NANCY STAUB PUBLICATIONS AWARD 2023

2023 Nancy Staub Awards

BOOKS

Fan Chen’s study of Chen Jinggu, an important goddess in Southeast China and the chief deity of the Lüshan sect, helps readers understand links of female shamanism and beliefs regarding pregnancy and childbirth, detailing how puppetry interfaces. Her clear introduction and play translation provide the Anglophone reader access to a fascinating use of puppetry.

This is among the best insider puppetry memoirs, and one of the only documentations of puppetry scenic design . . . something even less documented than puppetry in general!
The book gives a sense of a lifelong binding together of 20th century social change, social justice and movement linked to puppetry in a dance of life.

This book delves into a moment where church belief and wonderful machines collaborated to remold religious meanings. Fernández takes us inside churches, literary production, and figure mechanics to clarify the inner workings of the Spanish Golden Age.

It’s so clear and precise with gorgeous instructive photos and lovely overall design. The writing is very accessible, thoughtful, clear and engaging. . . .I feel like I could hand this book to someone who wants to start trying hand puppets and they could . . . grow their art on their own.

DISSERTATIONS AND THESES

Her impressive archival research on Catalan theatre, puppetry, and public protest has led to very significant discoveries, and her close, intelligent analysis of puppet and mask performance informs her similarly attentive assessments of an impressively expansive range of public events.

The result of extensive research shared in accessible prose, giving deep insight into this intangible cultural heritage art with deep attention to makers and the challenges they face in the present.” “The dissertation is superbly written and incorporates . . . fieldwork and experiences into [developing] numerous theoretical concepts, . . excellent research on Chinese shadows that deserves a wide audience.

Strauss’ dissertation is on the forefront of scenography and performing object research. In it, she investigates how theatre devising processes are meaningfully shaped when objects, ranging from props to costumes to puppets, are integral to the creative process throughout the rehearsal period.

ARTICLES

Barker looks at the Soviet pedagogy and a Soviet reclamation of Petrushka including in film, books, and stage plays. This gives insight into Russian educational philosophy as well as one model of reclaiming heritage in a transformed social structure.

Cohen’s article on the Angst collection offers discerning perspectives on Walter Angst’s unique and extensive collection of wayang puppets as well as to the diversity of wayang within Indonesia generally. He outlines significant critical issues surrounding collecting, especially within post-colonial contexts.

This article shows Indonesian wayang as a living and changing entity as puppeteers craft their YouTube channels, and persona and virtual viewers, chat and other functions join the mix. We learn strategies that dalang (puppeteers) are using to take advantage of modernity and technological opportunities.

The article gives the history, controversy, and current considerations surrounding the repatriation of African objects from Western museums back to Africa. It looks at these powerful, sacred objects through the lens of puppetry, characterizing the nature of their subject-hood as they are considered either identified with their owners or embodied with spirits. . . . Denyer places crucial contemporary discourses around empowered cultural artifacts, museum objects, and repatriation debates within puppetry studies, clarifying their relationship to the field.

Kwon’s work supports the dissemination and the preservation of the tradition and is a significant resource - a scholarly endeavor of value to artists as well as academics in the field.
The article provides a rare look at the content (particularly the humor) of traditional Korean puppetry.