File puptcrit/puptcrit.0605, message 331


From: "Alan Cook" <alangregorycook-AT-msn.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org
Date: Thu, 25 May 2006 23:09:03 GMT
Subject: [Puptcrit] puppets & politics


In 1965 I attended the 3rd UNIMA Festival to be held in Bucharest, Rumania. The country's borders had been opened to casual tourists (those without special dispensation) for only two weeks, and NBC News people reporting on this change in policy sometimes shared a cramped hotel elevator with visiting puppeteers.

The PERFORMANCES were to follow guidelines: no politics in shows (whatever that meant in actual practice was never clear).

There were Chinese rod puppet people's army skiers roaring down a mountain slope (a miniature version of human actors doing the same routine in Beijing when Pres Nixon was in that other audience).
The skiers were busy opposing American "interests".  I could not have seen this show at home.

>From Moscow, a presentation was built around a "popular children's story" or rhyme called "Mister Twister" (pronounced "Meester Tweester") which we were told was known by all Soviet chidren.  So the few Americans there waited with anticipation. What we got was SENATOR TWEESTER from the USA visiting Moscow and refusing to stay in his hotel because it also housed African tourists. Since all hotels there did not have racial barriers (Paul Robeson could have stayed in any one hotel that had vacancies, except he wasn't in the story), the poor Senator had no place to stay. The end.

Sure it was politics (and propaganda, too), but it was  show widely seen in the USSR, apparently, and where else could I have seen such a puppet show. Certainly not at home.

It took 25 years of political barriers before I finally got to see Vietnamese Water Puppets in Los Angeles. Much too long (for some, it was a lifetime).

Bread & Puppets has offended many, but I am glad I have seen some of their productions.

Some critters have alluded to puppets promoting McDonalds. Hell, puppets have promoted Christian theology (ever hear the term "marionette", and atheistic views too.

So as alleged adults,  puptcritters need to express respect for people with differing views, not to demean the people. It is possible to disagree without demonizing.

And political correctness can change week to week, the way Stalinism used to do. Life is not compartmentalized, though some live their lives as if it were. My Chinese History prof used to say "nothing is unrelated".

If you dont know how people think, you have less understanding about those people, and isn't "understanding" part of puptcrit's "spirit"?

Puppets do not exist in a cultural vacuum.

Neither do puppeteers.

ALAN COOK

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