Since the beginning of the 1980s, artists such as Neville Tranter in the Netherlands, Philippe Genty in France, Ilka Schönbein in Germany and Compagnie Mossoux-Bonté in Belgium have developed a new form of performance that I call manipulacting. By interacting with puppets, performers enter the fictional world of the puppets and appear as their Others. This study argues that manipulacting is a new and distinct form of performance. Although manipulacting combines acting and puppetry, it differs from them because it discloses a human being and an object engaged in a relation of self to Other. Manipulacting is defined by this specific relation and not by a particular aesthetic or technique. The methodology of the thesis is framed by Practice-as-Research from a directorial perspective. The enquiry includes four personal research projects – Seaside (2007-08), Postalgia (2008), Urashima Taro (2007-09) and The Maids (2009-10) – that explore the relations between manipulactors and puppets through different dramaturgical and performative settings, interviews with Neville Tranter, Nicole Mossoux and Duda Paiva, and detailed analyses of Cuniculus (2008) by Tranter and Twin Houses (1994) by Mossoux-Bonté. The thesis proposes two areas of new knowledge. Firstly, it suggests a rethinking of the nature of the puppet and an understanding of it by way of its alterity. It discusses the ontological ambiguity of the puppet in manipulacting, by re-functioning phenomenological aspects of thought developed by Sartre in The Imaginary (1940) and 5 Being and Nothingness (1943), and by Levinas in Totality and Infinity (1961). Secondly, the thesis explores the specificity of manipulacting by looking at representations of the Other developed in dramatic and postdramatic performances. It explores the alterity of the puppet in relation to dramaturgical meaning, as well as the production of ambiguity in performance. It concludes by discussing the core dramaturgical and performative elements that constitute manipulacting.

Over the last 20 years, Canadian puppeteer/playwright Ronnie Burkett has garnered an international following for his provocative, text-driven, solo puppet shows. Still, as one of Canada’s foremost theatre artists, he has received very little scholarly recognition for his unique and important work. My thesis seeks to fill this academic void by offering ways to define and explain Ronnie Burkett Theatre of Marionettes as metatheatre. I investigate the ways in which Burkett pushes the use of metatheatrics, inherent to puppetry, to bold extremes in his plays in an attempt to render his audiences receptive to honest, felt emotion and, at other times, to draw attention to the ideas being presented by deconstructing ideologies related to the binaries of creator/created, actor/character and subject/object. I turn my focus to the specificity of Burkett’s medium—the puppet and puppeteer, respectively—and examine his performance texts through the lens of puppet, semiotic and reception theories. Doing so allows me to reveal how the many styles of his “living objects” stage a diametric tension between empathy and detachment, life and non-life, and, as such, how his puppet plays offer adult theatregoers both highly emotionally affecting and thought-provoking experiences unlike any other in the modern (puppet) theatre.

acase@tulane.edu / This thesis focuses on the process and collaborative methodology of design-led, devised theatre to achieve an innovative, visually arresting theatrical show. A devised theatrical production is a non-traditional form in which the performative material is generated in collaboration with the cast, director and designers, without a pre-existing script. This theatrical work entitled Clytemnestra, is based on the Ancient Greek classical plays The Oresteia by Aeschylus. I strove to investigate design-based strategies for devising performance, capturing and exploring the emotional experience of the characters and world. These included Clytemnestra’s experience of loss, longing, love and madness. The aim of this project was to explore the process where costume, puppetry, lighting and scenic design elements initiate the devised process and to investigate the intersectionality of these mediums. The thesis has taken the form of a two-year writing and design process, a twelve-week design build, a six-week rehearsal process, and culminated in a theatrical production that visually and performatively showcased this process in April 2018. / 1 / Hannah Lax

