The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance offers a
wide-ranging
perspective on how scholars and artists are currently re-evaluating the
theoretical, historical,
and theatrical significance of performance that embraces the agency of
inanimate objects.
This book proposes a collaborative, responsive model for broader
artistic engagement in and
with the material world. Its 28 chapters aim to advance the study of the
puppet not only as a
theatrical object but also as a vibrant artistic and scholarly
discipline.
This Companion looks at puppetry and material performance from six
perspectives: theoretical
approaches to the puppet, perspectives from practitioners, revisiting
history, negotiating tradition,
material performances in contemporary theatre, and hybrid forms. Its
wide range of topics, which
span 15 countries over five continents, encompasses:
- visual dramaturgy
- theatrical juxtapositions of robots and humans
- contemporary transformations of Indonesian wayang kulit
- Japanese ritual body substitutes
- recent European productions featuring toys, clay, and food.
The book features newly commissioned essays by leading scholars such as
Matthew Isaac
Cohen, Kathy Foley, Jane Marie Law, Eleanor Margolies, Cody Poulton, and
Jane Taylor.
It also celebrates the vital link between puppetry as a discipline and
as a creative practice
with chapters by active practitioners, including Handspring Puppet
Company's Basil Jones,
Redmoon's Jim Lasko, and Bread and Puppet's Peter Schumann. Fully
illustrated with more
than 60 images, this volume comprises the most expansive
English-language collection of
international puppetry scholarship to date.
