting ways with inter- vened through measures such as “partial my conviction that the puppet is welcomed our guest artists Alex and a very specific group format on a small national colleagues and to see digital unemployment.” We are waiting to see a relevant tool to question our Omsted for a week of nearly sold out scale that would fit into the digital learn- offerings like Great Small Works’ Toy how the Ministry of Culture with its new relationship with the living. We will performances. But each day more ing studios. Trying to reimagine how to Theater Festival with creators from minister (Mrs. Roselyne Bachelot), who be able to resume rehearsals at the and more school groups cancelled fit all the other programming we pro- all over the world or the many other only arrived last June, will be able to in- end of August and perform at the and by the end of that week we had duce into digital has been an adventure. brilliant offerings our community has tervene in the face of this unprecedented end of September during the festi- made the decision to close our doors. Projects like the Town Hall I organized created during this challenging time. crisis. The public support is still significant val “La Rue est à Amiens,” providing I attended one of the last perfor- for the U.S. puppetry community and UNIMA-USA has always served as a here. But we fear, with the arrival of the the evolution of the pandemic does mances of Milo the Magnificent with UNIMA’s ongoing RésiliArt project have link to the global puppetry commu- economic crisis, a generalized precarious- not become more intense by then. my son. Given the news, there was a been essential reminders that we are nity, and now the opportunities grow PhoTo of L’oubLi de L’eau ness of all our professions. All the profes- What is difficult in these times surprisingly full audience. I remem- not alone in any of this. ever greater to strengthen those ties. sional unions and networks of arts and culture are mobilized to respond to this is uncertainty, but we know it well ber sitting there, trying to soak in As the pandemic rages on and it looks situation, but we lack a real overall movement that can impose culture and the through the process of creation. as much of the energy as I could. even less likely, particularly in the United arts as essential to our humanity and not as mere “added values”. We need to broaden our vigilance Unfortunately, being in the business States, that we’ll be getting back to live We need these different networks and unions to reach out to each other so and come together to better defend of bringing people together into a theater in any financially viable and en- that we can make something in common. what we have in common and the confined space to experience the col- joyable way any time soon, I have shifted This catastrophe, which affects us all throughout the world, has locked us values attached to it. lective joy that only live theater can my perspective from– into our individual cells. We have been prevented from moving towards the produce is just not a good idea in a How-can-we-transform-our-business- pandemic. We suspended rehearsals other, despite the use of videoconferencing, whose limits we can feel. We will structure-to-actually-make-budget? NICOLAS SAELENS is the direc- and sent our puppeteers home. That have to fight against isolation and take part in the world that is being built today. to– tor of Compagnie Théâtre Inu- was March 17th. Zoom, Slack, Discord, We will have to reach out and recognize the utopias we have in common to tile, and is the current president Outlook and the Adobe Creative Suite What-do-I-want-the-future-to-look-like- make a world of the possible, so that it is not totalitarian. and-how-can-we-prepare-for-it-now? of THEMAA (France’s national all went into action. Thank you, Puppetry International, for inviting these testimonies. We must association of theaters of pup- continue these exchanges so that we do not feel and think alone. We must -petry and associated arts, and KRISTIN HAVERTY- Center for Puppetry Arts (Atlanta), make the world of tomorrow. the center of UNIMA France). UNIMA Councilor and new board member, UNIMA-USA

* Pete the Cat by James Dean © James Dean 1999, 2010. C-8 Pete is a registered trademark of Pete the Cat, LLC. C-9 P U P P E T R Y I N T E R N A T I O N A L investing in Community: Lockdown Innovations from Indonesia’s Papermoon Puppet Theatre

Although Indonesia’s Papermoon by Claudia Orenstein Papermoon strives to connect Puppet Theatre, like other companies, audiences to their shows in very found their shows and tours cancelled When lockdown began, personal ways. For Puno, (Letters to as their country moved into COVID-19 Papermoon realized that puppet the Sky), their 2018 production, they lockdown, the group sprang into artists, stressed from not being able used social media to invite those action, imagining new ways to to perform and worrying about their missing a loved one who had passed reengage themselves and others livelihoods, needed opportunities away to send a letter to that person in puppetry arts. One reason they to think and talk about their art, not through their troupe. Papermoon were quick to respond, according to just their anxieties. Through their rewrote each of the over 100 letters A woRk in PRogREss, “A buCkET of bEETlEs” PhoTo: TAnggA yuDhisTiRA Maria Tri Sulistyani, who goes by Ria, Instagram account, they organized they received by hand onto papers, Papermoon’s founder and co-artistic a series of online conversations which they then folded into boats director, is that the company has that flew up to the sky at the end of with puppet artists from around the but they created new ones for the connected people directly to one support three young puppet teams experience working in crisis situations. the show. Under lockdown, they also world. Under the title In This Time, second round. Each edition received another. The company sent packets in making new work. Two of the Ria and her husband and co-artistic hatched a way to make their puppetry the program kicked off with the many around 120 suggestions, which, in of puppet-making materials to participants had just had babies. director, Iwan Effendi, started the personal, even within the constraints puppeteers they had met through the end, birthed 59 new, personal each of the approximately twenty Ria and Iwan Effendi, themselves company in Yogyakarta in 2006, just of remote online platforms. Their their frequent international tours, works. The company practiced their participants, who did then have parents to a young son, understand as a large earthquake hit the area. Story Tailor project invited people artistic collaborations, and the Pesta improvisation skills in developing the to watch a short online video intimately how starting a family They immediately looked for ways to send the company a single theme Boneka biennial international puppet shows, and the project kept their on the process for building their can draw artists, especially women, their art could serve those who they wanted to see in a puppet festival they organize in Yogyakarta. creative juices active while offering puppet. Papermoon members then away from their craft, and so were suffering. For a year and half, show. Papermoon then collected the It soon expanded to include new people, for a small fee, personalized met together with the workshop they had a particular interest in they travelled from village to village, themes and grouped them into sets friends, who wanted to share their puppet performances they could participants twice over Zoom. In supporting these young parents. setting up their tent to give puppet of three. They stitched each trio of art. Each live stream reached 400- embrace as their own. the first session, the company Taking place in June, as lockdown shows and provide a safe haven for ideas together to devise short puppet 700 viewers, both puppeteers Papermoon took this project one helped trouble-shoot problems eased, the Puppet Lab members children to gather and make their pieces, which they filmed. They then and puppetry fans. While the live step further when they asked their participants faced in building. were able to meet in person at own art while their parents worked to sent each video only to the three streams were only accessible for 24 followers to nominate healthcare At the second session, each Papermoon’s studio, observing rebuild their homes. This foundational people who had suggested the specific hours, Papermoon will soon make workers to receive one of these participant demonstrated and social distancing protocols. Each experience has led them to put themes for that show. For the first the full collection of their eighteen short shows as a gift. While other talked about their puppet and the group came with an idea for a 5-10 thinking about what people need at round of Story Tailor, the company In This Time videos available on businesses offered front-liners food effort that went into making it. The minute puppet show conceived the center of their creative process. used puppets already in their studio, YouTube, establishing a rich archive of to express their gratitude and keep workshop attracted both children for film. Papermoon offered their international puppetry conversations. medical professionals fortified during and adults. While Papermoon tools, studio space, and materials the crisis, Papermoon sent them began by doing puppetry for to those who wanted to use them. performing arts instead, a different children, they now say their shows Throughout the process, company kind of sustenance. They were careful are for ages 5 to 85, but their members and lab participants to choose the shows that expressed strongest following is among adults. discussed and critiqued the projects themes like happiness, love, or A pioneer in Indonesia in as the artists developed storyboards, hope, to send positive energy to the non-traditional puppetry arts, built puppets, learned to use the workers. Papermoon is committed to cameras, and filmed the shows. Papermoon also offered a puppet mentoring future puppeteers. The lab having ended, Papermoon making workshop, but rather than Therefore, during the pandemic, and the young companies continue simply putting a how-to video online, the company initiated a Puppet to meet periodically as an ongoing they again designed a model that Lab, named PUPA Puppet Lab, to support system for artistic creation.

PAPERmoon’s mEmbERs holDing ThE book ThAT ThEy PublishED C-10 C-11 P U P P E T R Y I N T E R N A T I O N A L

Some thoughts about this time....