Although there is a growing practice of puppetry in education, there has been no academic research to date on the range of puppet theatre styles and techniques in the museum context. This interdisciplinary thesis seeks to investigate what I call ‘museum puppetry', e.g. puppetry used for pedagogical purposes in museum studies' with a focus on the exchanges, compromises and tensions among museum staff and puppet theatre practitioners. Although the research is conducted mainly from the puppeteers' perspective, the voice of museum experts is also present throughout. The thesis examines puppetry's theoretical and practical frames for creation and how these can be used to conceptualize the applied form of this marginalized medium in the contentious territory of museums today. It also investigates what benefits, challenges and limitations are faced by the two distinct communities of practice (puppeteers and museum staff) in the pre- and post-production of museum puppetry projects. This multiple case-study, qualitative research examines the current work of practitioners who present and perform in museums, mainly in the United Kingdom, United States, Greece and Israel. The data analysis, based on interviews and field work, also aims to investigate the projects' preproduction processes. Furthermore, it explores the negotiations between puppeteers and museum staff around the visual and performance aspects of museum puppetry projects from a technical and aesthetic point of view (construction, narrative, manipulation techniques). The research also suggests that although museum puppetry is currently a marginalized museum practice, its distinct sign system renders it rich in meaningful and soulfull associations, strongly visitor-oriented and remarkably flexible. Commissioning long term museum puppetry projects remains —with a few exceptions— a missed opportunity, due to prejudices and low expectations. Overall, the thesis reclaims the pedagogical, aesthetic value of puppets as ultimate metaphors. It advocates the holistic, eco-friendly aspect of the practice and favours the empathy and thought-provoking gaps it traces. Finally, it attempts to balance constructive, unpredictable learning with significance and fun.

Swimming Upstream is an original work written, directed, and designed by Ilana Marks. The script tells the story of a gay sperm on a journey through the female body. A fully produced workshop performance occurred in the Oscar Brockett Theatre as part of The University Co-op Presents the Cohen New Works Festival. The performance of an excerpt from the script incorporated live actors, puppetry, multimedia, and music, and transformed the audience members into sperm involved in the ultimate game of chance. The purpose of this work was to explore and develop a personal creative process of storytelling. This thesis documents the process that Ilana employed to create Swimming Upstream. She focuses on the incorporation of audience interaction into performance, looking to the work of performance artists, such as Julian Beck and Richard Schechner. In addition, she addresses the variation between the process and the final product, and the factors of the process that cultivated the disparity between the two. / text

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Thesis (MDram)--University of Stellenbosch, 2011. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die verkenning, skepping en oordrag van geslagskodes in toneelpoppe. Die studie ondersoek die gebruik van geslagskodes in die skepping van manlike en vroulike identiteite. Die navorsing word baseer op Judith Butler (1999) se teorieë met betrekking tot geslagsgedrag waarvolgens geslag uit herhaalde gestyleerde aksies bestaan waaruit manlike en vroulike identiteite geskep word. Geslag word dus deur spesifieke geslagskodes weergegee wat in kleding, optrede en kommunikasie gevind word. In die studie word daar gekyk na die drie kenmerkende tekens van kommunikasie wat betrokke is by 'n toneelpop, naamlik ontwerp, beweging en spraak. Verder ondersoek die studie ook die kreatiewe prosesse soos gevind in die verhoogproduksie Cleansed (2009) wat as praktiese verkenning gedoen is om die oordrag van geslagskodes (ontwerp, beweging en spraak) by die toneelpop te illustreer. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study investigates the exploration, creation and transmission of gender codes in puppetry. It investigates the gender codes used to construct masculine and feminine identities; this is done through the exploration of Judith Butler's (1999) theories on gender performativity. According to Butler (1999) gender consists of a stylized repetition of acts and through these socially constructed acts, a gendered self is constructed. Gender is thus communicated through gender codes and these codes are found in the way we dress, act and speak. This study also investigates the semiotics of the puppet, with specific reference to design, movement and speech as significant signs. This study also investigates the creative processes of Cleansed (2009). It is through this process that the gender codes (found in the design, movement and speech of the puppet) are explored, created and ultimately transmitted.

This thesis reflects the history and contemporary changes of Czech and Slovak puppetry and presents Czech and Slovak legislative framework preceding the inscription of the element on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity UNESCO. The practical part analyses the process of preparation and implementation of recognition of traditional puppetry as an intangible cultural heritage in the Czech and Slovak Republics and maps the joint efforts of these countries to inscribe the phenomenon on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. Based on a questionnaire survey among viewers of puppet performances, puppeteers and general public, thesis outlines possible impacts of the eventual inscription of this element at the social, cultural and economic level.

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The thesis is an auto-ethnographic study of the author's journey to use puppetry arts as a mode of personal expression. It documents the process of developing; rehearsing; building puppets, props and stage; and performing a puppet performance. The thesis also includes primary source research obtained from an interview with professional puppeteer, Monica Leo, of Eulenspiegel Puppets. The author also describes and reflects upon her experiences teaching an enrichment course on puppetry arts to elementary students. The research highlights ways that puppetry arts can affect students' learning and reflects on its place within the field of art education.