Everything You Ever Wanted To Know About Puppets

A puppet is a small-scale figure of a human or other living being often constructed with jointed limbs, appropriately painted and costumed, and moved usually on a small stage by a rod or by hand from below or by strings or wires from above. It is usually controlled by an external force and its movement is not inherent but is caused. Puppets are used to entertain in lieu of real people.

The use of puppets has a long history. Greeks were the first ones to use puppets for entertainment. Since Greeks were fond of theatrical presentations, and producing such large shows was rather expensive, puppets were employed to take the place of real actors. Puppets were made to resemble real characters and their movements are caused by manipulating the sticks, wires or strings usually attached to their head, hands, limbs and feet.

Kinds of Puppets

The first kind of puppet is the Marionette puppet which is usually suspended and controlled by a number of strings. Another kind is the hand puppet, which is controlled by one hand that occupies the interior of the puppet. A Ticklebug is a four-legged puppet, similar to a hand puppet but created by drawing features on the hand itself. Black light puppet is a kind of puppet that is operated on a stage lit only with black lighting with both hides the puppeteer and accentuates the colors of the puppet.

Other kinds are the Bunraku which originated from Japan; the Ventriloquist dummy; the Rod puppet which is similar to a marionette; but is operated by a rod rather than strings; the Marotte which is a simplified rod puppet that is just a head and/or body on a stick; a Shadow puppet which is a 2-dimensional rod puppet that operated behind a screen and a light source projected from the rear creates a shadow of the puppet on the screen that can be seen by the audience; the Water Puppetry which is native to Vietnam; the Wayang which is an Indonesian puppet; the Human-Arm Puppet or a Two-Man Puppet which is similar to a hand puppet but is larger and requires two puppeteers; the BuDaiXi which is a Chinese puppet show; the Digital Puppet which is a digitally animated figure; and the Finger Puppet which is small kind that only fits onto a single finger.

Modern puppets are improved by digital innovations and by the mastery of puppeteers. The art of puppetry has been developed and today, puppetry is used to create affordable entertainment for all.