Though now we can say that Italy managed the pandemic better than a lot of other countries, the last months were very difficult for theatre and art in our country: Our job here is not really protected, so every company and organization had to face the emergency alone. Theatres were closed, and none of us knew when and how PuPA PuPPET lAb AT PAPERmoon PuPPET ThEATRE’s sTuDio they would be opened again. A lot of actors and performers started various activities online: As the immediate state of crisis forests, and life. Behind the work mostly bought while touring workshops for free or for a fee, eases, Papermoon is now considering itself, we would love to share abroad, as printing tools are not homemade shows, meetings and their next performance project. about how artists integrate their easily available in Indonesia. In conferences. The puppetry sector TEATRo DEl DRAgo’s PRoDuCTion of Pinocchio A Bucket of Beetles, conceived parenting and artistic lives.” The this new print shop, he created was hit hardest, because it is most specifically as an online piece, is project experiments with yet one a series of prints for sale based bound to children’s activities and according to Ria, “a play that is more innovative idea: the possibility on characters from Papermoon’s schools. Some of our theatres and and to non-theatre places such as squares or parks. During based on a story told by a five-year- of allowing audience members shows, giving them another form companies closed, some had to the summer we have been able to program several activities old boy, with puppets made based to either pay for a ticket or offer of life and providing audiences find themselves another job. The in the small municipalities and cities of our country, on his drawings. The story itself something to barter in exchange for with a new way to connect to international puppetry festival providing entertainment to the families who didn’t manage is about friendship, connection viewing the show. their favorite figures. The studio is “Arrivano dal Mare!” of Ravenna to travel during the summer. We don’t actually know how between human and nature, lost Papermoon’s other activities also accommodating seven local tried a courageous experiment the future will be in Italy; It is not yet clear how schools and during the pandemic include the artists who are now experimenting of an online Festival, with almost theatres will work this autumn. launching of their recently self- with this medium. For Papermoon 58 scheduled events: interviews, published book, a collection of 26 Puppet Theatre, a company zoom meetings, online workshops ROBERTA COLOMBO articles about the company, written awash in inspirational ideas that and a lot of video content created Teatro del Drago, Ravenna by a range of artists, collaborators, grow from their concern for their specifically for the festival. It was www.teatrodeldrago.it and scholars. While the book is in audiences and fellow artists, a great success for the online Indonesian, an English translation lockdown has been anything but an audience, especially for families is already on the agenda. Iwan idle time-out. and children who had been Effendi, responsible for the forgotten by the official channels. company’s puppet designs, spent Though for puppeteers this period lockdown turning their garage into CLAUDIA ORENSTEIN is a was very hard because they often a printing studio with equipment board member of UNIMA-USA. didn’t have a public subsidy nor the he has gathered over the years, means to convert their activity to online, they were the first, at the end of the lockdown, who could

ing PRinTmAking PRojECT by iwAn EffEnDi, again do their shows: Puppetry in inTERPRETED PAPERmoon’s ChARACTERs To Italy is often bound to the street ETChing AquATinT PRinT

C-12 C-13 P U P P E T R Y I N T E R N A T I O N A L RésiliArt It appears that the COVID-19 cri- Arts & culture in the face of the crisis sis hides other crises. In Croata, an earthquake of unprecedented by Kristin Haverty, et al. The coordinators took guidance magnitude occurred a few days afer from UNESCO in order to frame the announcement of confnement. the panel discussions with the fol- It has, according to Morana Dolenc Covid-19 has impacted our world lowing questons: “opened the emotons of all artsts.” in signifcant ways, but we each have our own story of challenges and What are some of the most In Kosovo, Valdet Rama reminded us, successes that have arisen from this immediate challenges you/your “There was war, post-war, and now tme. To evaluate the impacts of the sector have faced? it’s a third fght with COVID-19.” COVID-19 crisis on the global puppetry “Everything stops and we’re not arts sector, UNIMA Internatonal is • “What did COVID-19 reveal about used to that. What is important? partcipatng in the RésiliArt project the state of your artstc feld?” ROUND TABLE 1 How can we fght so that the heart of initated by UNESCO, of which it is a 0 our profession can contnue?” asks nd partner. RésiliArt is a global movement • “What partcular challenges are JUNE 22 in French Yngvild Aspeli, confned to the North that consists of a series of virtual round female creators facing during this Canada – Europe Area of Norway with a part of her inter- tables with artsts and key professionals pandemic?” coordinated by Clément Peretjatko, natonal team of 25 people. While RésiliART RounD TAblE 3 PhoTo: ClEmEnT PERETjATko in the sector, whose objectve is to France Puppet artst she was working on the adaptaton raise awareness of the considerable What solutons/resources have you of the novel Moby Dick, the content impact of the containment measures The RésiliArt project has just begun with transnatonal panels. found most helpful during this tme? Yngvild Aspeli, Norway/France and form were able to penetrate her and subsequent restrictons on the ROUND TABLEs Artstc Director, Plexus Polaire deeper. “How do people treat our culture sector, as well as to support As the project contnues, perhaps a • “What is one interestng artstc planet? And how we believe our- artsts by engaging in a dialogue to clear picture of the enormous global Frédéric Poty, France initatve that works around social selves stronger than nature and in inform UNESCO Member States in the impact COVID-19 has had on our Managing Director/Producton 1 June 22nd: Round table, in French. distancing measures?” the end a force of nature puts us in development of policies and fnancial Canada – Europe Area feld will be revealed so that we may Manager, Théâtre de la Massue – mechanisms that can help individuals advocate as a collectve for beter •“What measures should be taken Cie Ezéquiel Garcia-Romeu our place?” support structures for this delicate For fve years, the Belgian Didier and creatve communites overcome June 30th: Round table, in English. to support independent artsts in Maude Gareau, Quebec, Canada 2 ecosystem. It is my hope that by the Balzaux has registered his practce in this crisis. an extremely precarious state?” Actress, artstc director, puppet America – Europe – Africa Area tme UNIMA’s postponed congress a voluntary downward trend, and this To begin this process, UNIMA se- artst, Company Ombres Folles lected independent French artst and and festval occurs in April 2021 that antcipaton of crises has enabled him July 6th: Round table, in Spanish. UNIMA councilor Clément Peretjako to 3 this incredibly difcult period will What are your next steps as you Morana Dolenc, Croata to minimize the economic impact of Latn America – Europe Area navigate this process? coordinate with guidance by UNIMA’s be behind us and that our feld can Director, Company LOFT the COVID-19. It is easier to take his survive and thrive. But for many, General Secretary Idoya Otegui and Didier Balzaux, Belgium shows on his bike than to move far 4 July 13th: Round table, in Russian. that hope is dimming by the day. We • “What can the creatve sector the assistance of Emmanuelle Castang. Artstc Director of the Royales away with a semi-trailer. With these Central Asia – Europe Area will contnue to reach out, connect, learn from this crisis to be more Transnatonal panel coordinators were Marionnetes values, he has been leading a project trade ideas and stay as resilient as resilient for the next crisis?” then selected to begin the process of in Palestne for many years, the main 5 July 20th: Round table, in French. possible as a community so when Valdet Rama, Kosovo organizing the framework of the round • “Why should we care about aim of which is to help the local pup- that glorious tme comes when we Playwright, Puppetry, Actor, tables and to select panelists based on Africa Area the culture sector during the can experience the collectve joy Dodona Theatre peteers develop their art locally. language and geographic scope. In ad- serious health crisis?” It also seems that the steps to diton, guidance was given to also seek 6 July 27th: Round table in English. that only live theater can bring – we India – Oceania – Middle East Area will be there together. be resilient are not yet all taken. “My representaton among disciplines, fo- company has to be able to get back cus, age, gender and geography – all Beginning on the next page, you August 3rd: Round table in Chinese. will fnd refectons from the panels into moton and our movement is with a limit of 7 panelists! 7 internatonal,” says Frédéric Poty China of my esteemed colleagues who have begun this efort, but we will from France. He is afraid of a possible ask many more to join us in order return of natonalism in many coun- to coordinate and moderate these tries. The cultural actors of a territory important discussions. will have to work together.

