American Puppet Modernism: Essays on the Material World in Performance

290 Pages·2008·1.931 MB·English

by  John Bell (auth.)

American Puppet Modernism
PALGRAVESTUDIESINTHEATREANDPERFORMANCEHISTORYis a series devoted to the best of
theatre/performance scholarship currently available, accessible and free of jargon. It strives to
include a wide range of topics, from the more traditional to those performance forms that in
recent years have helped broaden the understanding of what theatre as a category might
include (from variety forms as diverse as the circus and burlesque to street buskers, stage magic,
and musical theatre, among many others). Although historical, critical, or analytical studies are
of special interest, more theoretical projects, if not the dominant thrust of a study, but utilized
as important underpinning or as a historiographical or analytical method of exploration, are
also of interest. Textual studies of drama or other types of less traditional performance texts are
also germane to the series if placed in their cultural, historical, social, or political and economic
context. There is no geographical focus for this series and works of excellence of a diverse and
international nature, including comparative studies, are sought.
The editor of the series is Don B. Wilmeth (EMERITUS, Brown University), Ph.D.,
University of Illinois, who brings to the series over a dozen years as editor of a book series on
American theatre and drama, in addition to his own extensive experience as an editor of books
and journals. He is the author of several award-winning books and has received numerous
career achievement awards, including one for sustained excellence in editing from the
Association for Theatre in Higher Education.
Also in the series:
Undressed for Successby Brenda Foley
Theatre, Performance, and the Historical Avant-gardeby Günter Berghaus
Theatre, Politics, and Markets in Fin-de-Siècle Parisby Sally Charnow
Ghosts of Theatre and Cinema in the Brainby Mark Pizzato
Moscow Theatres for Young Peopleby Manon van de Water
Absence and Memory in Colonial American Theatreby Odai Johnson
Vaudeville Wars: How the Keith-Albee and Orpheum Circuits Controlled the Big-Time and Its
Performersby Arthur Frank Wertheim
Performance and Femininity in Eighteenth-Century German Women’s Writingby Wendy Arons
Operatic China: Staging Chinese Identity across the Pacificby Daphne P. Lei
Transatlantic Stage Stars in Vaudeville and Variety: Celebrity Turnsby Leigh Woods
Interrogating America through Theatre and Performanceedited by William W. Demastes and
Iris Smith Fischer
Plays in American Periodicals, 1890–1918by Susan Harris Smith
Representation and Identity from Versailles to the Present: The Performing Subjectby Alan Sikes
Directors and the New Musical Drama: British and American Musical Theatre in the 1980s and 90s
by Miranda Lundskaer-Nielsen
Beyond the Golden Door: Jewish-American Drama and Jewish-American Experience by
Julius Novick
American Puppet Modernism: Essays on the Material World in Performanceby John Bell
American Puppet Modernism
Essays on the Material World
in Performance
John Bell
AMERICANPUPPETMODERNISM
Copyright © John Bell,2008.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2008 978-1-4039-7981-0
All rights reserved.
First published in 2008 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the US—a division of St.Martin’s Press LLC,
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Where this book is distributed in the UK,Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan,a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England,company number 785998,of Houndmills,
Basingstoke,Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom,Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-137-28670-3 ISBN 978-0-230-61376-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230613768
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Bell,John,1951–
American puppet modernism :essays on the material world
in performance / by John Bell.
p.cm.—(Palgrave studies in theatre and performance)
Includes index.
1.Puppet theater—United States.2.Masks—United States.3.Art
objects.I.Title.
PN1978.U6B45 2008
791.5(cid:2)380973—dc22 2007048665
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd.,Chennai,India.
First edition:August 2008
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Transferred to digital printing in 2009.
x
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
Acknowledgments ix
Credits xi
1. Playing with Stuff: The Material World in Performance 1
2. The Sioux War Panorama and American
Mythic History 17
3. Shalako Puppets and Nineteenth-Century Ritual 31
4. The Little Theatre Movement and the Birth
of the American Puppeteer: Midwest
Puppet Modernism 49
5. New York Puppet Modernism: Remo Bufano
and Jane Heap 71
6. Puppets and Propaganda: 1930s Parades in
New York City 97
7. American Puppet Modernism in the 1930s:
Gertrude Stein’s Identity 123
8. From Sorcery to Science: Remo Bufano and World’s
Fair Puppet Theatre 137
9. Performing Objects, Special Effects,
and Mass Media 147
10. Automobile Performance and Kustom Kulture 167
11. Beyond the Cold War: Bread and Puppet
Theater at the End of the Century 189
vi Contents
12. Old and New Materials: Wood, Paper, Metal,
Plastic, Bone 219
Notes 231
Bibliography 255
Publications by John Bell 267
Index 269
x
Illustrations
2.1 “Minnesota Fruit”: Scene 26 of the Sioux War
Panorama: After the Mass Execution of 38 Sioux, the
Frontier Is Made Safe for White Women and Babies 29
3.1 “Arrival of the Shá-la-k’o” 38
6.1 An Inflatable Beast Designed by Tony Sarg
for a 1930s Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade 109
6.2 Young Marchers Carrying an Anti-Nazi Float
on a Wet 1938 May Day Parade in Union Square 121
7.1 “Gertrude Stein, a Playwright” and “Gertrude Stein,
Herself” Both Seated at Their Writing Desks 130
10.1 “Sakana” Vehicle, from the 2005 Burning
Man Festival in Nevada 187
11.1 Teeth Masks and Their Implementation
Machine and Other Tools Prepare to
Control the Grain Puppets 200

x
Acknowledgments
Thanks to the talented editors who looked at earlier versions of this
writing, and the publications that presented that work: Mariellen
Sandford and Richard Schechner (TDR), Loren Kruger (Theatre
Journal), Jan Cohen-Cruz (Radical Street Performance), Ken Thompson
(P-Form), Jeanne Colleran and Jenny S. Spencer (Staging Resistance), and
Arthur Gewirtz and James J. Kolb (Experimenters, Rebels, and Disparate
Voices). Thanks also to Joel Schechter, Peggy Phelan, Stefan Brecht, John
Emigh, Taylor Stoehr, Robert Nichols, George Latshaw (Puppetry Journal),
and Andrew and Bonnie Periale (Puppetry International) who have given
me good advice and great inspiration.
Thanks also to Don Wilmeth, Brigitte Shull, Kristy Lilas and Palgrave
Macmillan; and to Newgen Publishing and Data Services.
Thanks to Laura Helton for research assistance on chapter 8.
Thanks to Peter and Elka Schumann and to all of my friends in the Bread
and Puppet community, including Mabel Dennison, George Konnoff,
Katharina Balke, George Ashley, Don Sunseri, Pascal Ortega, Maurice
Blanc, Murray Levy, and Everett Kinsey.
To Karl Bissinger and Grace Paley.
To Great Small Works: Trudi Cohen, Stephen Kaplin, Jenny Romaine,
Roberto Rossi, and Mark Sussman.
Thank you to Larissa Harris, Joe Zane, Meg Roetzel, Tracy Daniels, and my
other colleagues at the Center for Advanced Visual Studies at MIT.
To Dean David Woods, Ted Yungclas, Bart Roccoberton, Stefano Brancato,
and my other colleagues at the Ballard Institute and Museum of Puppetry
and at the University of Connecticut.
Thanks to my colleagues at UNIMA-USA, Performance Studies International,
ASTR, and my friends from Emerson College including Samuel Binkley and
Elizabeth Whitney of the Works-in-Progress Circle.