Towards a Definition of Applied Puppetry: Five articles defining a new field
- Submitting institution
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University of Portsmouth
- Unit of assessment
- 33 - Music, Drama, Dance, Performing Arts, Film and Screen Studies
- Output identifier
- 26322600
- Type
- T - Other
- DOI
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- Location
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- Brief description of type
- A multicomponent output consisting of three articles and two chapters published in volumes derived from conference proceedings.
- Open access status
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- Month
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- Year
- 2016
- URL
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- Supplementary information
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- Request cross-referral to
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- Output has been delayed by COVID-19
- No
- COVID-19 affected output statement
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- Forensic science
- No
- Criminology
- No
- Interdisciplinary
- No
- Number of additional authors
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0
- Research group(s)
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B - Music, Dance, Drama and Performing Arts
- Proposed double-weighted
- No
- Reserve for an output with double weighting
- No
- Additional information
- Towards a Definition of Applied Puppetry is a multicomponent output consisting of five components: three articles and two chapters published in volumes derived from conference proceedings. They are all concerned with defining ‘Applied Puppetry’, a term coined by Smith to capture puppetry practices applied in community and education settings. Smith’s research proposes that a sensitive, flexible use of puppetry, accounting for power structures involving human bodies and non-human networks, is key to understanding the practice critically and for adopting ethical puppetry in community contexts (schools, youth groups, children in care, special needs groups, prisons, hospitals and with environmental agencies).
The research, intended for academics, practitioners and communities, focuses on how to approach Applied Puppetry in theory and practice. It developed through international forums concerned with professional puppetry: Hands On, 2014; Defining European Puppetry in Croatia, 2015; Puppeteers of America Conference, 2016; ‘Objects with Objectives’ AHRC research network, 2016; Broken Puppet Symposium, 2018.
In component 1, Smith develops the concept of Applied Puppetry in relation to the wider field of Applied Theatre. In component 2, the historical precedents for the field are explored and critiqued as a heuristic for future practices. In component 3, the application of Applied Puppetry is understood through its employment within an Immigration Removal Centre. Component 4 suggests that a new ethics of ‘hand to hand’ is a part of the practice of Applied Puppetry and central to how practitioners and scholars engage with this form. Component 5 is the introduction to a special issue of Applied Theatre Research, co-authored with Laura Purcell-Gates. That publication brings together the work of international scholars who are researching Applied Puppetry as an efficacious practice. Considered as a whole, this group of articles defines and establishes Applied Puppetry as a field that impacts knowledge and exchanges using this form.
- Author contribution statement
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- Non-English
- No
- English abstract
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