C-14 C-15 P U P P E T R Y I N T E R N A T I O N A L

Maude Gareau says she is used Jim Morrow, Canada concern that the art form does not • Many artists are going through to looking to the future. Although in Managing Artstc Director, Mermaid always translate well to the digital stages of grief right now. The Québec theaters are reopening, physi- Theatre of Nova Scota format. Also of concern is the complete cessation of their ability to create digital content that livelihoods has created great cal distancing is not proftable for the Phylemon odhiambo okoth, Kenya economy of performing arts. “None can be monetized in any significant financial and emotional challenges. Artstc Director, Kenya Insttute of way that would allow an artist to There is also extreme pressure of my shows can be on stage as long Puppet Theatre (KIPT) as this rule is in place.” In the midst of support themselves in this media during this time to keep creating, this “loss of meaning and reference,” Janni Younge, South Africa format alone. stay relevant and transform one’s art Director of UNIMA South Africa to the digital platform. There is also she has to imagine a multtude of • One country was quite proactive possible scenarios. The administratve enormous anxiety that the situation in their response to COVID-19 and keeps changing so rapidly that it is work was very important during the Main fndings, recommendatons and acted immediately to put in place difficult to adjust. confnement to allow her to contnue conclusions regarding the impact of support structures for independent ROUND TABLE 3 dreaming of future artstc projects. ROUND TABLE 2 the pandemic on creatve and cultural artists and organizations who • We should care about the arts, 0 All the panelists agree that the 0 industries then is submited to th JUNE 30th in English have no work during this period. and the artists who create it. The JUlY 6 in Spanish use of digital technology does not UNESCO. Below is a synthesis: America – Europe – Africa Area In another country a support arts are about interpreting who we Latn America – Europe Area replace live performance. However, • Within a very short period system was put in place for artists are and sharing our lived human coordinated by Kristn Haverty, coordinated by Sergio Rower, it allows us to keep in touch with of time artists across the field who could prove they had lost experience. Artists will continue to United States Center for Puppetry Arts President, UNIMA-Argentna the public. In this way, Morana has (international touring, academia, work – but this did not take into build bridges and build resilience in Director LIBERTABLAS Independent account that many independent our communities for the future. organized one workshop per week for museums, professional training, Theater Cooperatve children. But according to Valdet, the For this panel–which I moderated– freelance construction, community artists have work scheduled far in • If there has been one silver lining confnement hasn’t scared the public I was thrilled to be joined by a activism, film and tv puppetry) advance but not the paperwork/ in this experience, it has been the Sebastan Blutrach, Argentna away, as there are regular calls to ask dynamic group of artsts and saw their work immediately contracts to prove such work opportunity to connect with our Director of the Teatro Nacional when the theater will open again. administrators working across the cease due to the impacts of existed. Another country put in colleagues and communities through Cervantes sector who could speak to the impact COVID-19. While some activities place a policy to support artists, Digital technology can also be used projects like RésiliArt. All people on internatonal touring, academia, have resumed (such as in tv/film but only if they signed a document liliana Mª Palacios, Colombia as a tool. Frédéric Poty is working on need community to thrive and many museums, professional training, opportunities), many activities are supporting the government’s Director of the Group Manicomio the possibility of reconstructng part are reaching out during this difficult freelance constructon, community impossible to resume at this time actions. In summation, government de Muñecos of the scenery with 3D printng in time to check in and support each actvism, flm and tv puppetry. and those that have are operating response has been sporadic, another part of the world in order to other. While it doesn’t make it Raquel Ditchekenian, Uruguay under severe restrictions. leaving many artists at the mercy reduce the weight on tour. Those voices included: easier to buy groceries, the human International study/travel has been of the pandemic. Governments Director of the Museum of Many other subjects were connections needed during this time Pam Arciero, United States halted due to visa restrictions. that had pre-existing structures Live Puppet of Maldonado and discussed, but in conclusion, the crisis Artstc Director, Natonal Puppetry in place to support the entire arts are also important for artists. As we President of UNIMA Uruguay has brought a lot of questoning about Conference, Board of Directors, • The move to digital programming mourn, it is essential to reach out infrastructure before the pandemic José luis Melendo, Spain the meaning of art, and the necessity Jim Henson Foundaton has allowed some artists to stay and support one another. Through have also had a much greater Director of the Titeredata Study on to align practces with personal values. connected with their audiences in response during the pandemic. this, and continued advocacy that Raymond Carr, United States the situaton of the Puppet in Spain new ways and artists have been For countries without existing the Arts are essential to life well Puppeteer, Director of Puppet Ninja t energized by the opportunity to policies to support organizations lived, we may emerge from this crisis Rubén Darío Salazar, Cuba Productons reach new audiences. For many, and artists, the cessation of work with more resilience, more tools, Secretary General of UNIMA Cuba Kata Csató, Hungary however, these possibilities created an immediate challenge as more empathy and more positive and director of the group Teatro de Director, actress, cultural manager are limited by lack of access to to how to feed their families and, global connections to create a las ESTACIONES stronger way forward. and teacher of puppet theatre equipment/resources to buy such for those countries that support equipment or by their audiences’ organizations, many independent Haydeé Boeto, Mexico Dimitri Jageneau, Belgium lack of access to the internet/ artists are still at risk. t Director of Programming of CENART Curator of Théâtre Royal du phones/technology. There is also under the Ministry of Culture Peruchet/Musée internatonal de of Mexico la marionnete Olatz Peon, Spain Mayor of Tolosa

C-16 C-17 P U P P E T R Y I N T E R N A T I O N A L

As Russian is stll used for inter- theatres received no support, except theatre turned people away from the natonal communicaton in several for the partal aboliton of taxes, that gadget screens, and now, afer the of Central Asian and European stll did not save our partcipants- quarantne, we‘re going to have to countries, it was agreed to hold a Karina and Vitaliy from the complete start over and with renewed vigor. The experience has been extremely The world (the previous one) round table in that language within cessaton of their actvites and Petar Todorov emphasized that enriching in every way, from our of open and full museums, of the framework of the RésiliArt UNIMA the closure of their legal entty. In while working online, puppeteers search among those responsible for performances with full houses, of project. The speakers were very Armenia, employees of the private were not engaged in one´s true those coordinatng each language, performances in schools, clubs, grateful for the chance to speak in theatre received governmental profession, the whole actvity would giving it shape for each of our churches, prisons and hospitals will Russian. The meetng took place on fnancial support, amountng to two never replace live theatre. He added partcular circumstances. Huge thanks never be the same. It will be a long 13 July and included representatves salaries. The issue of the private that his theatre refused to partcipate here to Clément and Idoya, who have tme untl we are all vaccinated from six countries, heads of natonal sector of culture is closely monitored in an online festval, as they did guided me. and immune. and private theatres, teachers and in Bulgaria. This country is known for not see the opportunity to create a Then the communicaton process • And beyond the honorable researchers and the head of a non- providing grants to private companies recording of the performance that with the various countries and their search for protocols on virtual state foundaton. Throughout the and, as of 2021, theatres will receive would correspond to the level of the representatves has generally been programming, social distancing and discussion, it became apparent year-round support as part of this actual producton. as enriching as it is clear there is a limitng seatng capacity to 30%, a ROUND TABLE 4 that during the global pandemic, programme. Also, three minimum However, Marek Waszkiel need for each to recognize similarites new vision of our public is installed. 0 on the one hand, certain processes wages were paid to private theatres drew atenton to the fact that the in the unexpected, essental and Added to this is a cruel and JUlY 13th in Russian were identcal, and, on the other and a working group, of which Kalina pandemic has stmulated us to try determining process of the pandemic. devastatng economic crisis that Central Asia – Europe Area hand, the circumstances and coping Wagenstein is a part, was organized out new forms and technologies that, Spain, Uruguay, Colombia, Mexico, will disproportonately impact the coordinated by Nastya Mashtakova, mechanisms in the current situaton to support the non-state sector. in his opinion, will be applied by the Cuba and Argentna have partcipated poorest countries and audiences Russia. Theater Union of Russia were very diferent. We had a very sincere, honest theatres both on- and ofine. in this frst meetng. I also selected with fewer resources. So many Thus, in countries where there are and friendly meetng. The discussion Everyone agreed that live theatre various roles for this meetng: months, so much pain, so much Elena Ivanova, Russia state (natonal) and city (municipal) itself was not only about fnancing would remain appreciated by the • A puppeteer with her own informaton from the media, so Artstc Director, Ivanovo Puppet theatres, these types of insttutons and planning issues, but also about audience and that only direct contact space, colleagues and puppeteers many sick and dead, this is also Theatre have turned out to be more or less the creatve and spiritual element between both the actor and the generatng a new vision about protected. Almost all of the wages of professional practce in the audience would be considered a real at the head of a positon in their Petar Todorov, Bulgaria future audiences. were retained in full. In other places current situaton. theatre that could spiritually enrich countries, a researcher working Artstc Director, Pro Rodopi Art Centre on a specifc problem, the leader Our experience has taught us the minimum wage was paid. The The overwhelming majority all partcipants in the process. Karim of a Natonal Theater, and a that, above all else, we must be pa- Moderator: Alexey Goncharenko, natonal theatres were challenged of theatres, both large and small Dakroub said that in Lebanon, a politcal ofcial. tent, persevering and determined. Russia. Critc, Project Manager, because of the need to keep workers family-owned, actvely mastered the country used to emergencies, theatres Sometmes months go by Theatre Union of the Russian engaged and trained, to stay in possibilites of the Internet and new are full afer every crisis. Ruben • The exchange of experiences without anything apparently hap- Federaton touch with the audience and, in technologies, arranged broadcasts, Babayan and Karina Alieva agreed that and actons to carry out is very pening. But if one works to exercise collaboraton with the state, to review recorded video tutorials and tried people who love the theatre would powerful and necessary. Our Latn Kalina Wagenstein, Bulgaria these three qualites, the task will the planning, reportng, accountng out new forms, such as multmedia stll come, but otherwise, it would be America with few exceptons has Director, ArtOfce Sofa Foundaton always bear fruit; in a week, in a and fguring out the conditons performances and puppetry series. difcult to make predictons. failed to protect its artsts in the month or in a year. Karim Dakroub, Lebanon required to resume their usual work. In this regard, the President of UNIMA It was noted that creators also most minimal of ways... Director, Lebanese Puppet Theater, Many of the private theatres and Russia, Elena Ivanova, noted that a faced a psychological crisis during The frst data that we have Nothing should discourage us. KHAYAL Associaton for Arts theatre companies were in distress. huge amount of content turned into the apparent lack of work and collected indicates that more Nothing should divide us. and Educaton In some countries, such as Lebanon, an enormous fow, where not all contact with viewers. Theatre majors than 32% of our puppeteers and Nothing should bring despair. where puppet theatre is usually seen things can be defned as worthy and graduated online, with unfnished puppet makers do not have food Karina Alieva-Golub, vitaliy Golub, as part-tme work or even a hobby, of high quality from a professional theses, and were unable to interact to face the coming months. Only Long live the PUPPETS! Ukraine. “The White Wizard” Puppet people mostly have kept a porton of point of view. Elena also pointed directly with educators in their 9% have any medical or social Theatre their earnings since they have had out that before the pandemic, the fnal months of training. In relaton, work coverage. t Marek Waszkiel, Poland some other source of income. At they graduated from educatonal Aleksander Zelwerowic Theatre the same tme, in Ukraine, private insttutons without the prospect of Academy fnding a job quickly. Ruben Babayan, Armenia Artstc Director, Yerevan Puppet t Theatre

