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$5 95 US $7 95 CAN :1 0744708,51 <i ..~ Join Uj \ in Minneapolis this Spring! FOR IN THE HEART OF THE BEAST , PUPPET AND MASK THEATRE's *-, 4/-l' 30th Parade '1.,A2/\ un, 'alv~j.-21 and Festival May 2,2004 Join us for parade building workshopsthroughout F I in 4,1 F themonthofApril. 11 . , . /1 1 It 1 1 Editor Andrew Periale 56 Woodland Drive /UPPETRY INTERNATIONAL Strafford, NH 03884 the puppet in contemporary theatre, film & media perryalley @ rscs.net Designer/Assistant Editor issue no. 15 Bonnie Periale Editorial Advisor The Editor's Page . 2 Leslee Asch THE ADAPTABLE PUPPET Historian John Bell The Survival of Chinese Shadow Puppetry bu Kuang-Yu Fong & Stephen Kaplin . ... ..... 4 Media Review Editor Donald Devet Thriving in St. Petersburg by Samuel Wooten 10 2 lst Century Punch by Konrad Fredericks . ... 12 Advertising Last Street Punch in London? bv Rolande Dupreli .13 Reay Kaplan [email protected] Wayang Arja: Survival & Change by I Nvoman Sedana .16 Pulcinella & Orlando Furioso by Andrew Per-fate ... 18 Distribution Tricia Berrett Indian Glove Puppets Struggle to Survive by Nirmala Kapila Venit ..20 Ningyo Joruri Bunraku bu Nancy Lohmann Staub .... 22 Advisors Vince Anthony Preserving & Transmitting Cultures by Leslee Asch . ... 28 Meg Daniel ..30 Puppet History Colunin by John Bell Norman Frisch Stephen Kaplin ON STAGE Mark Levenson Amanda Maddock Dragon Dance Theatre's Seven Angry Men review bv Jerome Lipani .32 Michael Malkin Dassia Posner BOOKS Hanne Tierney Amy Trompetter Short Notices on New Books bu John Bell .. 34 Puppet Mania review bv Kat/ileen Dapid . .37 Puppetry International is a publication of UNIMA-USA. Inc., American Center of the UNION INTERNATIONALE de la TEMPTATION MARIONNETrE (known as "UNIMA"). Flaubert, Breughel and Pyrotechnic Piglets bij Stephen Carter .... 38 Board of Directors, UNIMA-USA, Inc. 41 'LA TENTATION" -an entire script translated by Stephen Carter Founding President JIM HENSON President Marianne Tucker Tricia Berrett Bradford Clark Production Carol Epstein-Levy Kathy Foley Terrie Ilaria. Lillian Meier Kuang-Yu Fong STEINWAY STUDIO Kathee Foran UNIMA-USA Kittery, ME Lynne Jennings Reay Kaplan c/o Center for Puppetry Arts Print Consultant Mary Robinette Kowal 1404 Spring Street, NW Michelle O'Donnell Atlanta, GA 30309 USA Gary Stratton 404-873-3089 GPRINT FIRST Ex-Officio Board Members www. unima-usa.org [email protected] General Secretary Vincent Anthony* Publications Andrew Periale Bonnie Periale Consultants & Leslee Asch ON THE COVER: *Councilors Cheryl Henson* Allelu Kurten photograph by Samuel Wooten Michael Nelson (see article, p 10) NATIONAL Roman Paska* ENDOWMENT Powell FOR THE ARTS Lia artwork on back cover- Lisa Rhodes B Meier-Periale This project is supported, in part, by an award Bart Roccoberton' --- ---- -- from the National Endowment forthe Arts. Nancy L. Slaub* Web Guru Donald Devet ©2004- UNIMA-USA PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL EDITOR'S PAGE- , I . ' ~ - #V A' 4 VIVA LA EVOLUCION! Anyone who has been watching the lineup of shows on Broadway over the past few years, or has taken a gander at preprandial Public TV, has >f -<* seen an explosion in the use of puppetry-to edu- 21 cate, inspire, and enchant audiences of all ages. *iffims-fl~- Traditions and genres within the world of pup- ~r~ petry, though, are a little bit like the families and / 3 2.- genera ofthe Animal Kingdom: each "species" is distinct, and they come and go over time based Z.-1 ->--ft / 5 + on their response to the forces around them- 4 41< 3 *r -« 1 4 adapting. evolving, tlourishing, or simply disap- pearing into the shifting sands of time. There are many forces at work on puppetry- eco- nom ics, political oppression. religious prohibi- tion, changing tastes, changing technology. In ASA order to withstand these forces, a puppet com- pany must be adaptable, resilient and flexible. "The Puppet Master" by Robert Austin, The Metropolitan Museum of Art Some strengths can also be liabilities- a com- pany dependent on the vision of a single artist, no matter how charismatic the individual, is unlikely to dazzling dexterity of Ronnie Burkett's marionettery are survive a sudden loss of leadership. Other theatres- or the bones of our ancestors- the fertility puppets. the entire genres- once so woven into the fabric of a society leather shadows, the god masks. that their survival was taken for granted, have been wiped out by the unlucky contluence of several large events. These then are the questions which so many puppe- teel's have asked themselves: To evolve, or not to This is what happened to the dinosaurs- a changing cli- evolve? To eke out a living on society's margins, or