From: Mary Horsley <mphorsley-AT-earthlink.net>
Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 16:10:21 -0500
To: puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Chinese marionettes


Every chance I get I talk about puppets to kids. Why, just on Friday,  
it was cold and 3 third grade classes were crowded into our music  
room watching a movie, of course. My two sat down and watched too.  
They were watching Monsters,Inc.

I sat in the back with a few others and started to draw being kind of  
bored with the movie, knowing we wouldn't get to see the whole thing.  
Then I had 3 kids around me. I was busy talking about puppets,  
muppets, Jim Henson, marionette, and they were focused. I was shocked  
at how little they knew. I actually had to drag the answers out of  
them. Puppetry has so much to offer kids. We are not using it enough.  
These kids remember when you made a sock puppet with them. They are  
interested but tests keep teachers from introducing puppetry. They  
leave the puppets out of the history books. The topic got started  
because one of the Monsters had a stick puppet in his hand and I got  
excited.

Puppets unite. We must not lose this art.

Mary
On Feb 18, 2007, at 3:52 AM, Grego wrote:

>
> On Feb 18, 2007, at 2:46 AM, Alan Cook wrote:
>
>>
>> Television made a big dent on Taiwan's hand puppet troupes in the
>> 1960s and as many as 1000 to 3000 puppeteers went out of business
>> practically overnight because ONE puppet troupe was working on TV
>> screens.
>
> Interesting, in the sense that one could easily imagine the opposite
> outcome. The tv success could have made people want to go see live
> shows.
> Curiously, while I was there performing at a festival recently we
> were taken for a visit to the factory that was involved with the tv
> show. They make and sell thousands of hand puppets annually.
> Apparently not to performers, eh.
> Saw some hand puppet performances, and can't help but wonder whether
> they might be at least partly responsible for their own demise.
> Volume was set well beyond the pain level. Pyrotechnics and other
> flashy special effects got at least as much focus as fine puppetry.
> And the stories revolved around violence, with occasional interludes
> of more violence.
>
>> It is an old pattern in the world of folkpuppet theater. In the
>> 1930s, movies provided similar competition to shadow plays (the
>> FIRST FORM OF MOVING PICTURES).
>
> Maybe it's an old pattern in theater, and folk arts in general.
>
> On Feb 18, 2007, at 7:08 AM, Robert Rogers wrote:
>>
>> Coincidentally, I'm going to Taiwan next week and plan to see as much
>> Chinese puppetry as I can.
>
> Should you have any chance to do some snooping, this question of who
> killed live puppet theater, and what part did tv play, might be worth
> asking around about. There are doubtless a variety of perspectives.
>
> Happy gold piggy year, and happy landings.
> -G
>
>
>
>
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