C-18 C-19 P U P P E T R Y I N T E R N A T I O N A L

Since winning a gold medal in the In Tunisia, the majority of Fortunately, no one in the Chi- giant puppet competton at the puppeteers – 90% according to Habiba nese puppetry circle got infected. Francophonie games in Nice, Soro Jendoubi – are freelance. Africa was Although they cannot give perfor- Badrissa has created a craze for struggling to obtain visas and a trip mances while staying at home, no puppetry in Mali, and the Ivoire with her team before the lockdown one was depressed. On the contrary, Marionnete Academy was born out was canceled. Although there was they devoted this period of tme to of a desire to learn and transmit. The no possibility to go out and access artstc creaton, practcing basic skills crisis severely afected the young her workshops to build the puppets, and personal improvement to prepare puppeteers who had been taken in there was a lot of personal efort for returning to work. Meanwhile, to train and his team has to take care to maintain artstc actvites. She they also actvely created and shared of them, but a grant that had been mentons that the new Minister of online short puppetry and shadow expected three years ago just arrived Culture is helping artsts more, and shows to accompany people at home in June. This gave hope as a tour in this is a good dynamic for the country. while spreading knowledge on epi- Ivory Coast and in the Czech Republic Naomi Van Niekerk is stll demic preventon and paying respect were canceled. confned in South Africa. Her training to the medical workers and the PLA ROUND TABLE 6 ROUND TABLE 7 Yaya Coulibaly laments that, as a puppeteer and actress gives 0 0 army who rushed to the severe epi- th AUGUST 3rd in Chinese ROUND TABLE 5 despite Mali’s cultural richness, there her the tools to work in the digital JUlY 27 in English demic areas to save infected people. 0 China JUlY 20th in French is no subsidy for artsts. People are on realm, a feld she has loved since India – Oceania – Middle East Area The partcipants all expressed Africa Area their own. There is, for example, no 2015. To the queston asked by her coordinated by Anurupa Roy, India coordinated by Tang dayu, China that the connecton of the world Director, Chengdu Puppetry and coordinated by Soro Badrissa, medical follow-up. “It’s a cry of alarm, European colleagues on the cost Puppeteer, director, Designer puppetry family is growing stronger Ivory Coast. Puppet artst at the cry of the Hyena. Malian artsts of living in Africa, she replied that assisted by Dadi Pudumjee, India Shadow Art Theatre in front of this sudden outbreak of Ivoire Marionnetes are starving.” In this context it is not here everything is private and that President of UNIMA pandemic. No mater in which country the crisis that scares him, but the there is no public assistance, so she On August 3rd, at 15:30 (Beijing the virus has spread, puppetry prac- Yaya Coulibaly, Mali post-crisis. “If the world economy is has to take out private insurance We do not have a summary of this tme), The RésiliArt Round table 7 ttoners in the UNIMA family would Compagnie Sogolon (SAS), puppeteer, stopped, how will artsts live?” that only few artsts can aford. panel, but we have the report by (in Chinese language) was organized send warm regards and wishes by teacher, director, storyteller, singer Patricia Gomis saw the Her digital projects have enabled Ranjana Pandey. (see page C-24) by UNIMA Asia-Pacifc Commission, puppet videos through email, in order and dancer cancellaton of her projects to her to overcome the crisis, but her with its president Tang Dayu as mod- to cheer the people there up and promote the art of puppetry stll litle internatonal projects in the USA encourage them to bravely fght the Faustn Kaoua-Leturmy, Congo erator. The panelists were composed known in Senegal, including a round were cancelled. of 7 leading fgures from artstc virus together. (Brazzaville) Cie Wari mumvuka, table with Yaya Coulibaly. Between Faustn Keoua-Leturmy and The abrupt virus outbreak has had author, director, actor t professional felds of diferent parts anguish and panic, her hope comes Skonde from Brazzaville and Kinshasa in China. a considerable impact on the cultural Habiba Jendoubi, Tunisia from the fact that “the pandemic did say that their government is not All partcipants were really and art sector. Many artsts and art Domia producton, puppeteer and not know how to reach our brains.” helping artsts, or only very popular excited to take part in this program groups had to stop giving perfor- director She hopes to resume her actvites in projects. In this context, it is and they described and discussed mances and thus had no income. But December but she doesn’t know if the foreign embassies that it is exactly at such a critcal period Patricia Gomis, Senegal their situaton. The outbreak of the tour in France and Romania she provide support. the COVID-19 severely threatened that we are in need of the power of Pôle Culturel Djaram’Arts arts centre was supposed to do this summer will Many other issues were art more than ever to bring faith, for youth, actress and artstc director people’s lives and health and be postponed. However, unlike other addressed in the round table, for disturbed people’s everyday warmth and light to our people. More Soro Badrissa, Ivory Coast African countries, the government example the difculty faced by lives and work. Thanks to the and more artsts started new modes Ivoire Marionnete company, has identfed and fnancially assisted women artsts in patriarchal societes, government’s efectve measures, of sharing their work. They all agree puppeteer artst people, and soon structures will be but the queston of the place of the pandemic is currently under that the puppetry sector should take supported as well. governments was central. From full advantage of the online platorms Naomi Van Niekerk, South Africa control and all walks of life are my point of view, UNIMA must now to promote puppetry art. It might be a Dryfsand, Animated Film Director, gradually recovering. work with UNESCO on the issue of new directon to advance both online puppeteer human rights and cultural rights, and and onsite, as a way for the puppetry Ngonde Sunda, DRC – Kinshasa Africa is a fertle ground to start this sector to develop a brighter future. Cie Théâtre de Marconte, mult- global refecton. disciplinary artst t t C-20 C-21 P U P P E T R Y I N T E R N A T I O N A L Refection from Idoya Otegui– zandla Zobomi I by Janni Younge

