Glossary of puppet theatre
The vocabulary of the trade, from manipulation techniques to bench tools. Terms in alphabetical order; foreign traditions appear in their common transliteration.
- Bunraku
- Japanese puppet theatre formalised in the seventeenth century, in which each principal figure is operated by three visible puppeteers, with chanted narration (tayū) and shamisen accompaniment. The modern name of ningyō jōruri.
- Control (control bar)
- The wooden structure, horizontal or upright, to which the puppet's strings are tied and through which the puppeteer commands the figure. It is the puppeteer's instrument in the sense that the bow is the violinist's.
- Dalang
- In Indonesian shadow theatre, the single artist who manipulates every figure, narrates, performs all voices and cues the gamelan orchestra.
- Empanada
- The cloth booth that hides the Brazilian mamulengo performer and serves as a raised stage for the glove puppets. The popular Brazilian equivalent of the European castelet.
- Glove puppet
- A puppet worn like a glove and animated directly by the manipulator's hand, without strings or rods.
- Gouge
- A curved-blade chisel used in carving to remove volume and create hollows. The V-gouge, with an angular profile, cuts lines and fine detail.
- Head strings
- The pair of strings tied at the puppet's temples; they carry most of the weight and control the tilt and turn of the head. The first pair to be installed and adjusted.
- Back string
- The string tied at the upper back or between the shoulders; it sets the posture of the torso and is chiefly responsible for whether the puppet reads as upright or stooped.
- Joint with a stop
- A joint that limits bending to a single direction, preventing, for example, a knee from bending forwards. A small detail, decisive for a believable walk.
- Mamulengo
- The popular glove-puppet theatre of northeastern Brazil, centred in Pernambuco. Improvised over fixed plots, satirical, accompanied by live music. Registered as Brazilian cultural heritage.
- Marionette (string puppet)
- An articulated figure suspended and commanded by strings from a control bar, manipulated from above. It is the form this site mainly deals with.
- Neurospasta
- Ancient Greek term for figures "pulled by strings", used in references by Herodotus, Plato and Aristotle. The oldest written evidence of the device in the Mediterranean world.
- Open manipulation
- The contemporary convention in which the puppeteer stays visible to the audience throughout. Inherited from bunraku and now standard in theatre for adults.
- Opera dei pupi
- Sicilian theatre of armoured puppets, operated by a rigid rod at the head, staging the Carolingian cycles in linked episodes. Recognised by UNESCO as intangible heritage.
- Piyingxi
- Chinese shadow theatre, with finely cut and coloured leather figures projected onto a screen lit from behind.
- Punch and Judy
- The English popular glove-puppet show derived from the Neapolitan Pulcinella, whose earliest known London record dates from May 1662 in Samuel Pepys's diary.
- Breath (manipulation)
- The continuous vertical micro-movement applied to a still puppet to suggest life. The first thing to train and the clearest divide between amateur and performer.
- Rod puppet
- A figure commanded from below by a central rod attached to the body or head, with auxiliary rods for the hands. It allows broad gestures and is common in street theatre.
- Shadow theatre
- A family of techniques in which flat, opaque figures are projected against a lit screen, so that the audience sees the silhouette, not the object.
- Tayū
- The bunraku narrator, responsible for all voices and for the dramatic drive of the text, in a chanted-declaimed style.
- Wayang kulit
- Indonesian shadow theatre with pierced leather figures, intangible heritage of humanity, traditionally performed in night-long sessions with gamelan accompaniment.
Bench tools, in short
For anyone assembling a first kit: a carving knife (short blade, high bevel), a small gouge of 3 to 6 mm, a V-gouge, a back saw, a hand drill or rotary tool with 1–3 mm bits, fine-nose pliers, a long needle for threading strings, sandpaper from 120 to 320 grit and a sharpening stone. Details of use on the technique page.