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Puppet theater as an art form. Making a puppet theater with your own hands

N. I. Smirnova

Egyptian tomb. Its door opens from the warm air that comes from the sacrificial fire.

How often in life do we utter the words “doll”, “screen”, “puppet”, how in judgments about people we use the expressions “pull the string”, “soulless doll”, “idle doll”, or even abusively and angrily - “ damn doll." In strict newspaper articles we read: “puppet government”, “the head is a puppet”, “behind the screen of loud reports”. The writer G. Ibsen called his play "A Doll's House." “Open secrets,” people say ironically when they want to say that there is no secret at all. "Puppet comedy!" – we are indignant about the vulgar trick. "Some kind of parsley!" – we get angry when faced with confusion.
Since ancient times, in the languages ​​of many peoples of the world, there has been a comparison of human life with a puppet that is pulled by a string.
The puppet theater has long excited people both with its strange resemblance to living beings and because it constantly gave rise to philosophical reasoning: the example of the manager and the controlled was too obvious.
The theme of the puppet, the threads that set it in motion, and, finally, the theme of the human will that guides this movement are constant not only in ancient but also in medieval philosophy.

Antique Greek figure. She holds an image of a sheaf of wheat and the sun. The parts are set in motion using a specially attached rope.

As far as people can remember, there has always been - in childhood, everyday life, religious rites - an object that he endowed with a special relationship: whether this object was a symbol of God (or many gods), whether it personified the secret of nature, or simply depicted a person.
From faith in the ability to depict what is hidden from the eyes, what is only guessed by the change of day and night, winter and summer, life and death, the movement of the sun and the aging of all living things, from faith in the ability to express one’s attitude towards these phenomena in simple and understandable forms, movement and puppet theater grew.
People have always been excited by one of the amazing properties of puppet theater - the miracle of a dead object coming to life right before the eyes of the viewer.
And since time immemorial, this miracle - a simple change from rest to movement began to be colored with mystery, enigma.

Greek tomb of Bacchus. Its upper part rotates thanks to a hydraulic installation.

But it was noticed that a miracle only becomes a miracle when a reviving object acquires the ability to resemble a living being - a person.
The human capacity for fantasy, excited by this amazing miracle, has long been noticed. That is why, probably, stationary images of gods - and in ancient times they were in every home - were replaced by moving figures and figures, which people endowed with a special attitude. This was the beginning of the puppet theater. Its origins.
In fact, the man saw a animated figure. This prompted him: she moves - therefore, she is alive, and since she is alive, she is capable of thinking, and if she thinks, it means she has will and desire. But if she is still not a person, but something else, different from him, then, obviously, there are such secret spheres that human thought cannot penetrate. And these areas inaccessible to humans for a long time the secrets of death and the origin of life, the secrets of fertility and natural disasters remained.
Puppet theater has survived thousands of years and dozens of historical structures.


This print depicts the action of tablet puppets that are moved by a rope. It is believed that these figurines were found in Roman ruins.

The first mentions of puppetry are associated with festivals in Egypt.
Women walked from village to village singing, carrying small figurines in their hands, thirty to forty centimeters high, and moving them with the help of special ropes. A flutist walked ahead. Such dolls are found both in Syria and in Latin America.
Archaeological excavations have helped to reveal a picture of the most ancient festival in Egypt, dedicated to the life of the gods Osiris and Isis (XVI century BC).
The spectators who gathered for the performance did not sit in one place. Crowds of spectators were located in groups on both sides of the road, and the “spectacle” was piled on many chariots. Such a cart drove up to the first group of spectators, the actors played the first scene on it - the chariot moved on. The next one arrived - here is the continuation of the action (this principle was later preserved in the English medieval theater and was called "pageant"). The division of the action into separate scenes, played by different actors, is not yet the most significant feature of this performance. The main thing was that the roles of the gods in this theater were performed only with the help of dolls. They were carried in the arms and moved by hands. Man could not take on the role of God.
Let us pay attention - a person portrays God, a certain “higher” being, not with the help of a costume, a mask, not with the help of his own body, but with the help of a special object. In this way, he wanted to express a certain idea with immeasurably less “mortal” (and in the eyes of man, completely immortal) material - clay, wood - than he himself, a mortal man.
Religion took advantage of man's belief in the special properties of inanimate but moving figures.
In Ancient Greece, huge figures called automata were made from precious metals and precious woods. They came into motion only at the most solemn moments of religious action.


Ukrainian nativity scene with dolls. Folk Christmas performance. XVIII century. From the State Academic Museum central name S. V. Obraztsova.

