What is object manipulation?

Object manipulation is really hard to define. Why? Because they are composed of materials ‘found’ on the street, in your house, etc. This is also why the style is often known as ‘found puppets’.

For example, if you go into your kitchen, you will find all sorts of utensils that make great puppets; a pair of tongs make for wonderful jaws of a crocodile… shopping bags also create wonderfully abstract underwater creatures!

A pair of tongs makes a great object to manipulate: I’ve added some eyes to give it character.

Object manipulation is pretty much what it sounds like: taking normal, everyday objects, and manipulating them as puppets onstage - taking an object, or range of objects, and using them in different and new ways. It’s a very cheap way to create a puppet, as well as a good excercise for drama classes and young children; it allows the creator to invent and play with a range of items already in use in day-to-day life. An excellent example is Los Titiriteros de Benéfar’s El Hombre Cigüeña (The Stork Man). They used all sorts of recycled items to perform their show - plastic bottles, children’s toys, cardboard, and more.

Object manipulation is also probably the only type of puppetry that can be created without spending any money: if you go scavenging when people put out hard rubbish on their lawns, you’ll find some old things that can be re-used. Not keen on picking up other people’s trash? Then take a look at some of the things you throw away. That newspaper you’re going to recycle can be used as a puppet; so can that empty cereal box. Toilet rolls make great armss for glove puppets! A great example is Stacey Gordon’s "Upcycle Puppet Project," in which she scavenged a range of items from the trash and turned it into a fabulous muppet-type female puppet.

Object manipulation - in my opinion - can also include other ready-made items not normally considered puppets. My tutorial on marionettes, for example, uses a teddy bear [link to be added], and my show City Head used Lego figurines. Any number of things can be reconfigured, modified, added or rearranged, in order to make a fascinating and exciting puppet.

Additionally, because these puppets can be made out of anything, and in any way you wish, it means that any number of sizes, shapes, and designs can be invented. It also means you are not limited as much by budget, size of venue, whether or not you’ll be performing outdoors, or issues of staging, script or blocking. While I don’t know of many puppet companies or performers who regularly use object manipulation, there are a few out there. The fun of it is the diversity of ideas, visual elements, and pure creativity, that goes into their design.