Izandla Zobomi (Hands for Life) is a project of ROKPA INTERNATIONAL and UNIMA SA (the South African associaton for puppetry) that Izandla Zobomi focuses on relief in tmes of crisis focuses on four related to COVID-19. Izandla areas of support: Zobomi supports life through essental nourishment of the body, Essental nourishment With this initiative that has been carried out in the fve continents mind and creatve spirit. Monthly food parcels are and in fve languages, we want to know the impact that Covid-19 distributed to each of the has had on the artistic and cultural feld, and more specifcally on 100 families. puppetry and what the future presents. The result of the Round Tables that have been held so far have Learning, creatng and bonding What we need: been very interesting. We have been able to know how countries as Art materials, statonery and learn- • Food plants, compost and different as France, Ivory Coast, Russia or Thailand are facing this ing support materials for children in- gardening equipment: There are extraordinary and dramatic situation. It has been reaffrmed that cluding puppet building workbooks, multple food gardens springing the situation is very serious and that culture needs urgent help. age appropriate Number Sense Math up all around the area. We need For me, as the General Secretary of UNIMA, these conversations books and Nalibali reading materi- more of these essentals to support have been very painful but at the same time very enriching– als have been distributed. Children the youth volunteers in creatng painful to see the situation in which many of our associates fnd are provided with support by local food security. themselves, enriching because it allowed me to see the generosity puppeteer Mandiseli Maset. Fami- • Handcrafed play things for the of people, the creativity of the puppet artists who, as always, grow lies receive data and share images of creche: any Waldorf-style hand- in the face of adversity. These Round Tables have allowed us to their achievements. made toys that are in decent share our sorrows, to share possible solutions, have allowed us Food security conditon or newly made. to feel closer to each other, to feel, in some way, that we belong A large food garden has been to the UNIMA family. It has opened the door to continue with planted at the centre. Soil For Life is • Outdoor play things for the these meetings that strengthen the relationship between Centers The project is based at the cultural teaching young people from the area creche: The children are not from different continents, and which can lead to joint projects. centre in Makhaza, Khayelitsha, to tend the garden. The youth volun- yet back in creche, but there This, I think, is the positive message that we should get out of this one of South Africa’s largest teers are supportng other members is no outdoor play equipment. negative moment. Even in the worst moments there is something “townships.” Benefciaries of the of the local community with knowl- Trampoline, jungle gym and other positive to see, and I believe that this is also the case. The greatest project are 100 families identfed edge, tools and seedlings, for their such equipment. union is among UNIMA members, and I hope and trust this will from the following groups: children own food gardens. • Social media and publicity: continue to take hold in the future. who atend the shack creche Independence Please promote the project on social (Nompumelelo), teenagers who use Families are invited to partcipate in media. This is an extremely valuable From here, I wish all the best to the readers of the space for dance rehearsals, local making income-generatng crafs. and helpful thing to do. Please tag Puppetry International, and especially their good health! elderly women who work to support @Rokpa.org, @UNIMA SA and other women in need (Masizame They are taught to make handcrafed Waldorf-style dolls and wooden toys. #IzandlaZobomi Idoya Otegui, group), freelance performing artsts General Secretary of UNIMA based in Khayelitsha, freelance community-based puppeteers.

Donate funds: For only R1000 [about $59. US] you support a family for a whole month. No admin fees are deducted. Your money goes straight to the purchase of food and materials. Food is provided by Pick and Pay You can fnd all of the informaton on this project, and videos of “Feed the Naton,” so we get a lot of food for each family for this money. round tables already presented, on the UNIMA website: www.quicket.co.za/fundraisers/106062-izandla-zobomi/ www.unima.org/en/projects-and-achievements/RésiliArt-round-tables For distributon and info: Janni Younge: 0846197382 • [email protected] C-22 C-23 P U P P E T R Y I N T E R N A T I O N A L

Positive Ideas West Bengal has suffered a double whammy. COVID-19 Some are happy to explore collaborations within the and the ensuing lockdown was followed by a violent cyclone form, like shadow puppeteers of Orissa with those which took away people’s homes and property. of Karnataka, or string puppeteers of Rajasthan with Here the state has given some help for rebuilding, but not string puppeteers of Assam and West Bengal. enough. Some food was distributed, but too little. Some are taking advantage of this time to learn deeply The West Bengal puppeteer community rose to help their from their Master’s/Father’s texts. Some are repairing colleagues in villages and bailed them out. Forty artists are old puppets and making new ones. Creative work being supported. has emerged in the lockdown period. The difficulties You can use an online platform for shows and workshops and emotional upheavals it has caused has been an like Ratnamala from Hyderabad, or Kat Katha from Delhi, but impetus for creation and self-expression, though getting people to sign up and pay is a challenge. not for the generation of income. This requires a The younger generation of the traditional puppeteers is dynamism and positive energy. Only a few have hit technically proficient, but the internet connectivity is patchy the ground running. and the signal is poor. Even in our Zoom meetings this is often From our in-house discussion and brainstorm- a problem. ing among the executive members of UNIMA, this is Some (those in cities) are living in cramped homes, noisy what emerged: Round Table t IndIa RepoRT, July 2020 neighborhoods. They get up at 3 am when it is quiet to compiled by Ranjana Pandey rehearse and shoot videos. “A safe space would be great” Short-term Training: To strengthen the technical skills they say, “to create.” While those in villages may have more of the puppeteers and help them negotiate work open space, more community support, but very poor electric- opportunities in the virtual space they need to under- India has an unknown number of puppeteers scattered two groups: Rajasthan in the West and Orissa in the East – ity supply and internet, the city people have food shortages, stand the camera , lighting etc. all over the country. There has never been a census or both these communities of puppeteers have been in dire cramped spaces and noisy environment. long-term Training: An online training program for a consistent effort to collect data. Each one of us (and straits over the last five or six years. Those who have smart The cost of living in cities is very high. Rents have to be young puppeteers especially after the increase in internet connectivity and phones do not have money to recharge. Many are illiterate paid. Food has to be bought. There is a definite depression Fund Raiser: with payment portals like Keto – to give mobile telephony) has developed personal networks with and therefore cut off from state processes like grants, pen- because of the uncertain future. Lack of income is causing grants to create new work peers with whom we have crossed paths, collaborated or sions and even scholarships. a lot of stress. Mental health issues are surfacing amongst Online Festival: Proposals have been placed for a Vir- worked together. Here are the broad findings from this effort spread over some. They may soon need psychological help. Women ev- tual online festival for traditional puppeteers UNIMA-India is also a magnet for some– mostly those a month. The questionnaire was used as a base and only erywhere have a double load to carry and are overwhelmed larger Database: to advertise for shows, workshops, in urban areas, who understand the need for a network, the relevant questions were fielded. with increased responsibilities and no time for creativity. festivals and sale of puppets. • as there is a vacuum– and they do not have the traditional • The situation is very distressing. networks that have supported village puppeteers for cen- • All puppeteers have been without work since March. turies. For example, Tol Pava Koothu shadow puppeteers of • The savings are gone and many have had to rely on Kerala in South India, have a special support system in local community support, civil society efforts for survival and temples where they perform; They have a special status even food packets. that gives them support from the community. • Livelihood issues are looming large. Some are seri- In most of the country, especially in the west and the ously considering giving up puppetry as they fear that in north, there is a thin scattering of families. There are two the future large gatherings cannot take place. thicker clusters of puppeteers in West Bengal and South • Many puppeteers depend on the state to commis- India. In our efforts to get information, over the last month sion work on social messages like AIDS awareness, water we have reached out and connected over telephone, email conservation and now COVID-19, but the State Depart- and Zoom meetings with as many of these families as pos- ments are silent. So are the culture department and the sible. We divided up different regions amongst five mem- SNA. There has been no help from any department – bar- bers of the UNIMA Trust. Each person took an area. We ring Tamil Nadu and Kerala and Karnataka, where a meagre reached, on average, nine to ten persons each. amount of cash was given twice in all these months. Mostly people were very happy to hear from us. They “We can sell puppets to earn money.” Shadow pup- answered the questions willingly and the conversations peteers in the South of India have thrived because of their were long. They were eager to share. Each was happy that craft, but with markets closed and incomes shrinking, an someone was taking interest in their welfare. This said, online platform for selling is the only hope. In the mean- not all have responded. We are still waiting to hear from time, they are sitting on a huge stock of unsold puppets.

RAVAnChAyA - fRom hisToRy of CinEmA musEum www.hoCmusEum.Com/ Kathputli-Jaipur-raJasthan • www.hocmuseum.com/ C-24 C-25 PP U EP P E E T R R Y RI N ET E V R N I A E T WI O N E A DL

