I Love Puppetry by Nevan Scott

Basil Twist Makes the TONY 40

Puppeteer Basil Twist is on Time Out New York’s short list The New York 40. From his interview:

It seems like in every issue of TONY there are at least three or four puppet productions somewhere in town. Do you feel like the puppet culture is growing?
Basil Twist: I came here when they were talking about a puppet renaissance, so it’s always been that way. It’s such an ancient old-world form, but we love that it’s still around, and we need it even more as we get more digital and disconnected from each other. It’s a primitive form of magic that people are perhaps more thirsty for.

Many puppet shows in New York take on surprisingly dark material—a long way from Punch and Judy or The Muppet Show.
Basil Twist: Puppetry is about life and death. It’s about things being alive or not—in the ancient, primitive sense of animism, where you actually believe everything has a soul. It goes back to when we were cavemen, and it speaks to things that you imagined in the flickering of the firelight. It’s really heavy. Children have access to that: They’re open to part of their souls that adults have frequently closed their minds to.

Rajasthani Puppets

Rajasthani puppets:

Jaipur, India: I had the pleasure of watching a puppet show at my hotel, the Raj Palace, during my evening there. l loved their costumes - try looking at it large.

These puppets are string marionettes and were controlled by the head puppeteer. He used a device made of bamboo reed in order to make the shrill voices of the puppets. Another man played a form of bongo drum to go along with the story being told.

There’s also a great Flickr group called Puppets of Rajasthan started by illustrator Celeste Goulding:

The puppets of Rajasthan, India. Locally called Kathputli - the colourful string puppets of Rajasthan are made of wood and cloth. The head of the puppets are carved out of wood and coloured according to characters they depict in the episodes. Strings are attached to the head for manipulation. The faces are usually painted yellow, white or any light colour. The body, up to the waist and hands, is made of stuffed rags, cotton or cloth bits. The hands have no joints unlike the other string puppets of India. The absence of legs are not noticed due the long trailing skirt made of colorful cloth.

I’ve read that Kathputli translates literally to “wooden dolls,” so it is no surprise that most of these puppets look like strung-up Indian dolls. It’s interesting that the bodies are generally made up of bundled fabric, as this wouldn’t lend much weight to the puppet for manipulation. Some that I have seen pictures of are more articulate than these Rajasthani marionettes, requiring more strings for manipulation. The simplest I have seen seem to be nothing more than a doll suspended by a single string affixed to the top of the head.

Puppet India

Puppet India is a great resource for information about Indian puppetry, including Kathputli, Indian string marionettes.