These machines can hardly be called theater in the full sense of the word, but an element of theatricality still existed in these performances.
With the help of steam and drive belts, people controlled the movements of huge figures.
"Like alive!" - exclaimed the witnesses of these spectacles.
The priests moved the heads, arms, and legs of the automata-bots, causing fear, creating an atmosphere of sorcery, mystery, and horror.
The production of machine guns with the same destructive power persisted for a long time in the ancient world.
The Greek tradition strengthened and expanded immeasurably in Ancient Rome.
The Roman poet Publius Ovid Naso describes a miracle that happened in the temple when, during a solemn sacrifice, the statue of Servius Tullius closed its eyes with an angry gesture of its hand so as not to see its criminal daughter.


Model of the Krakow Shopka. Poland, XIX century. From the State Academic Central Museum named after S. V. Obraztsov.

And Titus Livius (Roman historian), describing the miracles that took place in Rome during the festivities in 578, mentions a feast held in the public square in honor of the gods, reclining on purple beds, in front of laid tables: “The earth shook: in the middle of the forum, where "There were lodges, the gods who rested on them turned their heads away, refusing food. This miracle amazed citizens of all classes."
And besides, in every house - in Ancient Greece and in ancient Rome– they always had their own dolls, and sometimes even a collection of dolls. They formed part of the decoration of rooms or table decoration.
The most skilled craftsmen of Athens, Megara, and Ephesus competed in the art and wonders of mechanics.
Their dolls, which have survived to this day, were distinguished by their elegance of style, beauty of decoration, and ingenuity. The toy “flying pigeon” has reached us - a prototype of future airplanes. This is an amazing, perfect mechanical figurine of very fine workmanship for that time.
The ancients also knew other dolls.
In ancient Rome there was a procession with huge dolls. Caricatured mechanical images amused or terrified the crowd. There were huge fantastic African monsters, which were called sharp-toothed, with huge, wide, terrible jaws.
Carnivals were often held at that time. During the carnival, everything seemed to change places - a slave could laugh at his master, a jester could become a patrician, a craftsman could portray Caesar himself.

Frame. Javanese flat leather doll. Indonesia, 19th century. From the State Academic Central Museum named after S. V. Obraztsov.

There was another theater in Greece. One of them was led by a puppeteer named Potein.
These theaters played secular stories, fables, parables, comedies of Aristophanes, Plautus, and other ancient authors, striving first of all to amuse and amuse their audience.
On the territory of Ancient Greece, art arose, which is commonly called the Bethlehem box.
This “theater” for the first time and in a very original way tried to talk about the universe, about the existence of “heaven” and “earth”, “above” and “below”, “divine” and “earthly” in the form, of course, as it was imagined by the ancients.
Someone came up with the idea of ​​depicting the world using a box that has no front wall and is partitioned in half horizontally.
Then they made small dolls and placed them below - under the partition. And on top they placed dolls that depicted gods. So it happened: people are below, gods are above.
But I wanted the dolls to move.
They came up with slits at the bottom of the box where the rods from these dolls were inserted. The rods threaded through the slots could be controlled - and thus the movement was born. And then they came up with sketches, whole plays - and it turned out to be a theater. Serious theater. For adults.


Medieval woodcut. Noteworthy is the rod attached to the head of the three-dimensional doll, which the master holds in his hand.

When ancient states disintegrated, and new formations were created on their territory, small boxes with simple dolls were inherited by subsequent generations.
Puppeteers wandered around Europe with boxes. Everywhere they showed the same story of the birth of Christ and the story of King Herod.
Christ was in the upper, “divine” compartment of the box. And downstairs, in the “people’s room,” more and more new characters, plots, and events began to appear. Each scene has its own.
The echoes of this theater still live today.
In many countries there is very strong evidence of how this simple idea has influenced the development of culture.
First puppet shows preserved in people's memory as one of the forms of magic, spells.
Javanese theater, for example, arose from the ritual of worshiping deceased ancestors.

Illustration from the book "Don Quixote" by Cervantes, depicting folk puppet show Spanish traveling puppeteers. Scenes from French royal chronicles and Spanish romances were played out with dolls on a rod.