Susan Linn’s distance ventriloquism: fear can affect social, emotional, and cognitive learning, distance ventriloquism: much as violence can (6–7). Melissa Potter, one of two mothers interviewed for this article, described her Play’sPlay’s TherapeuticTherapeutic family’s situation in early April 2020: PotentialPotential We were all very traumatized and raw at that moment…. We had no balance. We were inin aa VirtualVirtual Space relearning our lives, trying to make do with no car in a city apartment with homeschooling, and by Felice Amato Landon was having daily temper tantrums. The fun that Linn and Audrey’s visit provided was more than just welcome and healing AuDREy AnD susAn TAlk AbouT mAsks mAC AnD billy ChAT wiTh AuDREy AnD susAn PhoTo: jEssiCA DREishmEiER CouRTEsy PhoTo: susAn linn silliness. “[Audrey] made jokes about [my son’s] In the early spring of 2020, in response to the COVID-19 green hair, which he loved. She also asked pandemic, governments across the globe asked people questions which were an interesting challenge A space for mirth and play (so crucial to social-emotional videos, “I’m Tired of the Virus,” Audrey complains that the to isolate in their homes. Dr. Susan Linn, a psychologist, for him to articulate: who he is and what he play therapist, author, and award-winning ventriloquist, well-being) is what Linn worried would soon be in short sup- virus isn’t fun, and Linn models listening and mirroring to 5 knows” (Potter). thought immediately of the toll that isolation could take ply. She began to explore the only space available in which discover there is more behind the feeling. on families with young children.1 to work – the virtual space and relational field of the screen. “No, it isn’t fun, Audrey. The virus isn’t fun. (pause) Some- Linn is intentional about the effects these questions Linn describes herself as “a woman of a certain age Perhaps video chat technology could facilitate the respite times we have fun still!” generate. She wants to cultivate children’s sense of au- who talks to a duck” (Case 1). The duck in question, is a of imaginative play to children in different states and even “I know, but sometimes, we don’t have fun. (pause) And tonomy and self-confidence. In order to do so, she creates fleece mouth puppet (or bill puppet, in this case) that Linn countries (Interview). Linn stresses, however, “I’m not doing sometimes, there are things that are… bothering me.” a “safe” yet constructive space, without demands that has had since age twelve, when her mother made the therapy with these kids; I don’t know them. I don’t know “Well, you know, if there are things that are bothering might jeopardize it (“Article”). first Audrey Duck. Linn was a budding ventriloquist and their families. But it has reminded me why I started getting you, you can tell me, Audrey.” Linn is able to create a sense of sharing a space in needed something larger to replace the sock puppets she interested in puppet therapy in the first place—because “Even if one of the things that’s bothering me is … you?” these virtual face-to-face encounters; young children had been using to perform. Since that time, Linn and Au- kids do open up to Audrey and say things to her that they “Me? I’m bothering you? (pause) Well, can you tell me sometimes ask when Audrey can visit (Interview). The 2 drey have worked with children in many settings, helping might not say otherwise” (ibid). why I am bothering you?” term space describes a complex phenomenon, especially them cope with challenging situations, including long term Puppeteers have long embraced new mediums, shap- “Yes, because you have been snapping at me … and I in therapy and performance. Even under normal hospitalizations, painful illnesses, and frightening medical ing and becoming shaped by them––the stage offered by don’t like it!” circumstances, it seldom refers to physical space alone. procedures. Audrey Duck is also a girl. “Once [puppets] television, for example. Despite the one-way nature of In Linn’s work, one can see how play is able to encompass Rather, it is a figurative, metaphorical, temporal, and begin to speak, regardless of their physical characteris- broadcasting, Fred Rogers, with whom Linn worked exten- education, entertainment, and therapeutic goals that are relational construct—a field of co-presence, felt-sense, tics, they become people. After all, the ability to translate sively, was able to create something that many children fluid and interconnected. While Linn is a pioneer, recently and the psychological experience of an encounter, often 3 thought into speech is a uniquely human characteristic” actually experienced as a relational space. Perhaps this was the term “trauma-informed practices” is being used across (but not always) taking place in a physical location (Britten (“Foreword” vii). Audrey Duck wonders and worries about because Rogers took pains to envision that field in his mind education to acknowledge trauma’s effects (including 22-4). While it is outside the scope of this article to delve the same things that children do. “Corona, Corona, Corona! and to cultivate connectedness through it, describing it as neurological effects) on children (“Creating”). In the puppetry deeply into phenomenology, our frequent framing of Who is Corona anyway?” (“Defending”). Something special “holy ground”( Merritt). Linn and Audrey appeared multiple community, those who create work for young children have encounters as “space” illuminates how it is that Linn that puppetry offers in therapeutic interactions, however, times on Mr. Roger’s Neighborhood; Linn remembers that been making efforts to engage them and their parents in is able to extend her practice through the visual and is that it is inherently “mirthful” because of its odd juxta- Rogers remarked, when he first watched her work: “You discussions of mental and physical health, through webinars vocalic interconnectedness of ventriloquism. In his book, 6 positions and, through them, it provides an “opening to must remember what it’s like to be a child” (“Susan Linn”). and broadcasts. Because of COVID-19’s sudden appearance Dumbstruck: A Cultural History of Ventriloquism, Steven healing” (Astell-Burt 71). Regardless of the seriousness of Unlike television, the screen can now be a two-way and spread, little study has been done yet on its wide-scale Connor devotes substantial energy to how the form is the conversations that arise, plush Audrey Duck, with her medium, opening a space where Linn’s play-based work can societal impact, how it will affect children, and how to help shaped and shapes space. In addition to the acoustic 4 braids and jumper, is a mirthful juxtaposition. Her non- be interactive and co-created with children. In addition to them (Lee). Speaking with hope early on, Linn said, “There quality of performance venues, the vaudeville roots of realistic complexity allows for creative play. individual sessions, Linn created two accompanying videos . is a terrible problem in the world, but the kids (most of the form required a quick transition on and off stage just In the videos, Audrey voices thoughts that may be on them), are intact, and they don’t have terrible illnesses”(Linn children’s minds, illuminating their distinct worldview and Interview). Parents, caregivers, and educators will likely modeling, for parents and caregivers, ways of responding to see a range of effects. Trauma responds to three variables: create more space for kids to speak. In the second of Linn’s severity, duration, and reactions; even prolonged grief or C-26 C-27 PP U EP P E E T R R Y RI N ET E V R N I A E T I W O N E A DL have shaped the traditional style into one that transitions While the inventiveness and hybridity of contemporary well to the screen, such as the very pared down and tightly- puppetry means that generalizations are hard to make, the framed relationship, which resulted from the vaudeville manifestation of co-presence in ventriloquism has a marked ventriloquists’ limits of what they themselves could pick up difference; the characters cannot exist separate from each and carry on stage. other because the relationship creates the world in which And while plush puppets (both rod and hand) are more they both exist. * recent variations within ventriloquism, their superficial differences sometimes disguise the continuity of the Dr. FELICE AMATO is a professor of art education historical dummy, which commonly featured a head that at Boston University. She teaches a range of rotated; prominent, moveable eyes; an articulated mouth; pedagogy-related classes and also uses puppetry to and a stiff, erect body (all of which could be manipulated create space for play-based and arts-based research solo) (Stockman). Perforce, the puppets were positioned in an R1 institution, with classes such as “Thinking in tight proximity to the ventriloquist, such that their gaze Through Puppets and Performing Objects.” and speech were all that the puppets had to distinguish Endnotes themselves ontologically.8 Absent physical distance, in the 1. Among other awards, Linn received a Unima-USA Citaton of tight depth of field of a stool and lap (and now a screen), the Excellence for Live Performance in 1979 (Abrams). gaze could reference a sense of dramaturgical space. Truly, it is as if the closer one is positioned to someone else, the 2. Dr. Mathew Bernier, a professor of art therapy, states that the terms therapy and therapeutc are used broadly and that, even with- more powerful the gesture of turning away becomes and out “atemptng to be therapists,” there can be therapeutc value to the farther away the horizon retreats. The intimacy of the using puppets. (Bernier 112). One of the parents noted: “Most of sCEnEs fRom misTER RogERs’ nEighboRhooD fEATuRing AuDREy DuCk AnD susAn linn often playfully adversarial relationship is intensified. Also, what [my son] was doing at that tme was all pre-recorded. The live the limited movements of the head in the traditional form, aspect of Audrey was therapeutc, in my opinion” (Poter). which give a clarity of intention to the body, have shaped 3. Rogers addressed the confusing quality of space and television when the form was becoming standardized. Hence, the look utterances are the world. Thus, while there is no set, Linn is the classic persona of the dummy, for whom nuance is explicitly with his young viewers—dispelling the logical conclusion of the show we now associate with the art form (a stool and world-making nonetheless. Jessica Dreischmeier, a mother not characteristic. that he might actually be inside the set. While Linn animates Audrey in the traditional sense, a “the single diminutive juvenile dummy”) became standardized and art therapist, whose boys had two meetings with 4. While most of Linn’s encounters have been confned to a single (398-9). Voice took on primacy when there was a limit to what Audrey, recalled: more metaphysical process of animation is taking place; chat, she has met with some kids more than once, and a few she else could be transported in the performer’s arms. We see it is almost exclusively through their dynamic that Audrey meets with regularly. this echoed in Linn’s pared-down structure. She describes I have noticed how much it opens up their is brought to life as a character—going past artifice to 5. Meant for families, the videos address dynamics specifc to the creativity after consuming so much through screens authenticity, Linn creates a relationship that is a dimension children’s occasional inclusion of props in her book, but she current moment, including parental stress. While Linn might model and Audrey rely on voice (and accompanying non-verbals), lately. Today for example, Audrey asked the kids of herself and has been for decades. While Linn has other strategies to repair relatonships, she does not show actual mo- each becoming what Conner calls the vocalic body: “Voices are about their favorite foods. Billy said, “Buttered puppets, she is most likely to reach spontaneously for Audrey ments of confict because, as the most intense part of a vignete, 9 produced by bodies: but can also themselves produce bodies” noodles and pizza!” And Audrey started to ask if (Interview). “She is simultaneously me and mine” (Case 1). they could become the most interestng part and be what captures Many forms of puppetry feature “co-presence,” a word (36). He further explores the metaphysics of ventriloquism they grew on trees or bushes. Mac took it even a child’s atenton (versus the resoluton). through the concept of vocalic space: used to denote ways that actors and puppets co-exist in the 6. Sesame Workshop held a town hall where they answered real farther and started pretending that he had “pillow audience’s field of vision. Paul Piris defines it as a puppeteer- Vocalic space signifies the ways in which the voice questons about COVID-19 that they had solicited beforehand from trees” where he could pick pillows to snuggle performer creating “a character whose presence next to the children (Ryzik “How to Get to ‘Sesame Street’?”). is held both to operate in, and itself to articulate, whenever he wanted, and together, the group puppet has a dramaturgical meaning” (31). Though this is 7. Hand puppets and other styles may include the co-presence different conceptions of space, as well as to enact came up with ideas for lots of trees that had things not easy to do convincingly, he points to gaze and speech as of the audience as witness or accomplice, triangulatng the pup- the different relations between the body, community, growing on them that they wish they could just go two ways that the puppet can “confront” the human actor pet’s atenton. In ventriloquism, however, due to the constructon, to create a sense of alterity (41). The co-presence one finds time, and divinity. What space means, in short, is pick outside. scale, and manipulaton of the vent doll, the three-way gaze (at the very largely a function of the perceived powers in ventriloquism differs in that ventriloquists not only appear ventriloquist, at the audience, and away) is core to all aspects of the performance. of the body to occupy and extend itself through In constructing a world through conversation, as constant characters—but ostensibly as “themselves.” ventriloquism is, by necessity, an art of turn-taking, and body The ventriloquist performs the functions of both its environment (13). 8. By traditonal, I refer back to the standardizaton of the form language contributes to sharing the floor; it is quintessential puppeteer and actor, playing a role of himself in the in the late 1800s that Conner describes. Regarding co-presence, The public might not readily identify Linn’s work as to the social-emotional pedagogy. Audrey’s dramatic shifts performance… . The artist may need to occasionally look in Piris underscores the importance of separatng (41). ventriloquism, with its often visually-fixed and readily- of gaze (looking at Linn, at the audience, and away) are another direction, speak, gesture, and engage in dialogue 9. It is not uncommon for those who work with puppets to have a recognizable aesthetic (Conner 403). Nevertheless, many of additional serendipitous inheritances from the form that (written or improvised) as an actor while also concentrating partcular bond with a specifc character that they feel animates an the qualities (even tools) that make her work pedagogically reduce expressive cues, such that a child can track the on the task of maintaining the illusion of life as he fulfills his aspect of themselves. For instance, Fred Rogers had a strong bond and therapeutically effective, while also being entertainment gestures and their meanings quite clearly.7 Throughout duties as a puppeteer (Stockman). with Daniel Striped Tiger, through whom he “was able to show his and play, are specific to ventriloquism, in which words and ventriloquism, a symbiosis of form and function–and effect– own inner feelings and use them as teaching moments…He did all * For the entire article and more photos, go to our website the voices. But Daniel was the real Fred” (“Daniel Striped Tiger”). • PhoTo: www.nEighboRhooDARChiVE.Com/mRn/EPisoDEs/1172/inDEX.hTml and click on Issue #48. unima-usa.org/pi-index C-28 C-29 P U P P E T R Y I N T E R N A T I O N A L

