Hand puppet

A hand puppet (also called a glove puppet) [ Logan, D, "Puppetry", p.15] is a type of puppet that is controlled by the hand or hands that occupies the interior of the puppet. [ Sinclair, A, "The Puppetry Handbook", p.15] Glove puppets are a variation of hand puppets. Rod puppets require one of the puppeteer's hands inside the puppet glove holding a rod which controls the head, and the puppet's body then hangs over most or all of the forearm of the puppeteer, and possibly extends further. Other parts of the puppet may be controlled by different means, e.g., by rods operated by the puppeteer's free hand, or strings or levers pulled from inside the head or body. A smaller variety, simple hand puppets often have no significant manipulable parts at all. Finger puppets are not hand puppets as they are used only on a finger. [ Logan, D, "Puppetry", p.14]

Simple hand puppets

The simplest hand puppets are those with few or no moving parts. They can be stiff, made from e.g. a hard plastic, but are more often flexible, made from fabric, possibly with some stuffing and attached decorations for eyes, nose, and so on. The mouth may be a mere decoration that does not open and close, or the thumb may enter a separate pocket from the rest of the fabric and so simulate a mandible, allowing the puppet to talk.

Simple hand puppets are usually not much larger than the hand itself. A sock puppet is a particularly simple type of hand puppet made from a sock. A glove puppet is slightly more complex, with an internal division for fingers allowing independent manipulation of a character's arms. The uncostumed hand of the puppeteer is usually concealed from the audience to maintain the illusion of the puppet.

Simple hand puppets, especially popular licensed characters, are sometimes distributed as children's toys or party favors. Children usually like to experiment in play with a puppet creating voices and movements and in many cases staging a strictly private performance.

Rod Puppets

A rod puppet is manipulated with wooden or wire rods. [ Sinclair, A, "The Puppetry Handbook, p.15 ] Rod puppets can sometimes have a complete working hinged mouth. Many do not. A rod puppet can have a fixed facial expression. Arms are usually a requirement as rods are attached to them. A fish rod puppet could have a rod attached to the tail to manipulate this section of the puppet. Sometimes special variants exist with additional manipulable parts: (e.g., eyelids that open and close). Many rod puppets depict only the upper half of the character, from the waist up, with the stage covering the missing remainder, but variations sometimes have legs. The legs usually just dangle, but in special cases the legs may be controlled either from behind the stage using rods from below.

Technique

Basic Positioning

As with any stage performer, the puppet should generally face the audience; bum may turn to one side or the other. There are times when a puppet does turn its back to an audience just like an actor. Puppets generally should look out towards an audience and not up at the ceiling unless they wish an audience to follow their line of vision. Generally a hand or glove puppet should talk a lot. [ Sinclair, A, "The Puppetry Handbook", p.15]

Since the puppet stage is normally positioned higher than the seated audience (in order to best hide the puppeteers and allow for the puppet to be the focus of the audience), the puppet should be able to lean forward slightly with its head tilted sometimes down, in order to make eye contact with the audience. A puppet that fails to do this can appear to be staring over the heads of the audience. A puppet that looks at the ceiling sends of the signal that it is not interested in the audience.

Vertically, the puppet should be kept elevated, with its shoulders well above the stage. Ideally, most of the puppet's torso should be kept visible to the audience at all times.

This is to the manner in which the puppet's mouth opens and closes in order to appear to form words or sounds, similar to lip syncing. The puppet's lower jaw (mandible) should open downward, with the upper jaw, which is usually contiguous with the rest of the head, not raising much. This mimics the way the human mouth works. Puppets of course are not human and have all manner of moving their mouths. They can make facial movements no human can possibly attempt.

The basic mainstay of diction for most puppeteers is "syllabic diction", i.e., opening the puppet's mouth once for each syllable, closing it at the end of the syllable. Another common novice mistake is to reverse this, closing the mouth on each syllable, which makes it look as if the puppet is biting off its words; this effect should be carefully avoided.

When the puppet must speak very rapidly, a variant on syllabic diction may be used where some syllables are omitted. It is important to open the puppet's mouth for the first and last syllables as well as all long or emphasized syllables, but most audiences will not notice if some of the unimportant syllables are omitted, provided it happens fairly quickly. As the puppet's speech (or song lyrics) slows down, it becomes more and more important to include every syllable.

More advanced forms of diction are possible. Ultimately the experienced puppeteer will master "phonetic diction", in which the degree to which the puppet's mouth is open at any given point mimics the motion of the human mouth forming the same series of sounds; thus, the mouth will be open wide for a long O vowel, briefly close almost completely when forming a dental stop, and so on and so forth.

Arm Rods

A rod puppet's arms are controlled by the puppeteer's free hand via rods, which attach to the insides of the puppet's wrists in some orderly fashion.

