Object Theatre

What is object theatre? It’s a form of puppetry in which instead of using puppets, or objects designed for a use in puppetry, we’re using everyday objects such as bottles, mugs, or pieces of newspaper. They could be used on their own, or used to create some kind of provisional puppet. To work it requires a lot of skills from the puppeteer and imagination of the audience. It also requires suspension of disbelief from the audience as well.

Some people, such as Christian Carrignon say that object theatre has a lot in common with cinema. However in a contrary to film, in which the director and editor decide what’s important to see by film editing, a puppeteer has to draw audience’s attention. “The object theatre is like movies turned into a performance. Cinema is its main predecessor. Both forms use the lights and the editing to create the structure of the story.”(2013). Another point that he raises is the fact that the audience has to recognise the object immediately, but what I actually think is the most important, and is mentioned by him next, is the metaphor. These objects have to represent something else that they’re in fact are. I would say that object theatre is one big metaphor, which is also challenging for the artists and really show his skills.

Cesc Martínez, 2013. How to use object theatre, by Christian Carrignon [online]. Available at: http://www.puppetring.com/2013/02/21/how-to-use-object-theatre-by-christian-carrignon/ [Date accessed at: 27.11.2014]

Taylor Bailey, 2014. Let’s Talk About Object Theater: An Interview With Dan Kerr-Hobert [online] Available at:http://neofuturists.org/2014/01/lets-talk-object-theatre-interview-dan-kerr-hobert/ [Date accessed: 27.11.2014]

Justin Cash, 2013. Object Theatre [online] Available at: http://www.thedramateacher.com/object-theatre/ [Date accessed: 27.11.2014]