IndIan puppeTeeRs peRseveRe Bengal, for example, it was during Ramachandra’s group is also Basanta Ghoroi set up a stage and by Claudia Orenstein Chadak and Poila Boishakh, important among the many Indian puppeteers microphone in front of his home and New Year’s celebrations. who capitalized on traditional performed an instructive COVID-19 Traditional performers in urban puppetry’s role in educating song with his traditional puppets. areas do not even have the safety communities, and its more recent Accordng to an online article from July net of farming. Kathputli string deployment in spreading health and 15, in The Indian Express by George puppeteers, originally itinerant artists, social messages, and used their art to Poykil, Ramakrishna Mayya and concentrated today in colonies in transmit information about the corona Yakshagana puppeteer Ramesh K. Delhi and Jaipur, are part of the virus and best practices to keep it V. A. from Karnataka will use mythic bhat community of performers from spreading. Their educational characters to teach about combatting that includes magicians, acrobats, video, which used both traditional COVID-19. Tripura Puppet Theatre snake charmers, and musicians. and new puppetry elements, posted used its contemporary figures to Generally living hand to mouth, on March 21, gave important health spread the message. the bhats headed swiftly down the information while celebrating World Most traditional puppeteers road to starvation soon after the Puppetry Day. and their audiences, however, can’t government issued stay-at-home Sajeesh Pullavar’s tholpavakoothu even get online as only 50% of orders. Luckily, young people from group also created a corona virus Indian households have access to within the community were quick to video, with adorable corona virus the Internet. A lack of English can create a funding campaign, publicized figures dancing alongside traditional also limit the extended audiences through social media to both local puppets. Sajeesh’s inspiration came they might reach through this and international donors. Pudumjee when he noticed a lack of similar medium. Nonetheless, UNIMA- notes how this desperate community, materials in Malayali, Kerala’s local INDIA is planning an online CoViD-19 AwAREnEss film, by sAjEEsh PullAVAR currently living in a transit camp, language. Other traditional artists traditional puppetry festival came together to address the crisis, who provided COVID-19 education over two weekends in August, Along with performing artists across In West Bengal, traditional full-time, planting previously unsown doing it all on their own. include West Bengali scroll-singer featuring different performers the globe, Indian puppeteers– puppeteers were among the many fields for surplus to sell. Some are In India, traditional forms of Swarna Chitrakar, whose 7-image each week, with 15-minute, pre- traditional artists and those doing who, on top of COVID-19, lost homes considering giving up performance puppetry have long been part of scroll on COVID-19 took 15 days to recorded performances followed contemporary-style work– have been to super cyclone Amphan in May. completely. His theatre company has religious ritual. The crisis hit during paint. West Bengal glove puppeteer by conversations to explain and hard hit by COVID-19. Traditional Sudip and Shreeparna Bhanja Gupta created a support network of 300 the high season for tholpavakoothu contextualize the forms. They performers carry an additional burden of Doll’s Theatre in Kolkata recall artists who daily share their troubles. shadow performances in Kerala when are helping traditional artists use under these hardships as they bear how the floods of 1978 and 2007 Still Space Theatre’s third round of puppeteers perform the Ramayana Zoom, set up camera frames, and the responsibility of maintaining led numerous traditional performers food donations, which will reach epic at temples to Bhardrakali. While optimize phone data. Fortunately, cultural heritage while looking out to abandon their arts completely. 150 artists, will include a month’s any particular performance can last Indian puppetry traditions tend to for their own survival. Anupama Hoping to stave off similar outcomes, rations for traditional leather shadow 7, 14, 21, 41 or 71 nights, the rituals be family affairs, so the artists have Hoskere, of Dhaatu in Bengaluru, West Bengal puppeteers initiated puppeteers in need. His group is also must always conclude with The a full consort of puppeteers and discovered in 2011, as she researched a campaign to provide immediate organizing an online folk arts weekend Crowning of Rama. Puppetry teams musicians at hand, family members eachanoor-style rod puppetry from aid to colleagues whose lives were in September. across Kerala had to reconfigure their quarantining together. The Guptas Karnataka, a discontinued tradition further devastated by the cyclone. Even when provided with food, performances and cut straight to The are also organizing an Eastern Zone that used heavy wooden figures with Amit Bairagi, a scholar working closely Dadi Pudumjee, President of UNIMA Crowning of Rama ending in order Cultural Center online puppetry elaborate headdresses, that the form’s with West Bengal’s string puppeteers, and director of Ishara Puppet Theatre to simultaneously satisfy the govern- festival to include both traditional and demise was brought on by the 1918 notes that the lockdown fortuitously Trust, says rural puppeteers are ment lockdown orders and the ritual contemporary performances. Spanish flu pandemic, a troubling led these performers to pack puppets cash poor, without money to pay mandates. These shadow puppeteers Puppeteers who do contemporary- echo of current circumstances. Many away, saving them from damage. for other basic necessities. Seasonal do not just perform the epic story, style work tend to live in urban areas puppeteers perished from the flu Many traditional rural puppeteers performance schedules, tied to annual but explore philosophical ideas with relatively secure access to the and the depression that followed in India supplement seasonal Hindu festivals, had given traditional within it as part of the performance. Internet. Because their performance kept others from performing. To performing with farming. Akhshay performers predictable work Ramachandra Pulavar’s company schedules are irregular, they are in help traditional artists and their arts, Ghandi in Bengaluru, working with calendars with reliable, if modest, used the inactive time under the habit of putting savings aside Hoskere has set up weekly online his company Still Space Theatre to periodic incomes, and most were lockdown to go further into these and supplement performing with streamings of video performances provide financial and emotional not in the habit of putting savings studies with his team. workshops at schools or other jobs. from her annual festival to collect support to traditional performers in aside. Moreover, the initial lockdown donations for the puppeteers whose Karnataka, says many rural artists occurred during the dry season, a PosTER by kAnChAn ujjAl, A sTuDEnT fRom work she presents. are returning to agricultural work lucrative festival period. In West ThE nATionAl sChool of DRAmA C-30 C-31 P U P P E T R Y I N T E R N A T I O N A L These artists have jumped in to help medium can do. others and have used lockdown time Her experiments Posthuman Puppetry in the Time of Pandemic: to investigate new performance pos- have led her to offer sibilities. Anurupa Roy, of Katkatha workshops on puppet by Kelly I. Aliano, PhD Puppet Arts Trust, offered a five-week video performance festival of online workshops, lectures that have become I am not a puppeteer, but I consider expand their economic potential: tur- on puppetry forms, and performances popular with artists my work with video games an exten- nips are purchased at a fixed rate each as a fundraiser for the kathputli pup- and teachers. From sion of the work of puppetry. While Sunday and then can be sold to Nook’s peteers on hearing of their dire cir- her discussions with the objects that I manipulate in Cranny (or to others) at a higher cumstances. The performance videos theatre artists across performative landscapes may not be rate, provided their “market price” amounted to a retrospective of this India, Ghosh realizes “material,” they are an extension of increases. While this aspect of the company’s amazing work, including that puppeteers are myself, brought to life through my and the Pleasures of game offers some risk, it is still fun, as international festival favorites such as at an advantage in direct interaction with them. In the Digital Life the possibility exists to make a profit About Ram, Bollywood Bandwagon, the online world, digital age, our avatars in virtual spac- (and the money you are gambling–I and Mahabharata. Their online able to achieve es allow us to do things we would usu- Once Tom Nook welcomed me to mean “investing” – with isn’t real). In workshops and puppet club have visual depth more ally be unable to accomplish and to my island, it was time to put Kel to the world of Animal Crossing, there is provided a creative space for Indian easily than human develop a new life in the digital realm. work, completing chores and tasks, no economic downturn, furloughing, youngsters online. Roy spent several performers. When If “a puppet begins when the audi- such as collecting materials for the or unemployment. We can all be paid days in March serving free food from lockdown occurred, ence believes in the puppet as a living development of the island that we well for a hard day’s work. a makeshift kitchen to migrant work- Ghosh, who trained 1 being,” as Nina Simonovich-Efimova would now call home. As mundane There is also no competition from ers, who, disenfranchised from the with Agnes Limbo believed, then the same could be of game play as this might sound, it your neighbors. I built a community lockdown, were attempting to walk, in Belgium, was in said of a digital avatar: it comes to life has proven the exact opposite: my on Happy Isle, an excellent method sometimes 100s of miles, back to their Delhi offering the first when the gamer begins to play with— island in Animal Crossing, that I chose for combating the isolation of rural homes. The experience led her object performance and as—it. Players are often even to call Happy Isle, was exactly what the quarantine. to create Girl in the Pink Frock, her class ever to directing offered the ability to personalize their I needed. As the world prevented You can interact with the game’s first short film, which takes the point students at the avatar with a specific identity shaped social interactions, going to work, many non-playable characters (which of view of a young migrant girl as the National School of Drama. She through their choices and interactions and, in many instances, any sense of is what I do) or invite people you camera moves through buildings and was asked to continue the class for in the digital landscape. optimism, Happy Isle offered me a know (or that you don’t know) to people built from simple white paper her ten students, who returned to One such gaming experience, place where all of those things—and your island, offering a safe way to on a table top. homes across India, four without 2020’s Animal Crossing: New Hori- more—were possible through the interact with friends and/or make Choiti Ghosh of Tram Arts Trust is any internet access. Ghosh brought zons for the Nintendo Switch, took on persona of my avatar. new friends, even as we kept apart waiting to create new work, wanting enormous creativity to conducting new significance during the COVID-19 I began designing and improving from one another. In this way, playing first to explore what the new online class by telephone. She asked the Thank you– crisis. For me, and for so many others my island; collecting things to sell for as digital Kel is like being in a virtual directors to make and send a photo to all those who gave time to be during this time of isolation, disease, money, known as “Bells”; and curating performance: what she does has for a hypothetical poster that interviewed for this article: Amit and downright despair, Animal Cross- items for my island’s museum. As Resi- implications for the others on her could express the theme of a Bairagi, Akhshay Gandhi, Choiti Ghosh, ing: New Horizons became a great dent Representative, the player is in island and a narrative is built via those play they might direct, using source of solace. In the game, play- charge of all of the redesign elements performative interactions. found objects. Their stories Sudip and Shreeparna Bhanja Gupta, ers, via their avatar, impose order on of their home and island infrastruc- For me, one of the best aspects should be taken from the Anupama Hoskere, Bhaskar Kogga their virtual island, evoking a sense of ture, which can lead to a great deal of of the game is the Museum, run by Mahabharata, so everyone Kamath, Shivdas Kumar, Ganpat normalcy that eluded us during the in-game debt. Yet, there is no anxi- the inimitable owl, Blathers. Fishing, would able to identify it from Masagee, Meena Naik, Partho Pratim pandemic. As the player, it was up to ety over these mortgages. The only catching bugs, and digging fossils are the image, and focus on themes Paul, Dadi Pudumjee, Ramachandra me to decide how my avatar will look restriction is that the current debt key aspects of the day-to-day “action” of isolation. The spectacular and Rahul Pulavar, Sajeesh Pullavar, and what she will do in her day-to-day must be paid off before more debt in the game. If you choose to donate results show these directing Padmini Rangarajan, Anarupa Roy, Nina life on the island: I am the puppet- can be taken on. And money can be your finds to Blathers, they will be students mastering the Sabnani, Nathamani and A. Selvaraja, master and she, my puppet. earned easily. Tommy and Timmy, Tom displayed in the Museum. Blathers expressivity of objects under the and Mansing Zala. As the avatar can be customized Nook’s apprentices, run a store called will even tell you about what you have most restrictive circumstances. however the player wants, I chose to Nook’s Cranny that will buy literally found, an opportunity to learn some Although Indian puppeteers go with the personal approach. anything, and I mean anything: weeds fun science facts. are struggling in so many ways, CLAUDIA ORENSTEIN is a professor you pull out of the ground, an empty creativity remains a deep well at Hunter College in New York City. can, priceless fossils, a bench you just that continues to nurture artists. made. There is even the volatile turnip

