Puppetry

Puppets date back thousands of years. The first type of puppetry could have been shadow-puppets, mentioned in Greek philosophy.

The most well know puppets would have to be Punch and Judy, that can be seen in the summer time at the sea side or in many puppet theatres dotted around the world.

The three main types of puppetry used on the small screen are marionettes, hand or glove puppets and rod puppets. There are loads of different types of styles but those are used the most.

• Marionette – is a complete figure with moveable limbs, controlled by strings held and controlled by a puppeteer or more then one.

• Hand or Glove Puppet – this design is very simple it is basically a hollow strip of material, in which the puppeteer controlled the head and arms of the puppet by placing the puppet over the hand.

• Rod Puppet – this type of puppet is controlled from below, in which the limbs would operated by stiff rods, rather than from above by strings.

There are lots of different types of puppets not just in Britain there’s puppetry that unique to certain countries like Japanese there’s Bunraku, in which the puppeteers dress all in black and controlling the individual parts.

In Vietnam the only type of puppetry that’s only really seen is called Water puppetry. In which the puppets are made out of wood and by the name is preformed in a waist high pool. The origin of this type of puppetry started life when the rice fields flooded and the villagers would entertain each other by performing puppets above water using a large rod that is supported under water.

You may think that puppetry is mainly used to entertain children but you’ll be wrong through out history, in almost all time periods and civilisations young to old watched puppetry.

By 1947 around 34,000 televisions sets were in use. Many traditional puppeteers welcomed the new technology, having the idea that this new medium could help make puppetry more popular and to reach new audiences.

In 1946 a new star emerged on to the black and white screen, Muffin the Mule. This fifteen minute long children show of a stringed marionette, that danced on top of a piano, whiles the host of the show Annette Mills played the music. The shows revolved around normal everyday situations and cause its great success it ran for 9 years.

There were also many other famous shows with puppets like Watch With Mother, Andy Pandy both aimed at preschool children. All these shows their characters were mute meaning that there was a narrator who would unfold the story.

There were also many other puppets that appeared on the small screen, mostly marionettes, but there’s also a famous hand puppet that out lived most of puppet icons, and that was Sooty. A small mute, orange bear that performed magic. The first time Sooty appeared was on Talent Night in 1952 with his operator Harry Corbett. Not very long after appearing on Talent Night they became a great hit, later he got his own show, entertaining generations of juniors. Not like main puppets of the time, the little bear was very naughty, and often tormented Harry, by squirting his water pistol at him.

Whilst at the same time in the mid fifties, the US audiences were being entertained by the Muppets created by Jim Henson. It was said that the word “Muppets” was a fusion of the words “Puppets” and “Marionettes” which Henson liked the sound of.

The design figures of the Muppets that are seen in all his characters are that they have very wide mouths, large protruding eyes. In many case producing unique parts meant improvising the parts, for example the original Kermit, his eyes where made out of ping-pong balls or fishing floats.

To operate the puppets the puppeteers would hold the puppets above their heads or in front of their bodies and to move the individual parts (e.g. head, arms and legs) they would either uses rods or wear the puppet to operate the mouth and head. After a few years the technology improved, Henson and his team started to use suspended rigs, internal motors, remote radio control and computer enhanced and superimposed images in all their films and television shows.

Frank Oz one of the puppeteers that work for Henson on the Muppets is very famous for working on George Lucas’s Star Wars series as the voice and puppeteer of Jedi Master Yoda. He’s also a long time partner of Jim Henson; they have been almost working from the very beginning of the Muppets and even after Henson’s death in 1990.

The puppets used in the UK at the time were mainly made of hard, relatively inflexible materials whilst the Muppets are more flexible. Now are days the puppetries have been influenced by Jim Henson’s work.

The newest type of puppetry is supermarionation (standing for super marionette animation), invented by British production company AP Films that worked on Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet and many others. “Supermarionation” is a technique where which electronic wires are used to help make the puppets more life like. The head of the puppet contains solenoid motors that create the synchronized mouth movement; they would pre-record dialogue and then transmit the dialogue though a laptop.

Through out history puppetry has appeared in every country either in homes or theatres. Puppeteers from all ages and background perform for entrainment or as a career using a huge range of puppets from glove puppets to technical puppets with string and rods.