What is puppetry? What is a puppet?

Puppetry is extremely hard to define. Most professional puppeteers have their own personal ideas, and though they may converge at various points, even we have our arguments over a good definition. Here I’ll try and explain the average concepts.

What is puppetry?

It’s the use of a puppet in a theatrical form (whether it be on TV, in films, on stage or in the street). Puppetry can be combined with other styles of theatre, including dance, ‘normal’ acting, circus, and so on. A performance is generally considered part of the puppetry genre when most, if not all, of the characters are puppets. Puppeteers can be seen or unseen during the performance, it’s entirely dependent upon the style of the show.

Puppet shows can range from children’s performances (with learning themes, as teaching aids, or simply as a way of exploring the imagination), to adult (like ‘normal theatre’) and R-rated or burlesque performances, as well as
comedy and improvisation. They can include any number of storylines, puppet types, themes or ideas.

In today’s multimedia world, puppet shows can also extend to animatronics, which are often used in museum or themepark settings, as well as being on stage or outdoors.

The great thing about creating a puppet show is that it can be limitless in terms of what you do and how you do it!

What is a puppet? 

This is even harder to define. Puppets can be made out of anything, made to do mostly anything, can look like anything, and can challenge one’s perceptions of the very concept of ‘puppet’. Furthermore, whilst there are different puppet types, in reality puppets can cross these definitions. They are more often than not hybrids of one another, and each one can be placed into multiple categories of puppet styles.

With that said, the best description of a puppet I’ve read goes something like this:

A puppet is an inanimate object, animated.

That is, a puppet is anything that doesn’t move on its own, which the puppeteer holds and moves in order to create the belief that the puppet is alive and moving by itself. 

It really is that simple. And yes, that vague. Next time you watch TV and notice a puppet: think about what makes that different to a human acting. Think about what makes it different to another puppet you’ve seen, of a different style to the first. And now try to come up with your own definition: my bet is you’ll come up with something quite similar to what’s written above.

Now you know what a puppet is, you can start learning about the different types of puppetry. More puppetry terms can be found here too.

This post AKA summary of a puppet