As in other countries of the world, particularly in some areas of the Malay Archipelago, in Indonesia there was a belief that the dead possessed magical power and can provide patronage and assistance to the living.
To attract the spirits of the dead, special figurines were made into which they were supposed to inhabit. The very souls of the dead appear to many peoples of the world, including some peoples of Indonesia, in the form of shadows. This is how one of the original types of theatrical spectacle arose - shadow theater.
Shadow theater is most widespread among the peoples of Asia and the Middle East. Shadow theater is characterized by an appeal to epic and folklore. Shadow theater was most widespread in the Tang era (VII–IX centuries). The images of the Indian classical epics "Ramayana" and "Mahabharata" are preserved in the performances of traveling puppeteers in India and Indonesia to this day.
And this is how the shadow theater was born on the island of Java. Initially, in every house, people summoned the souls of deceased ancestors. They cajoled them with treats and incense. Among the Javanese, this was usually done by the head of the family in his own home. Only later it passed into the hands of certain people - priests, shamans. And in order to assure yourself of real existence It was these “souls” that people came up with the shadow theater.
A special profession appeared - puppet drivers.
The people who worked with dolls were called dalangs.
Dalang showed the shadows of mythical ancestors, glorified their heroic deeds and exploits.
Over time, these heroic tales hymns of praise turned into narratives with a specific plot and constant characters.
This theater was called wayang-kulit. The leisurely, epic nature of the plot (and the performance began at ten o'clock in the evening and lasted until dawn) was interspersed with cheerful dynamic scenes. They were necessary for the spectators to relax. Then two comic figures appeared - Killekyata and his wife.
The doll representing Killekyata was black in color with unkempt hair, thick lips, a protruding belly, and bowed legs and arms. This folk hero He joked cheerfully and always topically.
It was believed that Killekyata had an effect on fertility and harvest, so farmers placed figurines - a sculptural image of this hero - on the field during the harvest. They hoped that this would help reap a good harvest.
The ancient wayang kulit already used decorations. They were needed to indicate the location of the action (palace, gates, mountains, forest) and were necessary for greater authenticity of the story. But the story itself remained a striking mixture of magic and reality. There were as many spells about the fragility of life, stories about the gods, as there were living pictures of the surrounding life.


Folk festivals in Russia. Performance with Petrushka. 17th century Engraving by the German traveler Adam Olearius.

From generation to generation, century after century, “playing with a doll” entered not only religious, magical, but also artistic field human life.
A person not only learns the nature of puppet theater and the ways it influences people, but also consciously uses or rejects these properties.
Centuries will change, millennia will pass, and man will admire the properties of a dead object coming to life, finding its own life, filled only with its inherent rhythm, character and content, or, on the contrary, will indignantly reject this property for the sake of searching for the similarity of the doll with a person.
Born in the Middle Ages folk theater dolls These artists on the square had no need to prove to their audience that their little heroes had special magical powers, that they were “alive.” The puppeteers did not consider it shameful to go directly to the public to demonstrate their skills - a miracle skillful hands and imagination, ingenuity.
For many centuries, puppet theater has been developing next to drama theater, turning out to be either his ghost or mirror, sometimes his shadow, and sometimes his surrogate.
But precisely in last millennium those will also be formed special features puppet theater, which we appreciate today and which make it an independent living art.
All peoples who knew puppet theater, one way or another connected with magic or religious cult, have literary records of at least one or two plays (or scenes), descriptions of puppets, stage design, performance.
A lot has been preserved literary sources– evidence outstanding writers, who mentioned one or another traditional spectacle that had been preserved for many centuries.
These plays were structured as review plays: the same hero was shown in relationships with other persons, who could be replaced over time. Even in those countries where we know almost nothing about the performances themselves, their focus, puppets and decorations, we always meet one or two puppet characters with whom the whole country is familiar.
In puppet theaters, starting from ancient times, there were typical images that lived for centuries, and today’s, “momentary” heroes often appeared next to them.
This was the case in ancient times, and in Italian theater Middle Ages.
Along with the heroes of fables and legends, characters of folklore and ancient literature Topical “popular figures” and “portrait” dolls also acted.
In Romania, for example, the figure of Napoleon, extremely popular in this theater, was constantly introduced into the puppet theater.
One can even trace how exactly “popular figures”, with the layers of time, gradually became generalized images, and over the centuries - household heroes. The interaction of such nominal heroes led to the birth of “types of life.”
Life itself selected and formed these “types”.
National puppet characters. They were created over centuries and remained immortal for centuries.
Historically, puppet theater all over the world, having become truly folk art, developed in very close proximity to all forms folk art: visual arts (including folk crafts) and, of course, folklore.
Many puppeteers played folk tales, parables, legends.
The image that passed from oral folk art to the puppet screen (and this “transition” took decades) was enriched not only with new features, but also often acquired a completely new character.
Then these same folk heroes became the subject of study great literature. But then they no longer resembled their ancestors - the puppet image, in comparison with the oral one, acquired not only a certain exaggeration, but also greater depth.
Over time - and especially in Europe - the puppet theater turned into a kind of “storehouse”, a treasury of “types of life” and many plots.
Scientists from Italy, Romania, and Germany have proven that the plots of the works "King Lear", "Romeo and Juliet", "Faust", like many others that have become the pride of world literature, were known long before Shakespeare and Goethe, not only in oral literature, but and in the performances of puppeteers.
Goethe became acquainted with the plot and image of Faust at a puppeteers' performance. “We can consider it established,” writes Wilhelm Kreuzenach, a famous historian of Germany, “that the first decisive impression of the legend of Faust was made on Goethe by the puppet show.”
Even after Goethe touched upon Faust, the folk play based on this plot not only did not lose its significance, but continued to be the pride of the repertoire of many puppet theaters in Europe. Goethe's genius illuminated it with a new light.
Until now, many puppet theaters in Europe perform fairy tale plays, the plot of which almost completely coincides with the plots of Shakespearean tragedies. These are not adaptations of the plays of the great playwright, but those folk plays, which Shakespeare probably knew and which were born long before his birth. They have changed little since then. And, strange as it may seem, it is the old puppet fairy tales that often turn out to be those “storerooms”, “repositories” of plots and images, from which even today one can still glean a lot of all sorts of wisdom.

