WiP

Globally puppetry and object performance are experiencing a singular historic moment: a significant majority of leading innovative directors and practitioners working today are women. This is in direct contrast to the canon of puppetry studies that assumes male artists dominate particularly as directors, and in the development of new aesthetics and performance techniques. Women in Puppetry (WiP) will, through deep exploration of artistic practice, creative labour and conditions of work, uncover the disciplinary and cultural significance of this moment. The overarching research question is: How is the landscape of puppetry and performing objects being altered by the centrality of women as leaders and what is gained from an understanding of their artistic practice? This 5-year research project will analyze the work of a cross-section of twenty-five women practitioners at different career stages and levels of name recognition in five geographical regions who are reshaping the artform. The investigation seeks to understand what conditions led to this moment, the ways—aesthetic, dramaturgical, methodological—that women are contributing to the form, and how women are using puppetry and object performance to grapple with personal, social, geopolitical and sometimes taboo issues in public spaces and venues. By centering women as the site of study in field that has historically been defined as male, WiP seeks to ambitiously launch a fundamental stepchange in the perception of and future research about puppetry and object performance, demonstrating its significance as a form of human representation and as a site of cultural knowledge.