Marionette

A marionette (/ˌmæriəˈnɛt/ MARR-ee-ə-NET; French: marionnette [maʁjɔnɛt] ⓘ) is a puppet controlled from above using wires or strings depending on regional variations.

[1] Marionettes are operated with the puppeteer hidden or revealed to an audience by using a vertical or horizontal control bar in different forms of theatres or entertainment venues.

During the Middle Ages, string puppets were often used in France to depict biblical events, with the Virgin Mary being a popular character, hence the name.

[citation needed] There is evidence that they were used in Egypt as early as 2000 BC when string-operated figures of wood were manipulated to act kneading bread and other string-controlled objects.

Marionette puppetry was used to display rituals and ceremonies using these string-operated figurines back in ancient times and is still used today.

[10] In ancient Greece and Rome clay and ivory dolls, dated from around 500 BC, were found in children's tombs.

[11] The Indian word sutradhara, from sutra, refers to the show-manager of theatrical performances (or a puppet-player), and also means literally 'string-puller' or 'string-holder'.

[12] The sides of donkey carts are decorated with intricate, painted scenes from the Frankish romantic poems, such as The Song of Roland.

The Opera di Pupi, Sicilian puppet theatre, was relisted on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008.

In the UK the renaissance of Marionettes during the late 19th and early 20th century was driven by Harry Whanslaw and Waldo Lanchester, two of the co-founders of the British Puppet and Model Theatre Guild.

The barge is based in Little Venice, London during the winter months and tours to places such as Richmond Upon Thames during the summer.

In 1953, it began producing television series with productions such as Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer and Urmel aus dem Eis.

Aicher was heavily influenced by Count Franz Pocci who founded the Munich Marionette Theatre in Germany in 1855.

For me, it is the process of empathizing with mind and soul, of feeling at one with music and movement that bring these much-loved creatures to life."

The Salzburg Marionette Theatre performs mainly operas such as Die Fledermaus and The Magic Flute and a small number of ballets such as The Nutcracker.

The late Phillip Edmiston performed with his Queensland Marionette Theatre a range of productions including the spectacular The Grand Adventure.

In the United States, several groups have established permanent theatres or touring programs dedicated to spotlighting marionette performances.

[citation needed] The Bil Baird theatre in Greenwich Village closed in 1987 but was a nationally recognized treasure[citation needed] that presented countless shows to families for over a decade, including their contribution to film and television with the famous Lonely Goatherd scene from The Sound of Music.

[citation needed] His manipulation and ability to transfer lifelike movement to the inanimate has been compared to the German master puppeteer, Albrecht Roser.

[citation needed] Joseph Cashore has been touring the United States for over 30 years with a collection of self-designed marionettes.

In the 1950s, Bil Baird and Cora Eisenberg presented a great number of marionette shows for television, and were also responsible for the Lonely Goatherd sequence from the classic film The Sound of Music.

Another program for children using puppetry was the Magic Circle Club featuring puppets Cassius Cuckoo and Leonardo de Funbird.

They were usually shown under the title Watch With Mother The various programmes included Whirligig, The Woodentops, Bill and Ben, Muffin The Mule, Rubovia a series created by Gordon Murray and Andy Pandy.

[21] During the 1970s in the UK TV series using marionettes include The Adventures of Rupert Bear, Mumfie and Cloppa Castle.

Team America: World Police is a 2004 movie made by South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker which uses a crude, naive, childlike style of Supermarionation as in Thunderbirds.

Matt Stone and Trey Parker dubbed their version "Supercrappymation" due to the fact they intentionally left the strings visible, among other reasons.

Also appearing in 2004 was the full-length, award-winning marionette fantasy film Strings, directed by Anders Rønnow Klarlund.

Another variation of the vertical control is found in Europe usually a rigid wire rod extends from the centre of the head upward and is fixed rigidly to the control, The leg bar is inserted through the main upright but pivots on a pin to allow movement of the legs.

A BBC article explains how this craft saved Czech culture and language from being eradicated in favor of German.