A Brief History of Puppetry
Simple Puppets Made from Household Materials
Useful websites on Puppetry

Please note: This information was gathered from Leo Lionni: A Resource Guide for Teachers (property of Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, originally compiled by Sara Younes)

A Brief History of Puppetry

While the exact date of the birth of puppetry is elusive, history and legends lead us to conclude that puppetry has been around for centuries. In the fifth century B.C., Herodotus wrote of marionettes which were used in the Egyptian Festival of Osiris. A 12^th century woodcut reveals two children playing with armed knights on strings and a 14^th century manuscript details two girls watching what appears to be a puppet show. By the 15^th century there were elaborate puppet plays in churches in Europe. Often used to bring the nativity scene alive, stringed puppets became known as a “little Mary” or marionette. 

Europe
Italian marionettes traveled as far as England and brought the tradition of commedia dell’arte and the spirit of ancient Roman festivals remained in many buffoon type characters.

Puppets generally appealed to common people but the 18^th century brought puppetry into sophisticated private salons.

This long tradition of European puppetry continues to this day. Puppets are not merely children’s playthings but are worthy of intelligent plays, music and technology. Indeed, many countries have large financed puppet companies.

The East
Indian legend tells that Adi Nat ("first puppeteer") was born from the mouth of Brahmin, the Creator. With rod and shadow puppets, Indian missionaries taught the beliefs of Hinduism.

Kathputli bhats (“wooden puppet performers”) tell stories recorded in 2000 year-old epic poems, as well as adventures of India’s heroes, princesses, lovers and demons.

Rod puppetry reached its peak with the Bunraku theatre. With a repertoire of twenty plays written by Japan’s greatest dramatist, Chikamatsu Monsaemon, puppetry is preferred over human actors due to its ability to give a precise rendition of Monsaemon’s dramatic intentions. The exceptionally involved puppets reach heights of four feet and can require up to four people for their operation.

In China, hand puppets have a reputation for being small yet finely made.

The Americas
Native American cultures in Mexico and Guatamala produced clay figures with articulated limbs. With the arrival of the Europeans, European puppetry became part of North American culture. From that time on, puppetry evolved from a traditional folk art medium into a respected theatre form.  Howdy Doody, Sherri Lewis and Lamb Chop, the Muppets and Sesame Street characters are just a few examples of the evolution of North American puppetry. From television commercials, drug rehabilitation projects, reading and special education programs, puppetry is used for a variety of tasks.

Works Cited
Flower, Cedric and Alan Fortney (1983). Puppets: Methods and Materials. Massachusetts: Davis Publications Inc.
History of Punch and Judy: The Long History of Puppetry - http://www.bertstaddon.com/history.htm

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Simple Puppets Made from Household Materials

Finger Puppets

Animal Puppets
Draw your favourite animal on poster board and cut out space for two fingers to go through. Using your index and middle finger, you instantly have puppet legs.

Simple Spider
Wearing a pair of gloves, with google eyes glued onto the thumbs, bring your hands together to create a simple spider.

Finger-tip Mice
Cut out two small ears, wrap a piece of pipe cleaner around your finger at the knuckle joint for a tail and draw two eyes and a mouth on your finger tip.

Hand Puppets 

Large Mouth Puppet
A paper plate folded in half with large eyes on top can be any animal type from a frog to a loud mouthed monster. 

Paper Bag Puppet
This classic puppet only requires a paper bag and markers – other decorations can be optional. 

Sock Puppet
With your thumb as the bottom half of the mouth and the rest of your fingers as the top, decorate an old sock as desired to tell any story.

Shadow Puppets

To make a simple shadow puppet, cut the outline of a figure out of cardboard and put the cardboard on a stick. For more complicated puppets, make joints in the cardboard figure, using paper fasteners. Attach more rods to control movement to the figure. 

Rod Puppets

For an instant stick puppet, take an old doll or teddy bear and use tape, string or wire to attach rods to each hand or arm. With the rods you can control the movement.

Marionettes

Simple Marionette
A very simple marionette can be created by attaching a doll whose arms and legs move freely to strings connected to a cross of wood. 

Ghost
Drape a medium sized piece of material over a large sized Styrofoam ball, attach this head to one part of the wooden cross that will control your marionette. Attach separately two ghost ‘arms’ to the cross-piece of the marionette control. 

Adapted from: Flower, Cedric and Alan Fortney (1983). Puppets: Methods and Materials. Massachusetts: Davis Publications Inc.

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Useful Websites on Puppetry