File spoon-archives/puptcrit.archive/puptcrit_1997/puptcrit.9706, message 5


From: "Mark Levenson" <markl-AT-levenson.com>
Subject: Re: Vietnamese Water Puppets
Date: Sun, 1 Jun 1997 13:09:59 -0700


if you're talking about the design (as opposed to the construction) of the
heads, then there are quite a few books that can help.  The Bil Baird book
The Art of the Puppet has enough of the Cruikshank drawings and other
figures that it can give you a pretty good idea.  It's also possible to
find freestanding publications of the traditional play with those same
drawings (often called "The Tragical Comedy of Comical Tragedy of Punch and
Judy").  Also, the Robert Leach book The Punch and Judy Show (1985 Univ of
Ga. Press)  and George Speight's History of the English Puppet Theatre and
his Punch and Judy (an expanded version of the material in the first book)
have plenty of illustrations.  My first Punch puppets were modeled after
illustrations in an eccentric little book called Punch and Judy: A Play for
Puppets by Ed Emberley (1965, Little Brown) which can sometimes be found in
used bookstores.  I believe the P of A store still sells Sidney De
Hempsey's How to Do Punch and Judy, which illustrates the figures.  

As for construction -- the simplest may be direct-modeled paper mache (you
can even use a commercial paper mache compound like celluclay, with
newspaper balls or balloons for the base).  If you're into soft-sculpture
and sewing, the heads can be made of cloth, although this is less
traditional.  (Carved wood is the tradition, but hardly simple.)

 Mark Levenson
markl-AT-levenson.com
----------
> From: Jen Waldman <k96jw01-AT-cc.kzoo.edu>
> To: puptcrit-AT-jefferson.village.Virginia.EDU
> Subject: Re: Vietnamese Water Puppets
> Date: Sunday, June 01, 1997 9:43 AM
> 
> Thank you for the help on my paper.  I did find the article which John
> Bell mentioned and I found some more information than I originally
> thought I had.  I am done with the paper now.  
> 
> I do have a new question, though-- Who knows how to make simple (and they
> can be crude) Punch and Judy heads?  I have to make simple renditions of
> Punch and Judy for a play and I can do the bodies, but not the heads. 
Any
> info would help.
> Thanks,
> Jen
> 
>
****************************************************************************
***
> If you have no voice, scream;
> If you have no legs, run;
> If you have no hope, invent
>
****************************************************************************
***
> 
> 
> On Sun, 1 Jun 1997, John Bell wrote:
> 
> > There is an article on Vietnamese Water Puppets by Tran Van Khe in the
> > journal _Asian Art and Culture_.  I don't have the exact date,
> > unfortunately, but I believe it is 1994 or 1995.  
> > 
> > John Bell
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
> >   --- Personal replies to: John Bell <bellj-AT-is3.nyu.edu>
> >   --- List replies to:     puptcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> >   --- Admin commands to:   majordomo-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
> > 
> 
> 
> 
>   --- Personal replies to: Jen Waldman <k96jw01-AT-cc.kzoo.edu>
>   --- List replies to:     puptcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>   --- Admin commands to:   majordomo-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu


  --- Personal replies to: "Mark Levenson" <markl-AT-levenson.com>
  --- List replies to:     puptcrit-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
  --- Admin commands to:   majordomo-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu

   

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