Types of Puppets – Puppetry by
its nature is a flexible and inventive medium, and many puppet companies work
with combinations of puppet forms, and incorporate real objects into their
performances. They might, for example, incorporate “performing objects” such as
torn paper for snow, or a sign board with words as narrative devices within a
production. The following are, alphabetically, the basic and conventional forms
of puppet:
Black
light puppet – A form of puppetry where the puppets are operated on a stage
lit only with ultraviolet lighting, which both hides the puppeteer and
accentuates the colours of the puppet. The puppeteers perform dressed in black
against a black background, with the background and costume normally made of
black velvet. The puppeteers manipulate the puppets under the light, while they
position themselves unseen against the black unlit background. Controlling what
the audience sees is a major responsibility of any puppeteer, and blacklight
lighting provides a new way of accomplishing this. Puppets of all sizes and
types are able to be used, and glow in a powerful and magical way. The original
concept of this form of puppetry can be traced to Bunraku puppetry.
Bunraku
puppet
– Bunraku puppets are a tyrepe of wood-carved puppet originally made to stand
out through torch illumination. Developed in Japan over a thousand years ago
and formalised and combined with shamisen music at the end of the 16th century,
the puppeteers dress to remain neutral against a black background, although
their presence as kind of ‘shadow’ figures adds a mysterious power to the
puppet. Bunraku traditionally uses three puppeteers to operate a puppet that is
2/3 life size.
Carnival
or body puppet – usually designed to be part of a large spectacle. These
are often used in parades (such as the May day parade in Minneapolis, USA) and
demonstrations, and are at least the size of a human and often much larger. One
or more performers are required to move the body and limbs. In parades, the
appearance and personality of the person inside is not relevant to the
spectator. These puppets are particularly associated with large scale
entertainment, such as the nightly parades at various Disney complexes around
the world. Similar puppets were designed by Julie Taymor for The Lion King.
Finger
puppet -
An extremely simple puppet variant which fits onto a single finger. Finger
puppets normally have no moving parts, and consist primarily of a hollow cylinder
shape to cover the finger. This form of puppet has limited application, and is
used mainly in pre-schools or kindergartens for storytelling with young
children.
Sock
Puppet
– A puppet formed from a sock and operated by inserting ones hand inside the
sock. One then moves his hand up and down to give the impression of speaking.
Sometimes eyes and other factors are added to the sock in order to make the
puppet more realistic. Sock Puppets are also popular in many puppet
performances, as they are simple to make and easy to use. They are mostly used
in satirical or childish works, as they are not very professional.
Hand
or glove puppet – These are puppets controlled by one hand which occupies
the interior of the puppet. Punch and Judy puppets are familiar examples of
hand puppets. Larger varieties of hand puppets place the puppeteer’s hand in
just the puppet’s head, controlling the mouth and head, and the puppet’s body
then hangs over the entire arm. Other parts of the puppet (mainly arms, but
special variants exist with eyelids which can be manipulated; the mouth may
also open and close) are usually not much larger than the hand itself. A sock
puppet is a particularly simple type of hand puppet made from a sock.
Human-arm
puppet
– Also called a “two-man puppet” or a “Live-hand puppet”; it is similar to a
hand puppet but is larger and requires two puppeteers. One puppeteer places a
hand inside the puppet’s head and operates its head and mouth, while the other
puppeteer wears gloves and special sleeves attached to the puppet in order to
become the puppet’s arms, so that the puppet can perform arbitrary hand
gestures. This is a form of glove or hand puppetry and rod puppetry.
Mechanical
Extensions for Body Puppet Anatomy:
Light
Curtain puppet presentations use specifically focused light to highlight
small areas of a performance, allowing the puppet to be seen while the
manipulators remain invisible. The puppets stand on a stage divided into an
unlit background and a well-lit foreground, meeting to form a “curtain” of
light. The puppeteer dresses in black and remains hidden in the unlit
background of the stage while the puppet is held across the light curtain in
the lit foreground of the stage. “Light curtain puppet” is an umbrella term,
and any puppet which is extended into a well-lit area where its handler remains
separated from the puppet by a division of light may be called a light curtain
puppet.
