From: "Mark S. Segal" <segalpuppets-AT-comcast.net>
To: <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org>
Date: Sat, 13 Feb 2010 15:20:04 -0500
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Resident Puppet Theatres


I always liked (and use) the words Puppet Theatre.....
Theatre is the operative word there I think and puppetry is a description.

Mark S.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Hobey Ford" <hobeyone-AT-gmail.com>
To: <puptcrit-AT-puptcrit.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 13, 2010 7:55 AM
Subject: Re: [Puptcrit] Resident Puppet Theatres


> After the last couple of rounds of US elections I have thought alot about
> words and their meanings and reality as described by the various
> paricipants.  In the process I began to become quite sensitive to
> advertizing.  I began an experiment to look at all ads and promotion with
> the idea that they are mistruths or out and out lies.  Once I made the 
> shift
> it seemed that every last ad was a lie in some significant way.  We all 
> see
> reality differently and yet at the core of it "a rose is a rose".
>
> Puppetry has at its heart this very issue.  We pursuade the audience to
> believe in  a proxy of reality.  We were the shaman in the cave convincing
> our fellows that some fur and bones could come alive.  There is power in
> this act.  Perhaps the reason puppetry holds on to this baggage of being
> slightly mistrusted is that at its core it is a deception.  Now a host of
> other arts and media have gotten into the act.  The supreme use of the
> deception is politics where there actually is power and even in that arena
> the word "puppet" has come along for the ride.   I don't think we will 
> ever
> shake it at some level. The word carries so much baggage.  "Marionette"
> doesn't seem to have the problem.  "Shadow puppet" comes right out and 
> makes
> it even more sinister.  Of course rational human beings recognize that 
> these
> are words.  The public seems eager to see a puppet show, but I imagine 
> they
> must first decide "OK, which kind of puppetry is this going to be, 
> because
> it can be so many things to different people.  So we have to use some
> language to make it clear what we do.  Are we for adults? are we for the
> teenie tinies,, are we a bible show at church are we presenting purely
> entertainment or selling or teaching a message.  We all groan when we read
> what the press has written to describe what we do as they earnestly try to
> help us "sell "  our event.  In school we were taught to write with
> clarity.  Keep it simple and straight forward.  Adverbs and adjectives are
> essentially advertisments and thus "spinners of truth."  (puppetry by the
> way is the verb)  This why it bothers me to spread the umbrella of the 
> word
> too far.  It is already doing a lot of work and it  is hard enough now to
> sort it all out as it stands.  If we want to enlighten the world about
> puppetry of course the proof will be in the pudding, but to lure the
> audience to the table we must use words.  We all have to maneuver around 
> the
> the word "puppet" because it has so many connotations. "She who will not 
> be
> named" ;o)  avoids the word preferring "theater artist".  Jim Henson opted
> for a new word, "muppet".  I like the word puppet. I am not ready to 
> abandon
> the word or give it away to other artforms, they have there own words to
> describe what they do.  I know that it is misunderstood so I use it as 
> often
> as possible to associate it with what I do because I believe I will be an
> advocate if people like what they see.  They will say "I saw a great 
> puppet
> show today" and we will chip away at the odd connotations of the word
> puppet..
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