Bruce the Chef

By: Susan Jan

Kids love to play with puppets as it allows them to set free their
creative imagination. Puppets can bring great joy not only to kids, but
also to adults, all over the world.

Puppets were first introduced to the world of entertainment thousands
of years ago. It originated from Greece as the Greeks then were known
to be fond of theatrical presentations. Though they enjoyed theater,
they found supporting the actors financially rather expensive, so that
they turned to the use of puppets in plays. They soon discovered that
puppets were just as able as actors to elicit positive response from
the audience, so they continued to patronize the use of puppets in
puppet shows and presentations, and soon stage puppet shows became many
people’s favorite past time.

Today, puppets and puppet shows have come far from their humble
beginnings and still continue to be popular. Many puppets are patterned
after animals such as frogs, elephants and birds. Every puppet used on
stage has a distinct characteristic and personality. The differing
personality is expressed not only by the puppet’s design but also by
its individual body movements as expressed by the puppeteer’s hand
movement.

Puppet performing it is not as easy as you think. It requires thorough
and consistent practice before you can become an expert. A puppeteer
needs to study different techniques such as the basic positioning,
diction, arm rods and body movements.

The most common type of hand puppets is the simple hand puppet and the
larger hand puppet. Each of the puppets has their distinct usage in
puppet shows.

The simple hand puppets have few or no moving parts at all. They are
usually made up of flexible materials and have distinct facial features
such as eyes and nose. The mouth is often included on the simple hand
puppets but it is usually there just for design purposes. It does not
even open or close unless a thumb enters a pocket allowing it to move.

Larger hand puppets are more complex. Other than obviously being bigger
in size than the simple hand puppets, they have additional
manipulatable parts such as the eyelids and hinged mouth and arms.

Aside from providing amusement and fun, puppets nowadays have taken a
political turn and are also used in thinly veiled political caricatures
and satire. These political puppets are often modeled on known
political personalities and are often depicted in the characters’ usual
political setting.

Whatever the size or the design, puppets and puppet shows today still
provide wonderful entertainment to many people of all ages.

About the Author:

For more on Puppets visit Susan’s sites Puppet Show and Puppet Theater, and also at Shopping and Society.

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