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Puppet: An Essay on Uncanny Life

by Kenneth Gross

“This element of transformation in puppet theatre, as Chaplin’s scene suggests, is tied in turn to a kind of poverty, or an act of impoverishment. It is a poor theatre, for all its riches. You bring out that puppet ballerina in the absence of a real one; you starve yourself for a moment of the nourishment of bread.”

Note:

I’ve been slowly making my way through this book on and off this year. And have really enjoyed pausing and reflecting on my own processes as i work on various puppetry projects. Perhaps this can be a place where I can share ideas, inspirations in the realm of puppetry and art.

contact:

[email protected]

#puppetry #uncanny #charlie chaplin #the gold rush

Meet the Feebles (1989)

Directed by Peter Jackson

I can't believe it took me so long to watch this. Simply amazing!

#Meet the Feebles (1989)#Directed by Peter Jackson #puppets #Youtube

uwmspeccoll

✨👑Fairytale Friday👑✨

No Damsels in Distress Detected

Petronella watches her brothers ride off into the world to seek their fortunes and basically says…cute. My turn.

This week, we’ve got Petronella, written by Jay Williams and illustrated by Friso Henstra, published in New York by Parents' Magazine Press in 1974. The premise? A princess sets out to find a prince, not to marry, not to admire, but to rescue. What follows is a playful twist on familiar fairytale patterns, where expectations are turned on their head and the “hero’s journey” looks a little different than usual. Which, frankly, feels like the upgrade fairytales have been waiting for.

Jay Williams (1914-1978) had a long and varied writing career, moving between historical fiction, fantasy, and children’s literature. He co-created the Danny Dunn science fiction series, but in his fairy tales, you see a more mischievous side, playful, slightly subversive, and clearly interested in what happens when you nudge traditional story roles just slightly out of place.

Friso Henstra (1928-2013) was a Dutch-born illustrator who worked internationally, bringing a distinctive, expressive style to children’s books in the mid-20th century. His characters stretch, stride, and gesture like they’ve got places to be, Petronella especially, who looks far more interested in getting things done than posing prettily in a tower somewhere. There’s also something delightfully offbeat about the style; it has that slightly surreal, exaggerated quality that feels a bit like Yellow Submarine or even a touch of Monty Python's Flying Circus, a little absurd, and completely unconcerned with behaving properly.

Honestly? We love a girl who doesn’t wait for the plot to happen to her.

--Melissa (forever rooting for the girls who grab the story by the reins and keep going), Distinctive Collections Library Assistant

-View previous Fairytale Friday posts

--View more from our Historical Curriculum Collection

uwmspeccoll

Poetry, Memory, and the Charge of the Light Brigade

Some historical events become famous not because they changed history, but because poetry and art transformed them into cultural memory. The Charge of the Light Brigade is one such example.

The charge took place during the Battle of Balaklava on October 25, 1854, in the Crimean War. Due to a misunderstood order from the British commander Lord Raglan, the Light Brigade cavalry—led by Lord Cardigan—advanced directly toward well-positioned Russian artillery. The attack, meant to prevent Russians from removing captured guns, became a disastrous frontal assault under heavy fire. Although the cavalry briefly reached the battery, they suffered severe losses and were forced to retreat. Militarily, the battle was largely indecisive: the Russians failed to capture the Allied port of Balaklava but gained control of an important supply road.

The event might have remained a minor episode of the war if not for Alfred, Lord Tennyson’s poem “The Charge of the Light Brigade,” published only six weeks later in 1854. Tennyson transformed the confused and tragic attack into a powerful symbol of courage and obedience in the face of certain death. His famous lines— “Theirs not to reason why, / Theirs but to do and die”—immortalized the soldiers’ bravery and fixed the event in British cultural memory.

This 1964 edition published by Golden Press (New York) and Paul Hamlyn (London) was illustrated by the celebrated American artists Alice and Martin Provensen, a husband-and-wife team who collaborated on more than forty children’s books. Their dynamic illustrations capture the dramatic movement of cavalry, the chaos of battle, and the heroic imagery that Tennyson’s poem helped create. The Provensens were widely recognized for their work, appearing nine times on the New York Times list of “Ten Best Illustrated Books” and later receiving honors from the Society of Illustrators and the Brooklyn Museum.

The story of the Light Brigade demonstrates how art and literature can shape historical memory. A confused military charge in a distant Crimean valley became one of the most famous episodes of the Crimean War—not because of its strategic importance, but because a poem turned it into legend.

-- Kate, Special Collections Graduate Art History Fieldworker

danskjavlarna

Source details and larger version.

Some strange and unusual vintage diagrams.

fallbabylon

Devils and Grim Reaper Puppets at the Marionette Museum - Libson, Portugal

Almighty Opp, a musical puppet show that has had an on-again, off-again presence on a Koreatown street corner for the past 25 years, is back

Almighty Opp

puppet heroes

#puppetry #almighty opp

uwmspeccoll

✨ 🎩 Fairytale Friday 🎩✨

Hats off...Or Not?

Earlier this week marked Dr. Seuss Day, celebrated each year on March 2nd in honor of Dr. Seuss's birthday. While many readers know him for playful rhymes and mischievous cats, one of his earlier stories presents a different kind of fairytale predicament.

This week’s tale is The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins, written and illustrated by Dr. Seuss and published in New York by The Vanguard Press in 1938.

At first, Bartholomew Cubbins has just one hat. That seems perfectly reasonable until he enters the presence of the king. When ordered to remove it, Bartholomew obeys… only to discover that another hat instantly appears on his head. Off comes that one, only for yet another to take its place. Again and again, the poor boy tries to follow the royal command, but the hats keep coming, piling higher and higher, while the king’s patience grows thinner by the minute.