Puppet theater has existed for a very long time. Ancient peoples believed that they live in heaven, on earth, underground, and even in water. different gods, evil and good spirits, supernatural, creatures. To pray to these gods, people made their images: large and small dolls made of stone, clay, bone or wood. They danced around such dolls, carried them on stretchers, carried them on chariots or on the backs of elephants, and sometimes they made all sorts of cunning devices and forced the dolls depicting gods, devils or dragons to open their eyes, nod their heads, bare their teeth... Gradually, such spectacles all began to look more and more like theatrical performances. For thousands of years, in all countries of the world, with the help of dolls, legends about gods, demons, werewolves, genies, and in the Middle Ages European countries dolls showed heaven and hell, the creation of the world, Adam and Eve, devils and angels, played folk tales and satirical scenes that ridiculed human vices: stupidity, greed, cowardice, cruelty.

IN old Russia there were no state puppet theaters. At fairs, on boulevards, and in city courtyards, traveling magicians, acrobats, and puppeteers gave small performances. Usually one of them turned the handle of a music box, which was called a barrel organ. To the loud sounds of music, the puppeteer showed from behind a small screen how the funny, long-nosed, loud-mouthed Petrushka beats with a stick a tsarist officer who wants to take him as a soldier. From the clever Petrushka, both the ignorant doctor who did not know how to heal and the deceitful merchant got the worst of it.

The life of folk puppeteers - traveling actors - was very difficult and not much different from the life of a beggar. After the performance, the actor-puppeteer took off his hat and handed it to the audience. Whoever wanted to throw copper pennies into his hat.

In other countries there were also dolls similar to our Petrushka. The same long-nosed and loud bullies. These dolls were called differently: in England - Punch, in France - Polichinelle, in Italy - Pulcinello, in Germany - Kasperle and Ganswurst, in Czechoslovakia - Kašparek, in Turkey - Karagöz.

IN modern theaters dolls are different: they are made differently and are set in motion in different ways.

Some of the simplest dolls are called glove dolls because they fit on your hand like gloves. Usually the doll's head is put on forefinger, one handle is for medium, and the other is for large.

Parsley belongs to the glove puppets.

Dolls “on sticks” are even simpler. In Poland they are called dolls “on the butt”: the legs and arms of such a doll are not controlled, but rotate in different directions.

There are dolls that can only be moved. They are used in special puppet theaters, called “nativity scenes” in Ukraine, and “shopkas” in Poland. These are two- or three-story boxes with an open front wall. You can stick your hand between the floors at the back and with this hand guide the doll through the cracks in the floor of each floor. And the doll, as already mentioned, can only move with the help of the puppeteer and wave its hand if it pulls the thread.

There are dolls that are called cane dolls. This type of doll is also held by a puppeteer, but its arms are controlled by canes, sticks, or wires attached to the doll's hands, wrists, or elbows. Canes are most often hidden in the doll's sleeves or clothing. Cane dolls appeared a long time ago, in the East - in Indochina. They began to be used in European puppet theaters only in the 20th century. In the 20s Soviet puppeteer artists Efimovs used cane puppets to play an excerpt from Shakespeare’s tragedy “Macbeth.” And later Central Theater puppets in Moscow staged the highly successful play “Aladin’s Magic Lamp”, which the actors play with puppets on canes.

Glove and cane puppets are also called “horse” puppets because they are always taller than the puppeteer. The puppeteer is behind a screen, he cannot be seen. Only the doll is visible, which he raised above the screen.

And there are dolls that the actor-puppeteer controls not from below, but from above. He stands on a raised platform at the back of the stage and holds a wag in his hands - a special device consisting of levers and bars from which threads extend. At the bottom, the threads are attached to the doll's shoulders, to the forehead so that she can raise and lower her head, to the temples so that she can turn her head right and left, to the back so that she can bow, to the elbows and palms so that she can make all sorts of movements with her hands. , to the knees, so that she, raising either her right or her left leg, could walk or dance. There are a lot of threads. And ten, and twenty, and even thirty. After all, the doll has to make many different movements in the performance: open its mouth, move its eyes, hands.

String puppets are sometimes called marionettes. But this is not entirely correct, since every theatrical puppet is called a marionette.

