I'm Looking for The New Puppetry.

[mrhogg]

Hey all,

I'm starting a book, tentatively called "The New Puppetry," which would highlight a number of the new ways puppetry is being used, chiefly in the online space, but more broadly, anywhere in the world.

Much of the focus will likely be in the online uses of puppetry, but I won't limit the book only to that. Puppetry is coming back into the public sphere in a notable way, and I want to shine a light on both the innovative new uses of puppetry, and those people who are making them happen.

If you know of any innovative puppetry -- whether online or off, someone else's work, or your own -- I'd love to hear about it. I'm still building up the table of contents, and while I have a bunch of it sketched out, there are a bunch of gaps I'd like to fill.

If you could pass me any names/places/info here, or by e-mail at brian@hoggworks.com, that would be great.

Thanks!
Brian

 

[dwmckim]

You're probably ahead of me on this, but if i was doing something like this, i would be checking with various regional puppetry theatres via lists compiled via Puppeteers of America and soliciting feedback on ways their troupes or other local artists they were aware of were doing. Also, even if this may not be the focus/direction you're looking at, as far as modern uses of puppetry, such a discussion would be incomplete without quite a bit of discussion of puppetry used as special effects in film - perhaps not what we all like to think of in more conventional terms as "puppetry" but all those people pulling strings/standing out of frame to make an inanimate object or costume/representation of an animal or supposedly living creature/alien are where a lot of work is being done even if the people may not label themselves as puppeteers...then of course, there's all the stuff with digital puppetry that Henson of all people are really pioneering these days.

 

[Buck-Beaver]

I've been documenting a lot of this stuff since 2003; the PuppetVision archives aren't terribly well organized, but a lot of what you're probably looking for can be found there. Also worth checking out are the Puptcrit Archives.

 

[mrhogg]

Thanks for the links, Andrew!

dwmckim, thanks for the response. I'm going to be doing searching, online and off, on my own, but I was hoping to get the names of any cool stuff that people here would know of off the top of their head ... basically the things that are going on that they're the most impressed by. Checking with local puppetry groups is definitely a good idea, and Henson, with their digital puppetry efforts, is certainly something I'd be looking into.

Thanks!
Brian

 

[Punch'n'Judy]

Without wanting to put you off The New Puppetry was the name of a book written by Eric Bramall of the Harlequin Theatre in the late 1950s!

 

[mrhogg]

I wasn't aware of that, but happily, the title is the easiest thing to change.