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The bridge is a raised area from which a string puppet (string marionette) or rod marionette is operated. The height of a bridge may vary from a few centimetres to over a metre…
Italian character from the commedia dell’arte classified from the start as the first Zanni and known to have been a puppet since the 18th century…
Stage name of a famous French family of puppeteers. Due to a lack of written records, there is still some doubt about the biography of the first Datelin…
Association founded on April 25, 1925 under the name of the British Model Theatre Guild in London by a group of about fifteen enthusiasts who were in correspondence with author…
Hungarian puppet and set designer. Trained as a musician, she was a member of the Budapest based company Művész Színház (Art Theatre) in 1947-1948. As puppet and set designer at the Állami Bábszínház (State Puppet Theatre) from 1951…
German puppet builder. After the war, Fritz Herbert Bross interrupted his successful career as an engineer to devote himself exclusively to the creation and manufacture of string puppets…
Czech actor and director. Karel Brožek was one of the first graduates of the Puppetry Department (Katedra Loutkářství), Theatre Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts (Divadelní fakulta Akademie múzických umění or DAMU) in 1959…
Czech independent puppet company founded in Cheb (West Bohemia) in 1991. The first production of Buchty a loutky (Cakes and Puppets), Císařovy nové šaty…
Hungarian puppet theatre. The Budapest Bábszínház was founded in 1992 in the capital of Hungary after the dissolving that year of the Állami Bábszínház (State Puppet Theatre)…
Romanian theatre designer. Between 1951 and 1986, Mioara Buescu designed more than seventy shows produced by Țăndarică Puppet Theatre (today, Teatrul de animaţie Ţăndărică)…
Argentine puppeteer. Ariel Bufano met Javier Villafañe as a child, became his student, and followed him on several of his tours. He settled in Buenos Aires in the 1950s and in 1961 teamed up with playwright Sergio De Cecco…
American puppeteer. Remo Bufano’s bold, prolific imagination produced works that gave American puppetry a presence in the world of theatre for adults. In 1897, the Bufano family emigrated from Italy to the United States…
The Republic of Bulgaria (Bulgarian: Република България, Republika Bǎlgarija), a country in south-eastern Europe, is bordered by Romania, Serbia…
British marionette company active in the 19th century. William John Bullock (1832-1882) enjoyed a short but successful career as a marionette show proprietor. It must be that he had enjoyed a far better education than most of his competitors…
Bumba meu boi (also bumba-meu-boi) is a popular folk celebration in Brazil, and may be performed in relation to various festivals during the year…
Strictly speaking, we should call this form ningyō jōruri, that is a play performed by puppets in jōruri style, but from the beginning of the 20th century the name “bunraku” has gradually been used in Japan and internationally to describe this genre…
Japanese troupe founded in Osaka in 1963 to take over the heritage of the Bunraku-za and insure the survival of Bunraku (ningyō jōruri)…
The traditional Japanese theatre of Osaka. Led by the Uemura family, the Bunraku-za (Bunraku Theatre) played, using this or another name, a major role in the survival of ningyō jōruri in the 19th century (see Bunraku / Ningyō Jōruri)…
Polish stage designer, painter, stage and managing director of puppet theatres. Member of Cracow’s Teatr Niezależny Tadeusza Kantora (Tadeusz Kantor Independent Theatre) during World War II…
Japanese puppeteer, one of the greatest in the history of Bunraku (ningyō jōruri). He wrote many libretti under the pen name Yoshida Kanshi…
The Italian word for a glove puppet, which is animated by the insertion of the performer’s hand. The etymology of the term is uncertain: possibly “buratto” (cf…
Canadian puppeteer. Ronnie Burkett works solo. His shows have a diversity and depth that reveal the extent of his range as an actor and playwright…
Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta) is a country in Africa with a strong tradition of masking to which puppetry is related. Dominated by the Mossi people since about the 16th century…
British puppeteer, artist, sculptor. Rod Burnett studied at Falmouth School of Art (1974-1977); he was a Fellow in Sculpture, Exeter College of Art and Design (1979-1980) and a Lecturer in Sculpture (1980-1982)…
The Republic of Burundi (Kirundi: Republika y’Uburundi; French: République du Burundi), located in the Great Lakes region of East Africa, has a population of Twa/Pygmy…
British director, producer and performer. Jan Bussell with his wife Ann Hogarth founded the Hogarth Puppets in 1932.
