In the 19th century, folklorists and ethnographers started to collect documents which gave descriptions of the shows and published their dialogues, giving regular attention to the characters of Don Juan, Faust (in Germany), Punch and Judy (in Great Britain), and to the Christian Nativity theme expressed in Poland’s szopka and Ukraine’s vertep. At the beginning of the 18th century, with the birth of journalism, literary criticism of puppet shows appeared, notably in the British periodical The Spectator. The Middle Ages and Renaissance periods reveal certain accounts, as in the Hortus Deliciarium by the 12th century prioress Herrad von Landsberg, and those by dramatic and satirical authors mentioned by Francesco Saverio Quadrio ( Della storia e della ragione d’ogni poesia On the History and Reason of All Poetry, Volume V, 1744). As early as the 2nd century BCE, the Natyasastra, an Indian treatise on theatre, gave a particular place to puppetry and it is notable that Indian scholars have often manifested their interest in this art. Another source of information on the practice of puppetry at different periods of history could be found in the works of moralists and poets who used puppet and shadow theatre themes as metaphor of man’s submission to fate, or to the gods who manipulated mortals. At first, most of the information came from amateurs, memoir writers or travellers, occasional spectators of puppet shows. Using puppets allows children to try on new personalities, emotions, and goals.įactoyd: Puppets have been found in ancient cultures in Egypt, India, China, and Japan.There are several forms of research into puppetry: for example, the point of view of theatre historians and scholars is different from that of anthropologists and ethnographers. Puppets give kids cover to confront new challenges and troubling subjects: kids often use puppets to act out and say things that they wouldn’t say or do on their own. Children use their imaginations to provide voice, plot, and purpose to their puppet characters. Playing with puppets helps children develop coordination and manual dexterity. Hand puppets have been a popular toy form for more than a century. Puppets belong in the play world of individual children too. And, of course, since 1969 Jim Henson’s Sesame Street puppet characters have taught children the world over their numbers, letters, and more. Shari Lewis, a ventriloquist and puppeteer, featured her characters Lamb Chop, Hush Puppy, Charlie Horse, and others on a number of TV series that entertained children from the 1950s to the 1990s. Howdy shared his TV audiences with Kukla, Fran, and Ollie. Charlie McCarthy led the way for Howdy Doody, a little puppet with his very own television series in the 1950s. In the 20th century, television spread the popularity of puppets among children and adults and produced some beloved American icons. Eventually puppet theater included secular stories and comedies, and puppetry became a popular form of rowdy entertainment at carnivals, fairs, and market gatherings.Įuropeans brought puppets to the New World, and the playful figures entertained Americans in street theaters and later in vaudeville houses and on public stages across the country. In Europe, the Christian church used puppets to present morality plays. Early Chinese and Japanese puppeteers fashioned miniature figures for religious ceremonies and the telling of folktales and epic stories of gods and heroes. Plato and Aristotle wrote of puppets, and ancient puppeteers presented the Iliad and the Odyssey using figures made of clay and ivory. Because the toy form appears long ago in nearly every culture in Asia, Europe, and the Americas, no one really knows where it began. Puppets may have originated in the Egypt of the pharaohs or in India nearly 6,000 years ago.
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