Puppet Theatre

Theatre Journals and Revues

The history of puppet periodicals goes back approximately to the beginning of the 20th century and is always connected with the activity of various associations linked by their interest in the puppet theatre. The oldest puppet journal was (and is) the "Loutkař" (Puppeteer) issued since 1912 for the Czech Union of the Friends of the Puppet Theatre in Prague and since 1925 the journal "Naše loutky" (Our Puppets), also published in Prague. Besides these journals a first place is also held by Germany - with its journal "Das Puppentheater" (The Puppet Theatre), published since 1923 and the puppet annual published in America as the "Puppetry Yearbook" (1930).

These were clearly the first journals the aim of which was to promote the puppet theatre, bringing the readers news from this sphere of puppet production at home and abroad. Here also the first technological instructions could be found, information about the edition of puppet plays and sporadically also historical articles and interviews. With the emancipation of puppeteering the character of these journals changed - specially after World War II. They were no longer concerned only with the social and club life of the puppeteers and advocates of this art (in the following decades this was done by newsletters of the respective associations and having more of an internal character), but the puppet revues became really serious journals giving a more profound picture of puppeteering not only as to its history, but also the newly discovered theory of the puppet theatre and in several materials including the puppet theatre in the broad context of the theatre as such. A great an important role was played by the today already no longer existing journals as e.g. in German Perlicko Perlacko, Puppenspiel und Puppenspiele and others. International renown was gained by the revues such as Animations, Figura, A propos, Teatr lalek, Loutkař.... A special position among these periodicals is today held by the revue PUCK, which (today already in several language versions) best reflects the really international cooperation of puppeteers in this sphere.

The greatest development in the number of professional puppet journals and revues could be noted in the 60ties, together with the constantly increasing range of readers it addresses (connected with this is also the number of copies of the respective journals, which is from 500 to 2000).

All puppet revues and journals were and are at the same time a mirror of UNIMA, whose existence, activity and history they have reflected faithfully for many decades.

Tradition and the Present

I encountered both the branches of the Puppet tradition when I was ten in a small town on the banks of the firmer river Želivka. In the pub one of the numerous members of the Kopecky dynasty was giving a performance: large marionettes on a wire stamped their feet on a wooden floor, a simple apron of coloured bulbs threw dramatic shadows of the figures on the painted background, the puppeteer, like juggler, gave his voice to Faust, then to Punch, the Go-between as well as Vágner. In his munition included an excellent series of voice disguises - including the falsetto of a naive young girl. After all the text was the most important, the figures did not show much action, it was enough if the knights occasionally drew their swords and Skrhola waved his knotted stick. The principal saw to it that only the person who was just supposed to be taking made any gestures, approximately according to the slogan " who plays moves his hands". For the better orientation of the audience. The dramatic moments of the play as well as the intervals were enhanced by the music of a rattling and clattering of a barrel organ. In spite of all the naivity and obsoleteness it was a fascinating play, which I have kept in my heart to the present.

There I also visited many fairs as well as the market "coffin box". Round-abouts, swings and shooting ranges played a wild mixture of modern hits and the puppet Punch facing this noise had to defend his little house from the villainous devil. There was also a living guinea-pig, a coffin and hammer, and also swab and the hose had a door and a window in the front and on the roof. From all this the wandering puppeteer extracted an admirable series of gags and larks, which I can still remember. And the guinea-pig in the coffin, pretending to be dead, while the wooden puppet played life itself? Marvelous!

After the forceful introduction of the socialist regime the traditional puppeteering was eventually liquidated in the fifties. This was due to the new network of state professional puppet theatres. The arguments about the decadency of the surviving tradition were supported by the political apparat, which perceived in the wandering puppeteering families unrequired entrepreneurs.. Most of them therefore started to appear in shows organized by agencies, others satisfied to work with the attractions of a fair and only a few found their way to regional theatres. What a pity!

At that time I started to work in this profession in the Theatre S+H (mainly the encounter with traditional puppeteers in the European countries during numerous tours abroad) enabled me to understand that this ancient genre cannot be preserved in its pure form. Perhaps only as a living exhibit in a national museum or as folk-art attraction of a tourist or cultural centre. But at the same time I realized that my principal and teacher, Skupa, had started from this tradition of the folk theatre to introduce an extensive modernizing act, while preserving many of the old puppet principles, such as e.g. "the theatre of types", the interpretation of several parts by one actor, modest noiseless stages, folk humour and the willingness to play even at the smallest stops.

All this I recalled later in the Hradec DRAK, where we succeeded to rehabilitate besides the current types of puppets also the marionettes on wire (which had almost been forgotten) and use them not only in the reconstruction of the traditional repertoire, but also in many fairy-tales and dramatization of literature for children and teenagers. The directors Vildman and Krofta, as well as the script-writers Vítek, Kalfus and Matásek many times proved the artistic as well as dramatic monumentality of the wooden, carved figures, which - as demonstrable artefacts - keep their artistic value also beyond the stage....

Many of the stagings o DRAK purposely used only a few actors similar to the small puppetering family, which I met as a child. It travels from town to town, entertains, excites and perhaps also is somewhat educational. It remains us of the ancient purifying function of the theatre and that not only in the region of East Bohemia, but virtually in the whole world. I am happy to have been able to be a part of this...