From: Jimsan777-AT-aol.com
Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2004 10:01:53 EST
Subject: Re: PUPT: Turkish shadow help


Dear Nancy,
        I have several dozen of the Karagoz Turkish puppets myself.   You can 
find matching leather at Tandy's (Radio Shack) cut out the donut holes and 
sew them in as they were originally made.   The thread used was heavily waxed.   
 You might also try lanolin based leather treatment...check with your shoe 
repair shop to soften the leather rod puppets.   The donut holes for accepting 
the rods were used with candle wax to hold the rods into the holes for 
operating the puppets.   

          I lived in Turkey for over a year while in the Air Force and was 
lucky enough to see a performance by "Kuchuk Ali" the old puppeteer pictured in 
Baird's "Art of the Puppet" book.   After the performance (which was held in 
the German Embassy) he showed me the puppets, and how they were operated.    
The fun of the performance was in the delivery.   His principle character, 
Karagoz would attempt to answer others in the same rhyme and meter as with whomever 
he was conversing.   It would be a sort of musical staccato, like a drum beat 
with the syllables marking the beat.   Karagoz would get confused and have 
too many syllables, or could not repeat correctly, which was very funny for the 
crowd and me knowing only elemetary Turkish at the time.

     I met a current puppeteers at one of the festivals, either in Bugaria, 
Serbia or Holon, Israel....will have to check my notes to remember.   But today 
they are using a kind of clear and colored acetate, only the acetate in less 
brittle for shadow puppets.   The puppeteer was amazed that I had met Kuchuk 
Ali, as it was akin to meeting Tony Sarg in our country. 

         Best regards FWIW, Jim Gamble

     


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