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Monday, November 10, 2025
Puppets on Stage in November
New York Theater: There are puppets in long-running New York shows like “The Lion King” and “The Little Shop of Horrors,” muppets are making their Broadway debut (albeit briefly) in “Rob Lake Magic with special guests the Muppets.”
5 comments:
Eliana Stevens
said...
I have never been a huge fan of how puppets look onstage; to me, they have always looked too similar to dolls, and dolls are unsettling me. I don’t have anything against puppets. I can understand why some people love puppets; just for me, they don’t sit well with me. Yet after reading this article, it opened my mind to other types of puppets that are not just the most well-known and common puppets, like the ones that are attached by strings. I think one of the only puppets that I really love is the animals from The Lion King on Broadway. I think they are less upsetting to me because they aren’t trying to look human, and to me, they feel more like costumes than puppets. Another puppet that does not look upsetting to me is most plant puppets from Little Shop of Horrors, and as I write this, I really think that the only thing that bothers me about puppets is how they look like humans.
I really love the art of puppet making and puppetry I think its an incredibly cool way of accomplishing a diffrent perspective in a story. I find it deeply fascinating the diffrent ways various shows use these puppets. For example the way how in some shows like the lion king where the characters are puppets: they are large and their puppeteers are part of them, almost like a costume. this is diffrent than some smaller puppets that are separated from their puppeteers. some shows have them as sort of more like props in instances like dolls. I saw one example of a show in this article where they were more like shadow puppets which was very diffrent from some of the other styles. I think there are so many creative uses for puppets and the crafting of each of them combined with how they're used of stage is a wonderful tool of storytelling.
I feel that this article has a very interesting format in the sense that it does not hold the typical structure to inform the reader, but it ends up being just as informative with the series of photos showing these puppets on stage. The article presents a variety of puppets that span a wide variety of appearance and purpose that they serve onstage. This would include certain puppets where the puppeteer is visible and an important part of the performance, adding to the artwork, while others are displayed as the puppets themselves, which give a more sentient feel to the puppets. This article also showcases a wide variety of mediums that I truly appreciate as an artist that is always experimenting with new mediums and techniques. In all honesty this article becomes more of a reference page or that of inspiration for certain puppet projects in the future. Puppetry is truly an underrated form of art, especially for the stage.
I’ve always been amazed with how puppets look on stage. The way they move tends to be so fluid and the way they end up being designed is just so detailed. It truly is really awesome to see puppets being used because in a way, at least the way I see them, they bring a unique factor into a production. From the shows I have seen, I almost never can recall a puppet being used throughout the production. I have only really seen clips of shows where they are being used and I just find them so cool to look at. Part of me wonders what makes some directors decide to use puppets, although I do understand some choices such as in the Lion King and Little Shop of Horrors. Without them, I don’t really think those shows would have gone on as long as they have been going on now.
Oh puppets, your medium is to whimsical your suspension of disbileaf unmatched. The way you always make the audience forget until bows that the puppet itself isn’t the actor. And the beautiful and skilled puppeteers and puppetmakers that it would be impossible without. I love puppets. I’m like those people that always want a show to have a fire effect or deam sequence except I always want a puppet. The style that having a well executed puppet gives you and the total belief of the audience in that will always make a piece better to me. If I see the return and popularization of puppet theater in my lifetime I will be overjoyed. The range of puppet style too is so versatile. The pictures from Sour with Plum are so beautiful it reminds me of the Dark Crystal though I guess puppetry and Jim Henson are tied almost ireperably in the American mind. I think its a matter of loving practical effects, puppets are practicals that act.
5 comments:
I have never been a huge fan of how puppets look onstage; to me, they have always looked too similar to dolls, and dolls are unsettling me. I don’t have anything against puppets. I can understand why some people love puppets; just for me, they don’t sit well with me. Yet after reading this article, it opened my mind to other types of puppets that are not just the most well-known and common puppets, like the ones that are attached by strings. I think one of the only puppets that I really love is the animals from The Lion King on Broadway. I think they are less upsetting to me because they aren’t trying to look human, and to me, they feel more like costumes than puppets. Another puppet that does not look upsetting to me is most plant puppets from Little Shop of Horrors, and as I write this, I really think that the only thing that bothers me about puppets is how they look like humans.
I really love the art of puppet making and puppetry I think its an incredibly cool way of accomplishing a diffrent perspective in a story. I find it deeply fascinating the diffrent ways various shows use these puppets. For example the way how in some shows like the lion king where the characters are puppets: they are large and their puppeteers are part of them, almost like a costume. this is diffrent than some smaller puppets that are separated from their puppeteers. some shows have them as sort of more like props in instances like dolls. I saw one example of a show in this article where they were more like shadow puppets which was very diffrent from some of the other styles. I think there are so many creative uses for puppets and the crafting of each of them combined with how they're used of stage is a wonderful tool of storytelling.
I feel that this article has a very interesting format in the sense that it does not hold the typical structure to inform the reader, but it ends up being just as informative with the series of photos showing these puppets on stage. The article presents a variety of puppets that span a wide variety of appearance and purpose that they serve onstage. This would include certain puppets where the puppeteer is visible and an important part of the performance, adding to the artwork, while others are displayed as the puppets themselves, which give a more sentient feel to the puppets. This article also showcases a wide variety of mediums that I truly appreciate as an artist that is always experimenting with new mediums and techniques. In all honesty this article becomes more of a reference page or that of inspiration for certain puppet projects in the future. Puppetry is truly an underrated form of art, especially for the stage.
I’ve always been amazed with how puppets look on stage. The way they move tends to be so fluid and the way they end up being designed is just so detailed. It truly is really awesome to see puppets being used because in a way, at least the way I see them, they bring a unique factor into a production. From the shows I have seen, I almost never can recall a puppet being used throughout the production. I have only really seen clips of shows where they are being used and I just find them so cool to look at. Part of me wonders what makes some directors decide to use puppets, although I do understand some choices such as in the Lion King and Little Shop of Horrors. Without them, I don’t really think those shows would have gone on as long as they have been going on now.
Oh puppets, your medium is to whimsical your suspension of disbileaf unmatched. The way you always make the audience forget until bows that the puppet itself isn’t the actor. And the beautiful and skilled puppeteers and puppetmakers that it would be impossible without. I love puppets. I’m like those people that always want a show to have a fire effect or deam sequence except I always want a puppet. The style that having a well executed puppet gives you and the total belief of the audience in that will always make a piece better to me. If I see the return and popularization of puppet theater in my lifetime I will be overjoyed. The range of puppet style too is so versatile. The pictures from Sour with Plum are so beautiful it reminds me of the Dark Crystal though I guess puppetry and Jim Henson are tied almost ireperably in the American mind. I think its a matter of loving practical effects, puppets are practicals that act.
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