File puptcrit/puptcrit.0703, message 218


Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2007 19:01:12 -0700
To: puptcrit-AT-lists.driftline.org
From: Steve Axtell <steve-AT-axtell.com>
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] what are puppets used for in todays world?


Puppets are also used for
Education and Horror films.
ax

At 06:33 PM 3/22/2007, you wrote:
>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
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Steve Axtell
Axtell Expressions, Inc.
****************************************
Amazing Puppet Character's Website - http://www.axtell.com
"AxTelevision" on DVD - http://www.axtelevision.com
International Performer's Directory - http://www.axtell.com/performers.html

The original content of this email or attachments is =A9 Axtell Expressions, Inc.
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