- Puppetry can alleviate stage fright. Not every theatre student wants to perform in front of an audience. Puppetry allows students to perform behind the curtain (or below the stage). The audience focuses on the puppets and voices, rather than the artists moving the puppets.
- Puppetry gives students permission to let their imagination run wild, be ridiculous, and be someone else. When students use puppets that look completely different than themselves, they behave differently. Just like wigs or costume pieces that can transform an actor on stage, puppets can instantly transform a performer.
- Puppetry helps students develop characters. Students will use their puppet as a character guideline and attribute personality traits to the puppet based on the puppet’s physical traits. For example, an alligator puppet may have an obsession for teeth.
- Puppetry helps students explore voice. Just like the personality traits, students will often change their voices when using puppets.
- Puppetry helps students explore movement and improve cognitive function. Puppetry requires physically manipulating the puppet while vocalizing its character. Multitasking challenges the brain and helps students with brain/body connection.
- Students can get a full production experience on a smaller scale. They can create their own puppets, build their own portable sets and stages, develop their own scripts, and perform their own characters.
- Puppetry can help students work as an ensemble. Students can work together to move different parts of a single puppet, improvise scenarios together, and collaborate to tell stories.
- Puppetry can be intergenerational. Puppetry is popular with children and older adults can use puppetry as a way to connect with younger generations. It is an intergenerational activity that is enjoyed by people of all ages. Puppetry serves as a storytelling tradition that reinforces a sense of community while also being a form of entertainment.
- There are many puppetry forms to explore. From found objects, rod, and Muppet-style to bunraku, shadow, and string, introducing puppetry around the world can broaden students’ experiences about other cultures while learning about new art forms.
- Puppetry is fun! Sometimes it’s creepy, but creepy is fun too.
Photo Credit: George Tan,”Display–Puppet Show,” 2019