Puppet Master’s:

A look at what‟s pulling the strings in UConn‟s puppetry program

By Molly Callahan

In general, there are four different types of puppets, all represented in the

Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry. The one pictured here is a rod

puppet, by Dick Meyer. Rod puppets are manipulated from below, so in this

case, the audience would see everything from the black platform up. Meyer,

who worked in the construction of airplanes, is known for his distinctive design

and efficient, sophisticated mechanics.

The second type of puppet is shadow puppets. This one, a late 19th century

Chinese shadow puppet, is made from donkey hide. The hide was stretched,

scraped, and dried until it reached this firm, flexible, translucent phase, at

which point it would be cut and colored with the most painstaking detail. The

heads of these puppets are detachable to make repairs easier, and because

“the belief was that if they would come alive at night if the heads were

attached,” said Anna Fitzgerald, a graduate student in the puppetry program.

Here, Fitzgerald stands with the third type of puppet, a string puppet. “A lot of

people call them marionettes, but „marionette‟ means „puppet‟ in French, so we

try to be a little more specific,” she explained. Fitzgerald made her puppet out

of bass and cherry woods for their lightness and durability. She pointed out that

the weight of the puppet can make a big difference, especially during a long

performance.

The final puppet classification, and the type popularized by a certain Mr. Jim

Henson, is hand puppets. Pictured here behind a bust of Henson is Scooter, of

The Muppets. Henson took his work to the next level when he implemented a

new way of stitching the puppet together. This “baseball stitch” hides itself from

the outside, making it nearly invisible, an important feature for a puppet under

the unforgiving lens of a television camera!

This huge bear, standing about 8 feet tall, was a character in last winter‟s show

here at UConn. It consists of a pair of bear claw shoes, „furry‟ pants, and this

shirt/backpack combination, giving the puppeteer control over everything from

the head to the toes. “It was a lot of hot-glueing. A lot of hot-glueing and a lot of

tearing,” Fitzgerald said of helping to make the plastic bag fur. The whole

puppetry program, comprised of 10 graduate students and six undergraduate

students, helped build the show.