Sunday, January 30, 2011

Blog #1

I have had very minimal experiences watching puppet shows. In fact I think the only puppet shows I ever watched were on television, for example Lamb Chops or Sesame Street. Although I never saw the puppets alive, they still had an impact on my four year old life. I even had a Lamb Chop puppet, who stared in many puppet shows of my own. As children, these puppets were enjoyable to say the least.

When I think of puppets as an adult, I associate them with  kids.  I just figured all puppet shows were around just to keep children entertained while learning the alphabet. I soon discovered this is an American view on puppets. In other countries, puppet shows are put on for adults too.

In Theatre History last semester I got my first view of a world puppet show.  It was this video of a Japanese puppet show called Bunraku, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UV938f46Wpg.  The Bunraku puppets are almost life size and have many human like qualities.  I was drawn into how intricate the puppets were.  How they were able to move their eyes and clasp their fists.  It is almost like they are human!  Another thing that made the Bunraku puppets so amazing is that I could understand the story without knowing Japanese.  I was able to do this because the puppets have a personality of their own.  It was easy to tell when the puppets are sad or upset or even happy.  It's incredible how an inanimate object can come alive.

More videos on Bunraku

 
     
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1 comment:

  1. LivyLuv14January 31, 2011 at 10:42 PM

    I completely forgot about these types of puppets. Whenever I think of being able to see the puppeteer, I always cringe. But then I see videos like the ones you posted and I remember how beautiful it is to watch these artists at work.

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