FALL and WINTER 09 Issue #26 P UPPETRY e INIFE RNIAT 0 0 El AL / *f *la the puppet In contemporary theatre, film & media $5.95 US $7.95 CAN '« 0 74470 87511 6 lf,Y It 111 11 PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL issue no. 26 The Editor's Page 1 ART IN THE SHADOWS Nabil Bahgat's Egyptian Shadows hy Lum·ie kic·('an/x . ... 4 Eric Ruin- Puppet Punk by Mc,/Man /2/1 ,/,ic/,rws 7 Moseowk Fabulous Epelballins br .Jolin Freedman \0 Eye of Light hi, Sterhen Kap/in 14 Iii Xanadu-poetry hr Linda /:hi·/ich 17 Shadowgraphy bi Beth kamdman \ 8 London's Chinese Shades br Daysia Posner ..... 20 Light by Kate Brelmi 23 Innovations iii Thai Shadow Theatre by Kevin Brown .... 14 A Balinese Tempest hy .Jacquelinc Romeo 26 The Ritualistic Shadows of Hunan bi Fwi Pen Chen 30 Skipitat~es Takes Greek Myths to India /11· Law·en //obbs Ser/on 33 Italy 's Gioco Vita-The Shadow 's Space 41 · Fabrizic, Montecchi 36 Teaching through Shadows br Brigitte Rire Iii 3% PUPPET HISTORY Metaphysic Tradition iii Shadow Theatre by John Bell 41 REVIEWS The Career of Bob and .ludy Brown U Rell ) 44 Morpurgo's Wai Horse by Mervy,i Miller C.J. Bell) ...... 45 Kermit Culture U Stoessne,7 46 In Praise of Shadows (.5. Abram.0 47 ©2009- UNIMA-USA Puppetry International is a publication of UNIMA-USA. Inc. American Center of the UNION INTERNATIONALE de la MARIONNETTE Pron w ting m tern:itional friendship and unders landing through the art of puppetry. c/o Center for Puppetry Arts 1404 Spring Street, NW Atlanta, GA 30309 USA 404-873-3089 www.unima-usa.org FRONT COVER .. Billboard for the International NATIONAL Kerala Film Festival iii Trivandum. ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS photo: Morism FitzPatrick Andrews This project is supported, in part, by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL Ed#rdat- imagine yourself making a shadow. Finished? Good. Did you imagine, 1 wonder, setting it perceives as unimportant.* sacred, ritualistic. And it is. But it up the lamp, or choosing an instru- Except that iii art the details are is also much more-ephemeral, ment with a small point source, or never unimportant. But don't de- subversive, confounding, hysteri- placing it at a particular distance spain in this issue we will give cal, metaphoric. therapeutic, mind- from the projection surface? If you you more details than you can bending, gut-wrenching. .. were using an overhead projector, shake a lightsaber at. Welcome to did you plug it in first'? If you used the Shadow Issue. As Fabrizio Montecchi insists: the sun as a light. was it shining so Shadow theatre is not a technique, brightly that you felt its warmth on As this magazine hits your mailbox rather it is a kind ofscenic art, a your skin? or local bookstore, the 88 Interna- theatrical language that makes use tional Shadow Festival will be tak- ofa multitude of techniques. No? ing place in Schwabisch Gmund, Germany-dozens of performanc- When we decided to devote an is- That's not surprising. Why'? Be- es by companies from all over sue of PI to Shadows, I was pretty cause the amazing human mind the world. The range of work is sure we'd get enough material for a is not only capable of imagining fantastic-small- and large-scale, good survey of the genre, but l did things that it is not actually doing, simple and multi-layered, tradi- not foresee getting the deluge of it also selects the most important tional and cutting edge. We often diverse articles that would threaten images and leaves out the details think of shadow theatre as ancient, to breach our editorial levees IMAGES FROM THE SCHWABISCH GMGnd SHADOW FESTIVAL PROGRAM Editor Andrew Periale 56 Woodland Drive www.unima-usa.org/publications Strafford, NH 03884 [email protected] Designer/Assistant Editor Bonnie Periale Historian / Book Review Editor John Bell [email protected] (and this at a time when- edition, as well as an assort- thanks to the current -Eco- Web Guru ment of full-length articles that Donald Devet nomic Downturn, we are appear here in abridged form. unable to blithely increase Advertising Reay Kaplan the number of pages in order Thanks so much for your on- [email protected] to include more material). going support of this venture. Distribution We hope you'll continue to en- Meghan Fuller One of our strategies to get joy Puppetry International both Controller you the full range of opin- in the hand and on the web. I.isa Rhodes ions. reviews and research on this topic is to increase our Peer Review Committee Chair Colette Searls (UMBC) web component yet again. John Bell (U.CT & MIT) Go to our website now and *see Dan Gilberto Stumbling Eileen