Jan Bussell’s puppetry apprenticeship was with the London Marionette Theatre under Harry William Whanslaw and Waldo Lanchester (see Lanchester Marionettes)…
Sacred decorative sculptures and puppets originating in Tibet. While the puppets are not as common as they once were, both traditional art forms are still maintained by monks in monasteries across Asia…
German soloist puppeteer known as Der Heidekasper (The Heath Kasper). Walter Büttner performed his first Jahrmarktskasperspiel (Kasper show at a fair/fairground Kasper show) on the stage of his father…
Romanian director. Cătălina Buzoianu made her theatrical debut at the Baia Mare Puppet Theatre in 1956. Her career as a theatre director, working with actors…
The French word cabaret originally meant simply a place where alcoholic drink could be consumed or obtained. Musicians and other entertainers often found that such places provided a context where some money might be earned…
Uruguyuan puppet theatre founded in Montevideo in 1973. Ausonia Conde and Javier Peraza are the two principal puppeteers of the company, with the occasional collaboration of actor-puppeteers Primavera Peraza and Javier Peraza and technician Gilda Rojas…
Uruguayan theatre and puppet company, created in 1976 in Montevideo by the scenographer and craftsman Jorge Hirigoyen. Since its founding, Café Teatro has performed around thirty works within Uruguay as well as at festivals…
American sculptor. Alexander Calder is best known for his “mobiles” and “stabiles”.
His contribution to the art of puppetry is less well known…
Cuban scenographer and puppet designer. The most prominent designer for puppet theatre active in the country today, Zenén Calero Medina was trained at the Escuela Provincial de Artes Plásticas (School of Fine Arts) in Matanzas…
The Kingdom of Cambodia (Khmer: Preăh Réachéanachâk Kâmpŭchéa), formerly known as the Khmer Empire, is located in the southern part of the Indochina Peninsula in South East Asia…
Cuban puppeteers. The sister and brother partnership of Caridad and José Camejo, known respectively as Carucha and Pepe, were pioneers of Cuban puppetry…
The Republic of Cameroon (French: République du Cameroun; German: Republik Kamerun) is a country in the west Central Africa region. Cameroon is home to over 200 different linguistic groups…
Italian puppet family. Among the numerous puppet families of central Italy, the Campogalliani kept alive for longest the theatrical tradition of puppet theatre. The dynasty goes back to Luigi Rimini (1775-1839) and continued up to Ugo and Francesco Campogalliani…
Located in the extreme north of [North America], Canada is bordered to the south by the [United States of America], extends northward to the Arctic Ocean and spans from the Atlantic to the Pacific Oceans…
Canadian museum. This museum, with a collection of Canadian and international puppets, is located in the Hull area of Gatineau, Quebec, on the left bank of the Ottawa River (French: Rivière des Outaouais)…
Dominican puppet company. Established in 1991, Teatro Caquito is directed by Marcos Rodríguez and it is aimed at children. The company has performed in many national and international festivals…
British puppet and mixed media theatre company founded in 1965 in Cardiff by Jane Phillips (b.1936). Twenty years after its foundation, well established as one of the leading companies of Great Britain…
The historical European carnival is a collective celebration, which traditionally involves the parading of effigies, masks and giant puppets, and which sometimes ends with the characters being put to a symbolic death…
American puppet company founded by Stephen and Chris Carter in Seattle, Washington (state), in 1983, with its own Center, including a puppet theatre, museum and library…
Before the introduction of many new materials in the 20th century, wood was, and probably still remains, the main material out of which puppets are carved…
Character from the Italian puppet theatre. Cassandrino was created by the Roman Filippo Teoli in the first half of the 19th century derived from an older “mask” (maschera…
Brazilian woman of letters, researcher of animation art and historian of puppet theatre. As a director of animation plays, Magda Modesto presented many shows, notably A Morta (The Dead One) by Oswald de Andrade…
A technique of fabrication of puppets. A model of the final piece is made by modelling clay or plasticine, by wood, or plastic, or by forming a wire form or by other assembling materials…
Guatemalan puppet theatre company. Founded in 1987 in Guatemala City under the direction of Luis Fernando Juárez, the objective of Grupo Teatral Centauro (Centaur Theatre Group…