The Revival of Puppetry
The art of puppetry is among the industry that started many years ago. Although with time it has been perceived to have “died” due to competition from other theatre performance, this industry seems to have come back in several ways (Hossen, 2014). The puppetry comeback has been experienced in many parts of the world. Among the places is in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture in Japan where they have worked to restore their cities centuries-old puppetry tradition. However, with its revived version, several aspects of the performance have also died.
Puppetry as a Marketing Tool
This mode of performance unlike the old days where it was generally used for kid’s entertainment, as a form of culture, as well as a form of education, it has recently been introduced for marketing and advertisements. According to Giesen (2018), in several cases, TV adverts have used puppets for product advert and creation of market awareness. Such is among ways in which puppetry has come back in the modern world and has made the entertainment part of the puppetry art fade out.
Puppetry in Film and TV
Another way in which puppetry has found its way back in the current world is in the film industry and TV programs. Unlike the ancient times when theater shows could be organized and people gather around to see the show, with modern advancement in technology such is not possible, as a result, since most people are glued to their screens, puppeteers have had their way through by securing specific TV programs and shows for puppetry (Ferguson, 2015). This is unlike the ancient time with theatre performance considerably dying among the puppetry industry.
Technological Advancements in Puppetry
Also, technology has necessitated animating puppetry (Giesen, 2018). Unlike the old times where people could use dolls for puppetry work, currently, there is the employment of puppetry animation based on media such as film or video (Gambhir, 2016). This has made the use of dolls in the art of puppetry to die completely.
References
Ferguson, J., 2015. Lessons from digital puppetry - updating a design framework for a perceptual user interface. Liverpool: 2015 IEEE International Conference on Computer and Information Technology
Gambhir, R., 2016. Virtual puppetry: real-time gestural control of 3D facial models (Doctoral dissertation). Rochester: Rochester Institute of Technology).
Giesen, R., 2018. Puppetry, puppet animation, and the digital age. London: Routledge.
Hossen, M., 2014. Centre for puppetry (Doctoral dissertation). Dhaka: BRAC University).