Bllinientlial (Rutgers U.) on Bradford Clark (Bowling Green U.) you will get access to what Happiness. for more oil mind Kathy Foley ( U . CA Riverside ) is essentially an entire online Claudia Orenstein (Hiinter C.) and perception. Dassia Postier (Tufts U.) magazine to complement our print edition. There are lots Board of Directors, UNIMA-USA, Inc. more miages and many ar- Founding President - JIM HENSON ticles that don't appear in this Karen Smith - President 7444660 Pe¥date Steve Abrams* - VP. Procedures Mariamie Tucker - VP. Committees John Bell* - VP. Publications Colette Seat'ls - Secretary Kalliee Foran - Treasiirer I,ytin K. Jeffries Manuel Mordn* Claudia Orenstein Blair Tliomas Gretchen Van Lente* *UNIMA Interliational Councilor Ex-Officio Board Members Vitic(ii[ Anthony - General Secretary Michael Nelson - Consultant. Proceditres Andrew & Bonnie Periale - Pitblications Production Terrie Ilaria. Lilliaii Meier STEINWAY STUDIO GIOCO VITA WAYANG EDITOR Il 1 1- PUPPETRY INTERNATIONAL WAMDA: Op®Hi« Doors aAR flt,e~UU*8 Ll~'lk 01/l, Ejyptiawl Sh#619 Pu,ppetry by Laurie McCants Not long ago. m the cool ot a Cairo twilight. children ran will tall behind and be left 1,1 the hand0 ofa generation in ,earch of in0tant through the wmding alley; (not tar hom where fecently a entertainnient :ini| 11-14t:int plea~re " bomb wax planted under a bench at the centurie~-old .wmA. the Bahgat and hi4 fellow Wanu/a membet-0 Anow what it mean4 to hearch. gather m the open-air couityard 01 an el - Khan iiI- Khalilijto but theit quew ha, been to tind the authentic entertainnient indigenous, to egantly-rextored Ottoman-era hi~,toric hou'·,e Awaiting them theirow 11 culture They ventuted out and found the IN remaining ,hadow wa4 a 4hadow-puppet ~tage. canopied with vibrant Egyptian puppeteer m all 01 Egypt. Ha«m Khanouta, who wai hant:inizC L out and fe„tival fabric and 0trung with multicolored lights They 0nioking i/inha at an (thwa (cottee,hop) on Mohammed Ali Street. where plopped them,elve, down in front ot the xtage and began to bufken look for work The aging mNer took them underhinving. teaching -Aragoil Arago/'- And on the,creen appeared the chatit them the 0101 1(h and trick0 of ht. trade (how to buy and dry the tran,,lucent figure of "The Aragoz." the puppeteet who tiavels shadow dotikey leather that ts cut. pierced. painted, and decorated m the Namic to vii lage, ,treet to 4treet, pei torm ing the antic4 trom vii lage ,tyle, how to hinge and attach the todi. how to breathe life mto figure0 of hi, hand puppet. al.0 named Aragoi Like hi~ Turki~h and preHed againht the vereen 00 that they talk. walk. dance. cry. and laugh) Not European couxi!70. Karagoi and Punch. Aragoz A a complex long after these le.0on.. Ha..an Khatiouta died The young artist0 were left creature, a wily little guy Both dupe and trickver, ,illy and to cal y on then teacher'h legacy, and al,c, that ol thet ranee *toi-. Mohammed xly. hei a beloved rap0callion [bn [)antel. who fled to Cairo tiom Iraq during the Mongol invasions ot Turn4 out the tricks on the audience thii time For :10 the ;tory unfold0. it 10 ievealed that thi$ diadow AngO7 10 not whatheappear~ to be He ~actually Ah Al-Zeibaa ( Alt Quickv I ver" ). mafter of d i,gii i fe, a Nort of med meval Middle Eaitein mix of Robin Hood and Zorro, yet unmi~takably 4 Egyptian By theeveningi end. Ah Al-Ze,baa ha~ managed to upend the corrupt rule of tainted leader~ and re~tore order to the nation. to the cheen ot the children who have been 4 ightened by th i 4 twist on a 4tory entertained. engaged. and enl Vt/:'*-, 1/ as old :14 the Arabian NighA ., , The 0how i. one of ~everal updated ancient tales pre- ,ented by Mmicht (:in arcane Arabic woid that means "t/ie 5, flii\11 (}1 light al night in the dark de#ert thut bill\' ilittlitificiteN * eve, rthmg"),apuppettroupeled by Nabil Bahgal Dedicated , to revitaliting the almost-extinct Ahaval al i// (Egyptian ,hadow puppetry ). Bahgan motto i " We have that which ( (ill er/ircu u, " He teeK that thi0 di~tinctly Egyptian art form can combat the "cultural invavoll' ot commelcial product~ mid ~hallow value4 from abroad 1.ook at the Ninja by pioduction,J Bahgat ,ay4 -They are alway0 followed the 13~ century HI~ three extant puppet play ~cript~ (labeled by the author pizza promotion0 Th~ creatr, a non-productive penon. as -phantoni~ 01 the 4hadow~-) are the only complete eA,imple0 of Arabic whenever he teeb. hungry he order, junk food by phone drania trom the Middle Age~ that h.ive ,urvived to the p~ent day Bahgat feels that multinational corporatioih aim to make people the world over into con4umet~ rather than creatori A.