PhoTos on This PAgE fRom GirL in the Pink Frock market, for those who really want to C-32 C-33 KELLY I. ALIANO is the author of Theatre of the Ridiculous: A Critical History (McFarland, 2018) and has a chapter on video game avatars in The Bloomsbury Handbook of Posthumanism (Bloomsbury, 2020). She currently An upgrade to the game came with teaches Theatre at Long Island a great deal of positive energy and the chance to procure artwork for the University’s Post Campus and even hope: we can make a better museum. But be warned: the art English at LaGuardia Community world with a little bit of work, a dealer, Redd, may be giving you the College, CUNY. lot of cooperationn with others… “Cousin’s Discount,” but many of the and maybe, just a wish or two. pieces he deals in are fakes. I look up game information, like By manipulating the digital As museums are for the time being the titles of K.K. Slider’s secret version of “Kel” in the virtual in New York, I greatly enjoy spending songs or how to catch the elusive space of Animal Crossing, I, like time walking through my digital mu- coelacanth. a puppeteer interacting with a seum, looking at all of the cool things Perhaps Animal Crossing’s most performing object, bring my avatar that I have found so far. powerful affect is its unbridled to life. But she is also an extension Animal Crossing is a fantasy of optimism: every day is a new of my corporeal life, allowing escapism: disappear into the game chance to have a productive and me to indulge in experiences I might to live a better version of real life, fun-filled adventure. The visits otherwise have missed out on during in brighter colors, with animal from Blathers’s sister, Celeste, the pandemic. Life on Happy Isle neighbors, and fewer consequences. bring with them shooting stars and in Animal Crossing: New Horizons A reward for completing the are my favorite part of the game. allowed me, via digital performance, customization of your island are If you press the A-button as a star to extend my own lived experience concerts from K.K. Slider, whose falls across the cosmos, you can and, in many ways, has been my presence brings the community make a wish. The next day, you can own wish come true. together to hear some sweet tunes. collect star fragments, which can This sort of simple pleasure be used to make crafts, reminding Endnote allows me to imagine what it would us that the future can be filled 1 Nina Simonovich-Efmova, as quoted be like—what it will be like—to get with dreams coming true. by Dassia Posner in “Sculpture in together with friends and enjoy live I may not really live on Happy Moton: Nina Simonovich-Efmova,” in performance. I even feel a connection Isle, but it has given me a sense Women in the Arts in the Belle Epoque, to others beyond the gameplay when of purpose each day. It offers me (Jeferson, NC: McFarland, 2012), 128.

C-34