TSD RAMMPS: List of puppetry

"A puppet is an inanimate object or representational figure animated or manipulated by a puppeteer. It is usually (but by no means always) a depiction of a human character"

Black light puppet:
A form of puppetizing where the puppets are operated on a stage lit only with ultraviolet lighting, which both hides the puppeteer and accentuates the colours of the puppet. The puppeteers perform dressed in black against a black background, with the background and costume normally made of black velvet. The puppeteers manipulate the puppets into the light, while they position themselves unseen against the black unlit background. Controlling what the audience sees is a major responsibility of any puppeteer, and blacklight lighting provides a new way of accomplishing this. Puppets of all sizes and types are able to be used, and glow in a powerful and magical way. The original concept of this form of puppetry can be traced to Bunraku puppetry.
Bunraku puppet: Bunraku puppets are a type of wood-carved puppet originally made to stand out through torch illumination. Developed in Japan over a thousand years ago and formalised and combined with shamisen music at the end of the 16th century, the puppeteers dress to remain neutral against a black background, although their presence as kind of 'shadow' figures adds a mysterious power to the puppet. Bunraku traditionally uses three puppeteers to operate a puppet that is close to half life-size. In Europe and the Americas, the term "Bunraku" is often used among puppeteers to describe puppets that are manipulated in a way similar to those in traditional Japanese Bunraku theater, in contrast to hand puppets, rod puppets, shadow puppets, or marionettes. The characteristics of Western "bunraku" usually include multiple, visible puppeteers who manipulate the puppet directly. Other elements emulating traditional Bunraku theater may be present. The use of the term concerns some purists, but Western puppeteers have found the word useful to describe a style of puppetry that was inspired by the Japanese tradition for which no succinct English term exists.
Finger puppet: An extremely simple puppet variant which fits onto a single finger. Finger puppets normally have no moving parts, and consist primarily of a hollow cylinder shape to cover the finger. This form of puppet has limited application, and is used mainly in pre-schools or kindergartens for storytelling with young children
Hand or glove puppet :These are puppets controlled by one hand which occupies the interior of the puppet. Punch and Judy puppets are familiar examples of hand puppets. Larger varieties of hand puppets place the puppeteer's hand in just the puppet's head, controlling the mouth and head, and the puppet's body then hangs over the entire arm. Other parts of the puppet (mainly arms, but special variants exist with eyelids which can be manipulated; the mouth may also open and close) are usually not much larger than the hand itself. A sock puppet is a particularly simple type of hand puppet made from a sock. These puppets, although limited in gesture to movement of one's hand, are ideal for quick and robust action and can be most expressive. The live hand inside the puppet gives it an unique flexibility of physique.
Marionette or "string puppet": These puppets are suspended and controlled by a number of strings, plus sometimes a central rod attached to a control bar held from above by the puppeteer. The control bar can be either a horizontal or vertical one. Basic strings for operation are usually attached to the head, back, hands (to control the arms) and just above the knee (to control the legs).^[4] This form of puppetry is complex and sophisticated to operate, requiring greater manipulative control than a finger, glove or rod puppet. It is versatile and can be simple or complex. Performances can be graceful and charming, and fast and forceful action is generally avoided.
Toy Theatre: A puppet cut out of paper and stuck onto card. It is fixed at its base to a stick and operated by pushing it in from the side of the puppet theatre. Sheets were produced for puppets and scenery from the 19th century for children's use.
Rod puppet: A rod puppet is manipulated with wooden or wire rods. ^[2] Rod puppets can sometimes have a complete working hinged mouth. Many do not. A rod puppet can have a fixed facial expression. Arms are usually a requirement as rods are attached to them. A fish rod puppet could have a rod attached to the tail to manipulate this section of the puppet. Sometimes special variants exist with additional manipulable parts: (e.g., eyelids that open and close). Many rod puppets depict only the upper half of the character, from the waist up, with the stage covering the missing remainder, but variations sometimes have legs. The legs usually just dangle, but in special cases the legs may be controlled either from behind the stage using rods from below. It varies in complexity and offer potential for creativity in design and presentation. Their range of swift and subtle movements enables them to deliver anything from sketches to large dramatic pieces.
Shadow puppet: A cut-out figure held between a source of light and a translucent screen. Untypical, as it is two-dimensional in form, shadow puppets can form solid silhouettes, or be decorated with various amounts of cut-out details. Colour can be introduced into the cut-out shapes to provide a different dimension and different effects can be achieved by moving the puppet (or light source) out of focus. It is ideally suited to the illustration of a narrated story but they can also handle direct dialogue and vigorous knock-about action.Javanese shadow puppets (Wayang Kulit) are the classic example of this.