mate and the evolution of new fur-bearing species flourish in its great halls of culture'? To adapt tocurrent (coupled with the impact of a large-ish meteorite) and tastes (or other external forces), or simply throw in the Tyrannosaurus Rex was Tyrannosaurus "Ex." I would towel? There are countless variations possible, depend- love to have seen a real live dinosaur. It is one of my few ing on the time and place in which the options are be- disappointments at having been born into the modern ing considered. Puppeteers who avoid the que Ati on, era. (The Jim Henson Company made some dinosaurpup- though, do so at their peril, leaving some conniving pets for "The Flintstones," but by the time "Jurassic Park" Claudius or vengeful Laertes to answer for them: rolled around, CGI technology had already made those Not to be!" creatures extinct! A case in point.) Scientists tell us, though, that to see a dinosaur, we need look no further In this issue, then, we look at the ways in which pup- than our own birdfeeders. My little chickadee may not peteers and puppet theatres respond to the forces around look much like a pterodactyl. but the dinosaur lives on them- struggling like protozoans on a petri dish in or- in her blood, her bones, her victory over gravity. And in der to survive and (quite literally) preserve their cul- those squishy puppets who live on "Avenue Q," or in the ture. Our struggle as artists is not merely to move good PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL DNA into the next generation, but to preserve our cul- tural identity, to enrich both the intellectual and emo- tional lives of our public, to be the "keepers of the lore" -A and tell a few good jokes along the way, in short, we must "take arms against a sea of troubles" and let the Subject: Punch's sexuality chips fall where they may. Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2004 14:01:51 -0000 LETTER From: "The Punch and Judy College" Some of the most regrettable losses seem to come from <[email protected]> third world countries with unstable governments, and cultures which are moving almost overnight from water Hi, I enjoyed Paul Zaloom's liberating piece buffalo and elephants to satellite phones and high-speed on the Punch tradition but I can say he's mis- modems. Puppet companies which were virtually un- taken in thinking that the Punch and Judy Col- z:z~ known to the outside world have vanished with scarcely lege of Professors says that Punch is not gay. ~ a trace. In other places, long-standing theatre traditions which were on the verge of extinction have returned to We don't take a view on Punch's sexuality or good health, and we have many examples of these in the sexuality of the performer. Punch is what- ~ this issue: Chinese shadow puppetry [page 41, Italy's ever he is and you can make of him whatever ~ Opera dei Pupi and Pulcinella [page 18 ], and a glove you can make of him. 1 don't think it was from puppet theater from Kerala, India [page 20]. 14/ayang rrI Ada is a Balinese form combining opera and shadow us that he had a letter of rejection as I can't ~ puppetry. A mere decade after its debut in 1976, it seemed find his application anywhere on file. Perhaps- to be breathing its last until a student took it on as a it was from another Punch society. He'd get ~ project and, after a little "genetic engineering" to make turned down by us for not using a swazzle (be- ~ it more engaging and less strenuous, it seems to be re- a covering nicely [page 161. cause that's what we think distinguishes Punch and Judy Show from any other puppet The Soviet Union is now a lost world, and its many state- show that has a Punch character in it) but not sponsored puppet theaters- giant behemoths which once on account of gay issues. And as forhis "Screw ruled that part of the earth- are much diminished. The you, English assholes" we'd say "Stop talking new theatres there have had to adapt to changing condi- tions, and they compete with the new species-like Kung out of yours, Paul." Fu movies and Rock and Roll- in order to find their niche. St. Petersburg's Puppet House Theatre is one such Glyn Edwards. oasis where a handful of artists does everything needed to make wonderful theatre [page 10]. Finally, Stephen Carter brings Gustave Flaubert 's Temp- tatum of St. Anthony out of obscurity and translates one .' of the old fairground texts which inspired it [page 38] F Li 56- Would I love to have seen those old Soviet-style puppet theatres'? You bet! I would love to have seen a Bronto- L.Lir --,m"llil/-1 saurus. too. When 1 am tempted to mourn such losses, lity though, I have only to look around to remember that ir *7~,, they live on in all the brightly-feathered beauty which 4 10 surrounds me.