There is another type of doll that is controlled from above. They don't have many threads, just one or two to swing puppet hand. There is a stick in the doll's head. The legs dangle on their own, but you can use a stick to swing the doll so much that its legs begin to walk. The dolls are large, heavy, dressed in shiny armor, with shields and swords.

This is a Sicilian heroic theater preserved from the Middle Ages. Wars and fights are always depicted on stage. The puppeteers stand behind the backdrop (at the back of the stage) and wave the puppets, holding them by the sticks. The dolls hit each other with noise and crackling noise, and those “killed” in the battle fall. One person speaks for all the dolls in a scary, hoarse voice.

There is a similar theater in Brussels, Belgium. This is the Tone Theater, it has existed for many years. Its owners playing main role, the “screaming narrator,” succeed each other over time, but each next one receives the name Tone. This theater is especially popular among tourists.

And there are puppets that cannot be called either glove puppets, puppets on strings or canes, or puppets on pins, as in the Sicilian theater. They are flat, cut out of cardboard or leather. Very intricately and delicately carved and beautifully painted. These are shadow theater puppets that have existed for a long time in China, Korea, Japan, Indonesia, and India. The puppeteer sits behind the stretched canvas. Above the puppeteer's head is a large oil, kerosene, and sometimes electric lamp. Using thin bone sticks sewn to the body, arms and legs of a flat doll, the puppeteer presses the doll tightly to the canvas, and then a colored carved shadow of the doll appears on the canvas in front of the audience. Such theaters most often show religious and mythical stories. During the performance, musicians beat drums, play musical instruments and sing.

In the world there are many different theatrical puppets. In Vietnam, for example, they even organize puppet shows on the water - on a river or lake. Underwater, at shallow depths, there is a long bamboo stick. At one end there is a wooden doll, the other is held by the puppeteer. He stands knee-deep in water, separated by a wicker screen from the spectators on the shore. Inside the hollow bamboo stick there are strings stretched, leading to the doll’s arms, head, and torso. The doll can emerge from the water or dive into the water, walk, bow, and wave its arms.

Theater on the water once arose in Ancient China, and it depicted water spirits and gods, a turtle, and a dragon. And in Vietnam now in such a theater they present scenes from folk life.

There are also dolls that participate in festive processions and carnivals. So, in China, on the streets of Beijing or Canton, a dragon may appear - a huge doll, 15 meters long. It is carried on large sticks by several people. The dragon is made from bamboo frames covered with painted fabric. It turns out to be like cylinders, between them there are the same cylinders made of matter, only soft, not hard. The front frame has a huge horned dragon head holding a red ball in its mouth. Gradually the thickness of the cylinders decreases, and everything ends with the last rigid frame - the tail. Each leader of this dragon can raise his stick higher or lower, move it to the right or left. As a result, the dragon twists, twists, and unwinds. Now this is only a street spectacle, but once upon a time peasants staged a procession with a dragon, asking the sky for the drought to end and for it to rain.

During the holiday, lions may also appear in China. Each lion contains two human acrobats. The lions run, jump, somersault, and climb onto several tables stacked on top of each other. Together with the lions there are lion cubs. These are boys in disguise. Lions have huge faces with opening mouths, and their skin is made of long dry grass - red, green, yellow.

And in Italy or in South America During carnivals you can see huge, up to 10 m in height, inflatable rubber dolls.

So, dolls and puppet theaters help convey people’s thoughts and feelings in a metaphorical, allegorical form. All fables and fairy tales of the peoples of the world are allegorical, but there is a lot of truth in them. They contain wisdom, humor, and talent of the people. Not only folk tales are metaphorical, but also many works of great writers and poets - Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Pushkin, Gogol, Mayakovsky... All this provides great opportunities for the development and improvement of puppet theater.

In our country, state puppet theaters were created only after October revolution. Now there are 135 of them, they play in 25 languages ​​of the peoples of the USSR. Wonderful actors, artists, and puppet masters take part in the performances. The largest puppet theater in the world is the Central Puppet Theater in Moscow. It employs 300 people. This theater gives performances every day for children and every evening for adults. He often goes on tour, has traveled to 400 cities in our country, and performed in 40 countries around the world.

State puppet theaters also operate successfully in other socialist countries.

There is a worldwide organization of puppeteers UNIMA. It includes 5 thousand members. Congresses, conferences, and festivals of this organization are held in Europe (including the USSR), and in America, and in Africa, and in Australia.