Marionette
or “string puppet” – These puppets are suspended and controlled by a number of
strings, plus sometimes a central rod attached to a control bar held from above
by the puppeteer. The control bar can be either a horizontal or vertical one.
Basic strings for operation are usually attached to the head, back, hands (to control
the arms) and just above the knee (to control the legs). This form of puppetry
is complex and sophisticated to operate, requiring greater manipulative control
than a finger, glove or rod puppet. The puppet play performed by the Von Trapp
children with Maria in The Sound of Music is a marionette show.
Marotte
-
A simplified rod puppet that is just a head and/or body on a stick. In a marotte à main prenante, the puppeteer’s
other arm emerges from the body (which is just a cloth drape) to act as the
puppet’s arm. Some marottes have a small string running through the stick
attached to a handle at the bottom. When the handle is squeezed, the mouth
opens.
Pull
String Puppet – a puppet consisting of a cloth body where in the
puppeteer puts his/her arm into a slot in the back and pulls rings on strings
that do certain tasks such as waving or moving the mouth.
Push
puppet
– A push puppet consists of a segmented character on a base which is kept under
tension until the button on the bottom is pressed. The puppet wiggles, slumps
and then collapses, and is usually used as a novelty toy.
Push-in
or Paper puppet, or Toy Theatre – A puppet cut out of paper and stuck
onto card. It is fixed at its base to a stick and operated by pushing it in
from the side of the puppet theatre. Sheets were produced for puppets and
scenery from the 19th century for children’s use.
Rod
Puppet
– A puppet constructed around a central rod secured to the head. A large glove
covers the rod and is attached to the neck of the puppet. A rod puppet is controlled
by the puppeteer moving the metal rods attached to the hands of the puppet and
by turning the central rod secured to the head.
Shadow
puppet
– A cut-out figure held between a source of light and a translucent screen.
Shadow puppets can form solid silhouettes or be decorated with various amounts
of cut-out details. Colour can be introduced into the cut-out shapes to provide
a different dimension and different effects can be achieved by moving the
puppet (or light source) out of focus. Javanese shadow puppets (Wayang Kulit)
are the classic example of this.
Supermarionation – A method
invented by Gerry Anderson which assisted in his television series Thunderbirds
in electronically moving the mouths of marionettes to allow for
lip-synchronised speech. The marionettes were still controlled by human
manipulators with strings.
Ticklebug – A ticklebug
is a type of hand puppet created from a human hand to have four legs, where the
puppet features are drawn on the hand itself. The middle finger is lifted as a
head, and the thumb and forefinger serve as a first set of two legs on one
side, while the ring finger and little finger serve as a second set of two legs
on the opposite side.
Table
Top Puppets
– A puppet usually operated by rod or direct contact from behind, on a surface
similar to a table top (hence the name). Shares many characteristics with
Bunraku.
Ventriloquist
dummy
– A puppet operated by a ventriloquist performer to focus the audience’s
attention from the performer’s activities and heighten the illusions. They are
called dummies because they do not speak on their own. The ventriloquist dummy
is controlled by the one hand of the ventriloquist. Such acts aren’t always
performed with a traditional dummy, occasionally using other forms of puppetry.
Water Puppet – a
Vietnamese puppet form, the “Múa rối nước”. Múa rối nước literally means
“puppets that dance on water”, an ancient tradition that dates back to the
tenth century. The puppets are built out of wood and the shows are performed in
a waist-deep pool. A large rod supports the puppet under the water and is used
by the puppeteers to control them. The appearance is of the puppets moving over
the water. When the rice fields would flood, the villagers would entertain each
other using this puppet form.
