Peduto issued a proclamation Wednesday morning in honor of the Puppetry Guild of Pittsburgh, a puppetry arts organization established in 2016 to “provide an accessible community promoting communication, networking and awareness within the field of puppetry arts,” according to the group’s website.
4 comments:
This semester's buzz word is puppets. I have had almost zero exposure to puppets in the theatrical sense and it has been really cool to see how much the university is incorporating them into their productions for the end of this semester. The only show I had exposure to with puppets was Avenue Q and I think that is really cool that the designers here have been able to incorporate puppets into scripts that did not originally have puppets. It is a great way to add a bunch of new characters, like Arturo Ui plans to do, or to create a character much larger and more monstrous on stage, as in Stumpy Legs. Susan has even basically made puppetry a requirement of Arcade. I thought puppetry was a niche form of art, but perhaps I was wrong, seeing that there is a guild for it here in Pittsburgh. I am glad that the city has chosen to honor this intricate and complicated art form, and I am excited to learn more about, get to work with, and get to see puppets in performances more.
I think it's really cool to see a public representative recognizing puppetry, which is such an interesting but often overlooked art form! I have always been fascinated by puppetry, but this year I've really been able to see its benefits in theater and seen many different forms of puppet making and operation. I've made use of puppets and mask making in playground, and also used some puppet making principles in my design projects throughout the year. To see government in our city not only recognizing, but celebrating this art form is really encouraging to me as a young artist, especially in today's political climate where the arts can sometimes seem so undervalued. Articles like this help remind me that arts are still valued, and more important than ever. I hope to use puppets in our upcoming arcade project, and continuing to see new articles about the practice is inspiring and informative to me in my creative process going forward!
Puppets are so cool. I have always thought it was funny that it is such an old and ancient form of story telling but people – both in the theater and outside world – view it as some type of new “wave.” It’s really great to see more and more as puppets become part of the mainstream, especially in our lives as theater artists since they are able to bring life into an inanimate object. I think some of the best shows have been able to use puppetry to create a whole new character. One of my favorite puppets in this article was the finger puppets made to the likeness of the council. I think that there is a beauty to something so simple yet so meaningful. I love tiny versions of other things so seeing that someone has put the time into painting each finger like each member makes me so happy I almost want to cry. It is just such a cute and thoughtful gesture.
It makes me happy to see puppetry getting more public exposure particularly in Pittsburgh, in fact I didn't even know that there was a puppetry guild in Pittsburgh. One of the reasons we don’t see puppetry as often is because they are ingrained to our culture as they are in other places. For example, I was just in a smaller city in Mexico and it is not uncommon to see puppets as part of weddings and celebrations. I think even though Puppetry is actually quite widespread, as Americans we can feel kind of removed from it because we don’t experience it in the same way as other countries. I also think it comes down to a level of stylistic and cultural differences. I would love see puppetry become more integrated into American theater because it can be such a powerful tool when used effectively, but I also think it is a matter of exposure and education.
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