Puppet theater is one of oldest species theater In Egypt, women carried a doll of Osiris, the king of the underworld, during rituals. And this can be considered the first phenomenon of puppet theater as an art. Puppetry also existed in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, but they came from distant Ancient India and China along with wandering puppeteers. In 1636, a puppet theater appeared in Russia. A little later, the Russian puppet theater began touring in Ukraine and the Volga region. In the mid-18th century (1733), four puppet theaters of Italian comedians came to Russia at the invitation of Tsarina Anna Ivanovna and began their tours in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Ritual-ritual puppet theater

The oldest form of puppet theater, implying an action taking place with a touch of national traditions. The most famous puppet theaters of the East in this regard are: Japanese joruri, Indonesian wayang, Indian and Chinese puppet theaters. The largest puppet theater in Japan is called Bunraku. It shows scenes in the genre of joruri (dramatic recitative singing). Ritual and ritual theaters are known here and throughout Europe:

  • “El Pastores” (Catalonia);
  • “Nativity scene” (Ukraine, Russia);
  • “Batleika” (Belarus);
  • “Malanka” (Moldova);
  • “Shopka” (Poland).

The most unique puppet theater is “Bread and Puppet”, founded in 1962 in New York and operating under the direction of Peter Schumann. The theater is located on a large farm in Vermont, where huge papier-mâché and cardboard puppets perform plays with political commentary, disguised characters, impromptu dances and accompaniment. brass band. The name of the theater translates as “Bread and Doll”. The fact is that at the beginning of each performance, the puppeteers treat their spectators to freshly baked bread with aioli (garlic sauce, olive oil, lemon juice and egg yolks) in order to create a spirit of unity between the audience and the actors. Treat fresh bread is a symbol of the fact that art should be as close to life as bread is to life.

Folk puppet theaters satire

Such theaters are created by traveling actors, they ridicule topical situations, and they are also characterized by minimal scenery. Folk puppet theater is distinguished by the obligatory presence of a typical comic character, called different countries in different ways, but having similar features: a large head, a hook-shaped nose, possibly with two or one hump in front and back. In Germany it is called Hanswurst, in France it is Polichinelle, in Russia it is the well-known Parsley.

Children's puppet theater

This theater mainly shows fairy tales, educating and entertaining the younger generation. Sometimes fairy-tale performances are addressed to an adult viewer (allegorical-symbolist theater), they involve the viewer in playing with dolls (theater mass holidays) or act to develop fine motor skills in children (therapeutic theater).

Types of dolls

Puppet theaters can also be classified according to the types of puppets and how they are controlled. The most important classification of dolls comes down to three types: horse dolls (these include glove, finger and cane dolls), automatic dolls and floor dolls (puppets, giant dolls and tablet dolls).

The actor puts the glove puppet on his hand and controls it. Finger puppets They are also worn on the hand (on the fingers) and mainly participate in chamber performances. Cane puppets are attached to a cane to the “shoulders” and are controlled using canes. Flat cane puppets were originally used in puppet theaters in Asia and the East. Then they became widespread throughout the world. Cane flat dolls are pressed tightly against a translucent screen and can cast black-and-white and colored shadows depending on the color of the doll. The puppets are controlled by strings that the actor pulls from above. The name was received from the French. Marionette (small figurines depicting the Virgin Mary). Tablet dolls are large dolls that “walk” along the floor with the actor. Giant dolls can often be found at holidays. This is not so much a doll as a fabulous one-piece costume with a big head for the actor. The automatic doll “comes to life” with the help of a mechanism (levers, springs, steam).

You can experience the beautiful and mysterious in the puppet theater in any country in the world. Here are the most famous puppet theaters: “Libelois” in Spain, “Bunraku” or “Awaji” in Japan, “Nativity Scene” in Ukraine, puppet theaters in England, the Czech Republic and Poland are also quite famous.

And here we have prepared even more interesting materials for you!

I'll start with a short excursion into history.
Puppet theater has existed for a very long time. Ancient peoples believed that various gods, devils and sacred animals lived in heaven, on earth, underground, and even in water. To pray to these gods, people made their images: large and small dolls made of stone, clay, bone or wood. They danced around such dolls, carried them on stretchers, carried them on chariots or on the backs of elephants, and sometimes they made all sorts of cunning devices and forced the dolls depicting gods, devils or dragons to raise their arms or paws, open their eyes, nod their heads, and bare their teeth. Gradually, such spectacles became more and more like theatrical performances.

For thousands of years, in all countries of the world, with the help of dolls, legends about gods, demons, werewolves, genies were played out, and in the Middle Ages in European countries, dolls depicted the creation of the world, Adam and Eve, devils and angels, played folk tales and satirical scenes ridiculing human vices: stupidity, greed, cowardice.
Nowadays puppet theaters stage folk tales and plays written by playwrights. Most puppet theaters perform for children, but some also stage performances for adults who love puppet theater as much as children.
Puppet theaters are the first to introduce children to theater arts. They not only bring joy to understanding the art of theater, but also cultivate artistic taste and teach understanding of the world around us.
And the main characters of the theater are, of course, dolls.
At first glance, all theatrical puppets seem the same, but yet they are different. The main difference is in their design.

