Puppetry

Puppetry is a form of theatre or performance in which puppets are used to tell a story or act out a drama.

Read more definitions of puppetry.

The Puppet Studio has information about how to make puppets and the different types of puppets.

The historical development of puppetry shows how human societies have used puppets for entertainment, rituals and learning throughout the ages.

… shadow plays were prevalent in the East, at least by 200 BC — probably originating in India — then the later appearance of rod and glove puppets in our era AD followed out of this puppetry form. Source: The Puppetry Homepage.

Find more ideas and resources in ‘Puppetry’ at the International Theatre website.

Using puppets in the classroom enables students to adopt a new persona, expressing ideas freely and confidently. The Creativity Institute website shows how puppets enable students to enter and explore a fascinating world.

Find more ideas about using puppets in primary and secondary classrooms, at the Puppets in Education website.

Find out how to build puppets and puppet sets in Building puppets, Sage website.

Youth theatre has ideas for play production. See also Sites2See: Scriptwriting to gain help with writing playscripts for puppet shows.

The award-winning Artsedge website helps students to make their own shadow puppet play (image left). Try ‘Lets make a sock puppet’ from the Curriculum Corporation.

Puppet stories are often based on fairy tales. Modern puppetry adds a new twist or combines traditional puppetry with contemporary styles and motifs. See examples in Cinderella and Helena and the Journey of the Hello in the Sydney Opera House, House:ED program (.pdf 4.41 MB).

Find ideas on using traditional fairy tale elements with strong, smart girls as the heroes at Rosemary Lake’s website. Read about innovative digital puppetry at the Terrapin puppet theatre website.