Like many classic fairy tales, the story unfolds in a kingdom filled with royal decrees, bewildering magic, and a humble protagonist caught in circumstances beyond his control. With each new hat, the absurdity builds, turning a simple act of politeness into an escalating spectacle, proof that even the smallest problems can grow into the most fantastically complicated adventures.

Published in 1938, this early work shows Dr. Seuss experimenting with storytelling before the rhyming style that later made him famous. Instead, The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins reads almost like a medieval folktale, complete with a stubborn king, a bewildered boy, and a bit of inexplicable magic that refuses to cooperate with royal authority.

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991), born Theodor Seuss Geisel in Springfield, Massachusetts, became one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century children’s literature. Before becoming a household name, he worked as a cartoonist and illustrator for magazines such as Life and Vanity Fair, and he produced political cartoons during World War II.

Over the course of his career, he wrote and illustrated more than sixty books, many of which reshaped how children learned to read through playful language, imaginative worlds, and a healthy dose of mischief. Beneath the humor, his stories often carried thoughtful messages about creativity, fairness, environmental responsibility, and the importance of thinking for oneself. Decades later, his books remain beloved classics that continue to delight new generations of readers.

-Melissa (who suspects some hats have minds of their own), Distinctive Collections Library Assistant

-View another Bartholomew Cubbins post

--View previous Fairytale Friday posts

---View more from our Historical Curriculum Collection

Puppet Theater in the Digital Age ǀ #TaiwanPlus #DiscoveryChannel

In a digital age, is there still room for tradition? Discover how puppeteers and puppet theater media companies in Taiwan modernize Taiwanese puppet theater shows for the digital age. In this episode of Master Class, discover more about how traditional puppet theater from China successfully integrated into the Taiwanese audiovisual landscape and how puppet troupes and puppet theater studios are developing shows for modern tastes. Golden Ray Puppet Theater has roots in traditional Taiwanese temple fairs. See how this theater troupe brings shows to a new audience through a combination of old puppeteering mastery and spectacular modern staging techniques. Through an apprenticeship with a master of traditional Taiwanese puppet theater, these troupes and others aim to keep the traditional spirit alive for new audiences. Another way traditional glove puppets join the new era is through the development of major glove puppet theater studios. In the 1960s⁠–’70s, glove puppet theater became televised and the spectacular style of puppet theater was born. Follow the groundbreaking collaboration between traditional puppet masters, the Huang family, and Pili International Media. From TV to a multimedia empire, discover how today’s viewers can get a closer look at one of Taiwan’s most well-loved traditions.

0:00 Intro

0:58 Origins of Taiwanese Puppetry & Golden Ray Puppet Theater

3:34 The Master Puppeteer

5:14 Taiyuan Asian Puppet Theater Museum Former Director Interview 6:03 Puppeteer Apprenticeship

8:34 Televised Glove Puppet Theater

9:26 Behind the Scenes at Pili International

12:19 From Theater Stage to TV Set

15:07 A Multifaceted Art Form

18:24 Examination Day for Apprentice Puppeteers

#Puppet Theater in the Digital Age #puppetry #Taiyuan Asian Puppet Theater #Youtube

Chinese puppetry (also known as puppet theatre) is performed in various Chinese dialects, depending on the region it originated from. Traditionally, puppet performances are staged mainly for deities. In recent times, secular shows are increasingly staged for general public. Practitioners share on the five main types of Chinese puppets found in Singapore: Hainanese rod puppets, Teochew iron-stick puppets, Hokkien string puppets, Hokkien glove puppets and Henghua string puppets.

#Chinese puppetry #Youtube

Resurrecting Dead Fairy Tales: A Jack Zipes Lecture

(text via YouTube)

RESURRECTING DEAD FAIRY TALES A Jack Zipes Lecture Renown academic, writer, playwright, activist Jack Zipes breathes new life into long-forgotten anti-fascist fairy tales. Directed by Elaine Carol With the goal of, as he describes it “unburying and reinvigorating dead fairy tales and their creators”, internationally recognized expert on folklore and fairy tales Jack Zipes gave an online lecture on February 17, 2021, discussing his recent work exploring important tales from the first half of the twentieth century, and his founding of his own publishing house, Little Mole and Honey Bear to bring back in print works from the 1940s that have been neglected in favour of flashier commercial products, breathing life into older fairy tales that deliver messages important to our times. For example, in Yussuf the Ostrich well-known political caricaturist Emery Kelen tells the tale of a young ostrich who helps defeat the Nazis in northern Africa during World War II. In Keedle, the Great, first published in 1940, Deirdre and William Conselman Jr. sought to give Americans hope that the world can overcome fascist dictatorships. To the authors, the title character Keedle represented more than Hitler, but all dictators then and now. In discussing these works, Zipes introduced participating children and youth to what they might be missing by not being taught about certain periods of history, such as the early rise of fascism at the beginning of the twentieth century. As Zipes states on his publishing firm’s website: “History is doomed to repeat itself. We must preserve the things that make us human, and stand up to forces that would tear our society apart”. The lecture, filmed at the sumptuous Victorian Upson Room at the Walter Library at the University of Minneapolis in late October of 2020, directed by Elaine Carol in collaboration with a professional crew, was broadcast as a Facebook Watch event in February 2021. Facebook took down the post and since Jack and MISCELLANEOUS Productions want to keep this work free and accessible, we have downloaded it to YouTube.

#youtube #Jack Zipes

todaysdocument

Drawing of Aquatic Toy

Record Group 241: Records of the Patent and Trademark OfficeSeries: Utility Patent Drawings

Puppet head: Puppet building has been a slow process, as I am working with available materials, (cheap) such as paper mache. I have been starting out with the head and have found that it sort of dictates how rest of the puppet will (body) be built.

#puppets