Bibabo

The simplest are glove puppets, or bibabo. Many of you are familiar with glove puppets. This is the famous Parsley, various bunnies, bears, dogs, that is, all those dolls that fit on the hand like a glove, only not on five fingers, but on three. One finger is inserted into the doll's head, two more into the sleeves of the suit, that is, into the doll's hands.

Cane puppets

Cane dolls are controlled by special wires or cane sticks, which can be disguised in the dolls' clothes. The doll's head is mounted on a special rod - a gapit; shoulders and arms are attached to it. The size of the cane doll is larger than the glove doll. In its proportions it resembles a person. The cane puppet is the most common puppet in the puppet theater.

Puppets

The most difficult doll to make and control is the marionette. It is controlled by threads or thin wires. In the actor's hand there is a vaga (a movable cross-shaped holder). It contains threads going to various parts doll body. The actor alternately pulls the strings and the doll comes to life.

In our country, puppets are not widely used. The puppet theater operates in Tbilisi, in Leningrad - the puppet theater named after E. S. Demmeni, some theaters have one or two performances with puppets in their repertoire. IN State Theater BSSR dolls with marionette dolls staged the play “The Nightingale” based on Andersen’s fairy tale.

Mechanical dolls

Mechanical puppets are also used in puppet theater. They are controlled using various mechanisms: levers, rubber bands. This is how galloping horses, marching soldiers, and monkeys climb trees are made.

Mimic dolls

There are dolls made of soft materials: tricotine, rubber. The actor's fingers are in the doll's head, contracting or straightening, they give the doll's face various expressions. These are miming dolls.

Shadow puppets

Shadow puppet - a flat image of a person or animal that casts a shadow on the screen, which, in fact, is the stage shadow theater. Shadow theater is widespread in many Asian countries, where it is parodic in nature.

Nativity scene dolls

For vertep dolls, there is a special kind of puppetry technique - these are dolls attached to a pin that comes out from the bottom of the doll like a handle - they are held along the cracks in the floor of the stage. Since ancient times, only one play has been played in the nativity scene: the Christmas mystery.

Puppet show

Dolls and puppeteers

Puppet Theatre- one of the varieties of puppet art of space-time art, which includes animated and non-animated animated film art, pop puppet art and artistic puppet programs television. In puppet theater performances, the appearance and physical actions of characters are depicted and/or indicated, as a rule, by three-dimensional, semi-dimensional (bas-relief or high-relief) and flat puppets (actor puppets). Actor puppets are usually controlled and driven by people, puppeteers, and sometimes automatic mechanical or mechanical-electrical-electronic devices. In the latter case, the actor dolls are called robot dolls. It should be noted that the phrase “puppet theater” is incorrect and offends the professional dignity of puppeteers, since the adjective “puppet” is associated with the concept of “fake”. It’s correct to say: “puppet theater”, that’s what everyone is called, by the way. professional theaters animation.

There are three main types of puppet theaters:

1. Theater of riding puppets (glove puppets, gapit-cane puppets and puppets of other designs), controlled from below. Actors-puppeteers in theaters of this type are usually hidden from the audience by a screen, but it also happens that they are not hidden and are visible to the audience in their entirety or half their height.

2. Theater of grassroots puppets (puppets), controlled from above using threads, rods or wires. Actors-puppeteers in theaters of this type are most often also hidden from the audience, but not by a screen, but by an upper curtain or canopy. In some cases, puppeteer actors, as in horse puppet theaters, are visible to the audience in their entirety or half their height.

3. Puppet theater of middle (not top and not bottom) puppets, controlled at the level of actors-puppeteers. Medium dolls are three-dimensional, controlled by actors-puppeteers either from the side or from inside large-sized dolls, inside of which there is an actor-puppeteer. To the number middle dolls include, in particular, Shadow Theater dolls. In such theaters, the puppeteer actors are not visible to the audience, since they are behind a screen onto which shadows from flat or non-flat puppet actors are projected. Puppet dolls are used as middle puppet actors, controlled from behind the puppets by puppeteer actors visible or invisible to the audience. Either glove puppets or actor dolls of other designs. How this happens, for example, in the famous pop miniature by S. V. Obraztsov with a doll baby named Tyapa ( glove puppet wearing one of Obraztsov's hands) and his father, whose role is played by Obraztsov himself.

IN Lately More and more often, puppet theater represents the stage interaction of actors-puppeteers with puppets (the actors “play openly,” that is, not hidden from the audience by a screen or any other object). In the 20th century, the beginning of this interaction was laid by S. V. Obraztsov in the very same pop miniature in which two characters acted: a baby named Tyapa and his father. But in fact, such interactions between puppeteers and puppet actors led to a blurring of the boundaries between the puppet and the non-puppet. puppet species space-time art. Professional puppeteers still urge not to abuse the “third genre”, but to use mainly means of expression, inherent in the puppet theater.

