Bringing History to Life!

In puppetry we often think and talk about how we bring puppets, objects and materials to life; how might we apply this same idea of bringing to life to the many histories of our art form? In this issue, themed “Animating History,” we consider some of the ways puppetry animates history and its history is animated around the world. While the histories of puppetry and material performance are old and culturally deep, documentation in the traditional sense of material remains, i.e. that which is kept and housed in archives, are scattered and not always easy to identify or cross reference. Oral traditions, scant remnants of popular or “low” culture and biases add further layers of complexity to our ability to tease out how we understand our past. What are the histories and whose historical voices have been obscured over time and in archives? What do these tell us about traditional puppetry practices and the people who engage with this art form? How does puppetry reflect on and illuminate the past? What does the past tell us about the present?

This issue offers a range of perspectives on the animation of history: in and as museum exhibitions, scholarly investigations, and personal artist reflection. The curators of “Tony Sarg: Genius at Play,” Stephanie Haboush Plunkett and Lenore D. Miller, look back on their process including the challenges and discoveries they encountered when putting together this multifaceted museum exhibition that celebrates the life work of Sarg. Mary Jo Arnoldi shares a deep dive into the interconnected history of and contemporary relevance of Sogo bò, a Malian puppet masquerade, whereas Jennifer Linn Wilcox takes us to Europe and pre-cinema thrills found in Étienne-Gaspard Robertson immersive magic lantern shows. And finally, Bruce Chessé looks back on over two decades of teaching in remote schools in Alaska from 1976 - 1990. We round out this issue with a compelling Who’s Who about American composer Lou Harrison highlighting his work that featured puppetry and two festival roundups of the 34th Kinosuke’s Marionette Festival in Okayama and the World Puppet festival in Charleville-Mézières by Kay Yagusi and Felice Amato respectively. Publications about puppetry seem to be experiencing a boom; in this issue we cover four books in our printed version—The Theatre Art of Coad Canada Puppets, Object Performance in the Black Atlantic: The United States, Life on a String: The Yale Puppeteers and the Turnabout Theatre and A Turnabout Scrapbook—and one online only review of the third edition of the ebook Underground Railway Theater, Engine of Delight and Social Change. We also continue to grow our accessibility for Spanish speaking readers with online offerings; this issue readers can link to a feature about puppeteer Gary Jones that was originally published in English in our Spring/Summer 2022 issue 51: Offstage.

Our next issue will be themed Women and Puppetry in recognition of our need as a field to recognize our many unsung mothers and twenty years since we last dedicated an issue to them.

— Alissa Mello