Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 19:29:08 -0700 (PDT)
From: Connor Hopkins <troublepuppet-AT-yahoo.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] what are puppets used for in todays world?


One modern use of puppets that is becoming more
widespread is for public demonstrations, protests,
strikes and other "direct action" events.  This is not
an entirely modern application, as puppets have had a
role in parades, religious processions and the like
for many centuries, maybe millenia.  

But in the last ten years, organizations like Take
Back the Night (a neighborhood and women's
empowerement movement aimed at re-establishing safe
urban environments), the Radical Action Network (which
took part in the demonstrations against the WTO in
Seattle, the IMF and World Bank in D.C., and the party
conventions during the last two presidential
elections) as well as unions, immigrnats' rights
organizations and others, have started to capitalize
on the power of giant puppets as a means of low cost
mass-communication with the public.  

Some, like Wise Fool Puppet Intervention, are puppet
artists specifically dedicated to supporting social
justice movements.  In the Heart of The Beast, a mask
and puppet theater in Minneapolis, uses free public
workshops to enable people to build their own parade
puppets, which they can then use in community events
like the May Day celebration. 

Here in Austin I've taught free art classes at rec
centers for high schoolers who made 15 foot tall
puppets to carry in our First Night procession.  The
kids got to choose, at least in my class, what to
make, and built a rapper and a DJ, which we were told
they would not be allowed to use because they were
"inappropriate."  But the kids got to carry them in
the parade in the end, which I think helped the
project achieve its goal of empowering youth
artistically and culturally.

So anyway, that's one thing puppets are used for in
today's world:  grassroots mass-communication,
community building, self-empowerment of those who
can't afford media campaigns.  Of course it wasn't
long before corporate events began hiring people to
imitate these public displays in sevice of the System,
but that's to be expected.
 
 There's an essay about this very subject at 
www.zeitgeist.net/wfca/radpup.htm

Hope it's of interest to you.

-Connor Hopkins
TroublePuppet Theater Company




TroublePuppet Theater Company
Austin Puppet Society Member
_______________________________________________
List address: puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org
Admin interface: http://lists.driftline.org/listinfo.cgi/puptcrit-driftline.org
Archives: http://www.driftline.org