It should be noted that the specific originality of the art of puppet theater and puppet space-time art in general is formed not only and not so much thanks to puppet actors, but due to a single set of many features. Moreover, some features are characteristic of puppetry, while others are common to puppetry and all or some other types of space-time art. For example, such general features, How compositional structure dramatic basis of performances: exposition, plot, climax, denouement (or final without denouement). In addition, general genres, realistic and artistic forms, pantomimic and non-pantomimic versions of stage actions, etc., etc. are widely used.

Story

The art of puppeteers is very old - in different countries their own types of puppets and types of performances arose, which later became traditional. There is information about the existence of ritual mysteries in Egypt, during which women wore a doll of Osiris. In Ancient Greece, puppet theater existed during the Hellenistic era. The origins of puppet theater are in pagan rituals, games with materialized symbols of the gods. Mention of play dolls is found in Herodotus, Xenophon, Aristotle, Horace, Marcus Aurelius, Apuleius. However, in Ancient Greece And Ancient Rome puppet shows, relatively speaking, variety type and the art of puppet theater came with traveling groups of puppeteers from Ancient India (overland and sea routes through Ancient Iran) and Ancient China. (O. Tsekhnovitser, I. Eremin. Petrushka Theater. - Moscow-Leningrad: “Gosizdat”, 1927)

History of puppet theater in Russia

The first news of the existence of a puppet theater in Russia dates back to 1636, recorded by the German traveler Adam Olearius.

In 1700, the first puppeteer tours in Russia took place: one troupe traveled through the cities of Ukraine, and the second through the Volga cities to Astrakhan. In 1733, at the invitation of Anna Ivanovna, four puppet theaters operated in Moscow and St. Petersburg from among the Italian comedians who came as part of the commedia dell'arte troupe.

One of the most famous puppet theaters in Russia is.

Types of puppet theaters

Puppet doll

The variety of forms of performance in a puppet theater is determined by the variety of types of puppets and their control systems. There are marionette dolls, cane dolls, glove dolls, and tablet dolls. Dolls can range in size from a few centimeters to 2-3 meters.

The difference in the forms of representation is most often caused by national traditions countries, the tasks set for the actors by the director of the play, as well as the relationship between the puppets and actors with decoration performance.

Ability to reflect bright features the character of a person, the persuasiveness of allegory, and figurative nouns characteristic of the art of puppet theater determine the repertoire of puppet theaters for satirical, and in a number of countries in Southeast Asia, heroic-pathetic performances.

Nativity scene

A traditional Ukrainian Christmas puppet show, performed in a two-story nativity scene, where the story of the birth of Christ was depicted on the upper level, and scenes from folk life on the lower level. The first vertepniks were seminarians. The analogues of the nativity scene in Poland are a one-story shopka, in Belarus - a three-story batleyka. The word "den" means the cave in which Jesus Christ was born.

Puppet theaters of Southeast Asia

Puppet theater technique

  • Vaga- a device for controlling a puppet.

Types of dolls

  • Puppet (including stock)
  • Doll on a vertical rack
  • Doll on a horizontal rack
  • Hapitno-cane doll
  • Doll on canes
  • Piglet doll
  • Vertepnaya
  • Tablet (hatch) doll
  • Mimicking
  • Shadow theater puppet (including Javanese)
  • Life-size puppet

Currently, miming dolls are especially popular in the United States, in Ukraine - parsley and nativity dolls, and in Europe - marionettes. The use of a hatching doll among professionals is not encouraged.(?)

Largest puppet theaters

Russia

  • One of the most famous puppet theaters is the State Academic Central Puppet Theater named after. S. V. Obraztsova
  • Moscow Fairytale Theater
  • Nizhny Novgorod State Academic Puppet Theater (one of two academic theaters dolls in Russia)
  • Yaroslavl Puppet Theater

Ukraine

An academic theater school is developing in Ukraine:

  • Department of Animation Theater of Kharkov state university Arts named after Kotlyarevsky,
  • Department of Puppet Theater, Kyiv National University of Theater and Cinema. Karpenko-Kary.
  • Dnepropetrovsk Theater College

Courses have also been taken at other universities, for example in Lviv.

Western Europe

Puppet theater in psychology

In the 1990s, I. Ya. Medvedeva and T. L. Shishova created a technique psychological correction, called “dramatic psycho-elevation”, designed for children with behavioral and communication difficulties. The main tool of this technique is puppet theater.

Notes

Literature

  • Peretz V.N. Puppet theater in Rus' (Historical sketch) // Yearbook of Imperial Theaters. - Applications. - Book 1. - St. Petersburg, 1895. - P. 85-185.
  • Shafranyuk V. A. Puppet space-time art

see also


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