The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance

The Routledge Companion to Puppetry and Material Performance offers a wide-rangingperspective on how scholars and artists are currently re-evaluating the theoretical, historical,and theatrical significance of performance that embraces the agency of inanimate objects.This book proposes a collaborative, responsive model for broader artistic engagement in andwith the material world. Its 28 chapters aim to advance the study of the puppet not only as atheatrical object but also as a vibrant artistic and scholarly discipline.This Companion looks at puppetry and material performance from six perspectives: theoreticalapproaches to the puppet, perspectives from practitioners, revisiting history, negotiating tradition,material performances in contemporary theatre, and hybrid forms. Its wide range of topics, whichspan 15 countries over five continents, encompasses:• visual dramaturgy• theatrical juxtapositions of robots and humans• contemporary transformations of Indonesian wayang kulit• Japanese ritual body substitutes• recent European productions featuring toys, clay, and food.The book features newly commissioned essays by leading scholars such as Matthew IsaacCohen, Kathy Foley, Jane Marie Law, Eleanor Margolies, Cody Poulton, and Jane Taylor.It also celebrates the vital link between puppetry as a discipline and as a creative practicewith chapters by active practitioners, including Handspring Puppet Company’s Basil Jones,Redmoon’s Jim Lasko, and Bread and Puppet’s Peter Schumann. Fully illustrated with morethan 60 images, this volume comprises the most expansive English-language collection ofinternational puppetry scholarship to date.