Body Movements

One of the most important techniques in puppetry is continuous motion. A puppet that remains still has a dull, lifeless appearance and is said to be "dead". Motion should shift from one portion of the puppet to another, so that one moment the puppet is moving its head and the next moment shifting its torso or repositioning an arm. The puppet may shift from side to side, look around, lean or straighten, fidget (with part of the stage, its own clothing or hair, or any available object), cross or uncross its arms, sigh, tilt its head, or make any number of other small motions, in order to continue to appear lifelike. A puppet should however not move when another puppet is speaking. To do so confuses an audience as to which particular puppet is speaking at any given time. Maintaining clear focus for an audience in a puppet performance is extremely important.

ee also

* Glove puppetry

References

Books and Articles

*cite book
last = Baird
first = Bil
authorlink = Bil Baird
coauthors =
title = The Art of the Puppet
publisher = Plays
date= 1966
location =
id= ISBN 10 0823800679
*cite book
last = Beaton
first = Mabel
authorlink = Mabel Beaton
coauthors = Les Beaton
title = Marionettes: A Hobby for Everyone
publisher =
date= 1948
location = New York
id=
*cite book
last = Bell
first = John
authorlink = John Bell
coauthors =
title = Shadows: A Modern Puppet History
publisher = Detroit Institute of Art
date= 2000
location = Detroit, USA
id= ISBN 0 89558 156 6
*cite book
last = Binyon
first = Helen
authorlink = Helen Binyon
coauthors =
title = Puppetry Today
publisher = Studio Vista Limited
date= 1966
location = London
id=
*cite book
last = Choe
first = Sang-su
authorlink = Choe Sang-su
coauthors =
title = A Study of the Korean Puppet Play
publisher = The Korean Books Publishing Company Ltd.
date= 1961
location =
id=
*cite book
last = Currell
first = David
authorlink = David Currell
coauthors =
title = An Introduction to Puppets and Puppetmaking
publisher = New Burlington Books, Quintet Publishing Limited
date= 1992
location = London
id= ISBN 1 85348 389 3
*cite book
last = Dubska
first = Alice
authorlink = Alice Dubska
coauthors = Jan Novak, Nina Malikova, Marie Zdenkova
title = Czech Puppet Theatre
publisher = Theatre Institute
date= 2006
location = Prague
id= ISBN 80 7008 199 6
*cite book
last = Dugan
first = E.A.
authorlink = E.A. Dugan
coauthors =
title = Emotions in Motion
publisher = Galerie Amrad
date= 1990
location = Montreal, Canada
id= ISBN 0 9693081 5 9
*cite book
last = Feeney
first = John
authorlink = John Feeney
coauthors =
title = Puppet
publisher = Saudi Aramco World
date= 1999
location =
id=
*cite book
last = Funni
first = Arthur
authorlink = Arthur Funni
coauthors =
title = The Radio Years of Bergen and McCarthy (Thesis)
publisher =
date= 2000
location = The Margaret Herrick Library
id=
*cite book
last = Hayali
first = Mustafa Mutlu
authorlink = Mustafa Mutlu Hayali
coauthors =
title = Tradition Folk The Site
publisher = Theatre Department, Ankara University Faculty of Language, History and Geography
date=
location = Ankara, Turkey
id=
*cite book
last = Latshaw
first = George
authorlink = George Latshaw
coauthors =
title = The Complete Book of Puppetry
publisher = Dover Publications
date= 2000
location = London
id= ISBN 978-048640-952-8
*cite book
last = Lindsay
first = Hilaire
authorlink = Hilaire Lindsay
coauthors =
title = The First Puppet Book
publisher = Ansay Pty Ltd
date= 1976
location = Leichardt, NSW, Australia
id= ISBN 0 909245
*cite book
last = Logan
first = David
authorlink = David Logan
coauthors =
title = Puppetry
publisher = Brisbane Dramatic Arts Company
date= 2007
location = Brisbane, Queensland, Australia
id= ISBN 9780980456301
*cite book
last = Morton, Brenda
first = Brenda
authorlink = Brenda Morton
coauthors =
title = Sleeve Puppets
publisher = Faber and Faber
date= 1978
location = London
id= ISBN 0-571-11145-9
*cite book
last = Robinson
first = Stuart
authorlink = Stuart Robertson
coauthors = Patricia Robertson
title = Exploring Puppetry
publisher = Mills & Boon Limited
date= 1967
location = London
id=
*cite book
last = Sinclair
first = Anita
authorlink = Anita Sinclair
coauthors =
title = The Puppetry Handbook
publisher = Richard Lee Publishing
date= 1995
location = Richmond, Victoria, Australia
id= ISBN 0 646 39063 5
*cite book
last = Suib
first = Leonard
authorlink = Leonard Suib
coauthors = Muriel Broadman
title = Marionettes Onstage!
publisher = Harper & Row, Publishers
date= 1975
location = New York
id= ISBN 0 06 014166 2
*cite news
last =
coauthors =
title = Wayland Flowers Dies: Ventriloquist Was 48
publisher =The New York Times
date =October 12 1988
url =http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DEFD71F3FF931A25753C1A96E948260
accessdate =2006-12-30

External links

* [http://www.puppetrylab.com PuppetryLab] - Advanced puppetry theory and practice tools
* [http://www.hand-puppets.info Hand Puppets] - A variety of links and information about building hand puppets.
* [http://www.101handpuppets.com/ 101 Hand Puppets] - A guide for puppeteers of all ages
* [http://www.puppetools.com Puppetools] - An Online Workshop for Educators Focused on Play Language