Date: Fri, 28 Sep 2007 09:50:23 -0400
From: "Steve Abrams" <sapuppets-AT-gmail.com>
To: puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Table Top Rod Puppet History


A little off subject- but since you asked

First use is always tricky to determine. There is a rod puppet theatre
called Hanneschen established in 1802 in Cologne Germany.

Supposedly Richard Teschner first encountered Javanese rod puppets
while on his honeymoon in Amsterdam. (around 1911)
Back in Vienna Teschner made his own versions of wayang golek.
It is my impression that Teschner influenced Nina Efimova.
I believe her book appeared in Russian in 1925 right around the time
she first starting using rod puppets

She says of her rod puppets with hidden rods "Puppets perform almost
as well on a table as on a stage.' P114 in Luman Coad's reprint of
Adventures of a Russian Puppet Theatre

McPharlin had Efimova's book translated and published in 1935.
McPharlin himself did a little rod puppetry but  it was Marjorie
Batchelder who really gave rod puppets serious consideration. She and
her students built two productions using a hand and rod puppets =96
Columbine's Birthday and St. George and the Dragon" =96 presented at the
1936 Puppetry Conference.  Her best-known rod puppet production was
Maeterlinck's "The Death of Tintagiles."

In the 30s and 40s there was a distinction made between "rod puppets"
and "hand-and-rod" puppets. You don't hear that distinction used much
today.


There are some that reserve the term rod puppet for some thing like a
golek that has a rod in the head as well as the two arm rods


I had always considered the Muppets (especially Kermit) to be rod puppets
because (well duh) his arms are worked by rods.
I was surprised to learn that some  tend to think of them  not as rod
puppets but as  hand puppets with a moving mouth that happen to have
rods controlling the arms

Slight change of subject-

The short rod table top technique gives a lot of control and does sort
of force the operator to be visible- except of course in TV production
What was first called chromakey and then called bluescreen and now
called greenscreen makes it easy to erase the puppeteer from what is
really a table top show. I think this aspect of table top has much
more to do with film technology than with roots in Japan.

There is a glamor and sophistication to claiming a Japanese pedigree
for table top, and  I don't think it is wrong to make that claim but I
like to keep it real. Using a table top is just a very obvious choice
as a way to work puppets and I still think the origin is kids or
adults playing with dollies on a table top- see Baird p 66 double
planchette figures from the 12th century (no rods, but definitely
table top)

Steve


On 9/27/07, Liz Evans <liz-AT-etherboy.com> wrote:
> Steve,
>
> I should have been more specific.  The style that was relayed to me
> as deriving from ningyo joruri, or more specifically from
> Otome-Bunraku utilizing udegane to support the puppet body, was Full
> body three dimensional characters (with move able Head, arms, legs etc)
> used to tell a story. Yes, one to three performers (in view) on a puppet
> with short rods.
>
> Where as a child manipulating a stuffed animal on a table could be
> called table top puppetry, the same could be said of a Japanese
> children holding a stuffed animal off a table and manipulating it,
> "Bunraku puppetry".  I am speaking of professional trained performance.
>
> I will look into the Fetig book, but I was, as you mentioned, under the
> impression that the long rod puppets came from a Java background.
> More input would be great.  Thanks for the tip, I will investigate
> that avenue.
>
> Best,
> Liz
> K. Elizabeth Evans, President & Artistic Director
> Renaissance Artist Puppet Company
> http://www.RenArtPuppetCo.com
> 610-630-4259
> Company performing -AT-
> The Montgomery County Cultural Center
> 208 DeKalb Street, Norristown, PA
>
> Renaissance Artist Puppet Company's
> mission is to promote excellence in puppetry as a
> Theatrical art form and as an Educational tool by incorporating
> historical and cultural diversity along with quality performance
> techniques to tell our stories.
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