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A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object — a puppet— in real time to create the illusion of life. A puppet is a representational figure manipulated by a Puppeteer. The puppeteer may be visible to or hidden from the audience. A puppeteer can operate a puppet indirectly by the use of strings, rods, wires, electronics or directly by his or her own hands placed inside the puppet or holding it externally. Some puppet styles require puppeteers to work together as a team to create a single puppet character.

There are a wide range of styles of puppetry but whatever the style, the puppeteer's role is to manipulate the physical object in such a manner that the audience believes the object is imbued with life. In some instances the persona of the puppeteer is also an important feature.

The relationship between the puppeteer and the puppet-maker is often assumed to be similar to that between an actor and a playwright. An actor, actress, player or thespian (see terminology) is a person who Acts in a Dramatic production and who works A playwright, also known as a dramatist, is a person who writes dramatic literature or Drama. This may be so, but one of the characteristics of puppetry is that very often the puppeteer assumes the joint roles of puppet-maker, director, designer, writer and performer. Puppetry is a form of Theatre or Performance which involves the Manipulation of Puppets. A designer is a person who designs something Perhaps the broadest definition is that provided by Herbert Simon: ‘Everyone designs who devises courses of action aimed at changing A writer is anyone who creates a written work although the word usually designates those who write creatively or professionally as well as those who have written in many different forms The performing arts are those forms of Art which differ from the Plastic arts insofar as the former uses the artist's own Body, Face and presence In this case a puppeteer is a more complete theatre practitioner than is the case within other theatre forms.

"Puppetry is a highly effective and dynamically creative means of exploring the richness of interpersonal communication. By its very nature, puppetry concentrates on the puppet rather than the puppeteer. This provides a safety zone for the puppeteer and allows for exploration of unlimited themes through a safe and non-threatening environment for communication. " [1]

Puppetry is a live medium and this distinguishes it from animation in which animators make a puppet appear to move by using a stop motion film technique in which the puppet is moved tiny fractions between each frame. The bouncing ball animation (below consists of these 6 frames An animator is an Artist who creates multiple images called frames and Key frames that form an illusion of movement called Animation when rapidly displayed Stop motion (or frame-by-frame) animation is an Animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own

Contents

List of notable professional puppeteers

Stage Door Canteen (1943), with puppet Mortimer Snerd. Bruce D Schwartz is an American Puppeteer and sculptor By extension he is also a mimic storyteller and clown Peter Scriven MBE (born 1930-died 1998 was the founding Artistic Director of the Marionette Theatre of Australia. Robert Smigel (born February 7 1960) is an American Humorist, Comedian and Writer known for his Saturday Night Triumph the Insult Comic Dog is a character Puppet performed by Robert Smigel premiering in 1997 on NBC 's Late Larry Smith (born 1938 in Dayton Ohio) is a Puppeteer and producer of children's programming in the Cincinnati area since 1957 Caroll Edwin Spinney, sometimes credited as Carroll Spinney or Ed Spinney (born December 26, 1933) is a Puppeteer most famous for Big Bird is a full-body Muppet, featured on the children's television show Sesame Oscar the Grouch is a Muppet character on the television program Sesame Street. Sesame Street is an American educational Children's television series and a pioneer of the contemporary educational television standard combining John Nicholas Tartaglia (born February 16 1978) is an American Singer, Actor, Dancer, and Puppeteer. Avenue Q is a musical conceived by Robert Lopez and Jeff Marx, who wrote the music and lyrics and directed by Jason Moore. Johnny and the Sprites is a musical television show aimed for preschoolers that airs every weekend on the " Playhouse Disney " program Franklin Burr Tillstrom ( October 13, 1917 in Chicago, Illinois - December 6, 1985 in Palm Springs California Kukla Fran and Ollie was an early Television show using Puppets originally created for children but soon watched by more adults than children Mirsolav Trejtnar, born 5 April 1962 in Rychnov n Kněžnou, Czech Republic, is a master Puppeteer and teacher of Puppetry Winston Tong is a San Francisco -based performer and artist probably best known for his work as a vocalist for Tuxedomoon. The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards bestowed by The Village Voice newspaper to Off-Broadway Theater Jiří Trnka (ˈjɪr̝iː ˈtr̩ŋka ( 24 February 1912, Plzeň - 30 December 1969, Prague) was a Czech Willie Tyler, (born September 8, 1940, in Red Level Alabama) is an American Ventriloquist, Comedian and Actor Eka Vogelnik b 1946, Ljubljana is a Slovene Illustrator, Costume designer, Puppeteer and director. Señor Wences ( April 17, 1896 &ndash April 20, 1999) was a prominent 20th century Ventriloquist whose popularity grew with his frequent Steve Whitmire (born September 24 1959) is a Puppeteer with The Jim Henson Company and Sesame Workshop. Kermit the Frog is a Muppet, one of Puppeteer Jim Henson 's most famous and beloved creations first introduced in 1955 Since 1969 Ernie has been one of the stars of PBS 's long-running children's television show Sesame Street. Paul Finley Zaloom (born 14 December 1951 in Garden City, Long Island) is an American Actor and Puppeteer Stage Door Canteen ( 1943) is a Musical film produced by Sol Lesser Productions and distributed by United Artists.

Puppeteer Ramdas Padhye performing with his Puppet, India

"Chili das Schaf" puppet from German series Chili TV and Berndivent, and its creators Tommy Krappweis and Erik Haffner

Doug Kincaid with "Kincaid Karacter" puppet "Grouchie Gator" on the set of television's "Gator Tales" (1988)

Famous people who dabbled in puppetry

See also

References

  1. ^ Puppetry by David Logan, p. 2
  2. ^ [www. simonbuckley. co. uk/ Homepage of Simon Buckley, puppeteer]

External links

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Dictionary

puppeteer

-noun

  1. A person who uses a puppet.
  2. Figuratively, someone who is manipulative and able to get others to do what they want in a puppet-like manner.
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