ABSTRACT Title of Dissertation: THE PHENOMENOLOGY OF ...

and his beard, which show his age, his body shares many characteristics with that of
Portia.
Fig. 30. “Scene from The Taming of the Shrew.” Photograph by Tony Sarg’s
Marionettes. Copied from: Cyril W. Beaumont, Puppets and the Puppet Stage (New
York: Studio Productions, 1938), 67.
Likewise, his blackface puppets are wide-eyed with otherwise human forms.
They have sculpted torsos indicating a muscular human physique. He painted their skins
with the darkest black, the single detail that suggests their race. They stand tall and one
even smiles, leaving aside any stereotype of angry, threatening cannibals or of subhuman
African genetics (walking with a hunch, for example). As a total costume, their
decorative body paint, spears and shields, and grass skirts indicate a broad fantasy of
African tribal warriors. Yet they are less distorted than any previous blackface puppets
under consideration in this essay. It seems that efforts to embed the field of puppetry
with greater realism can lead to more human-like depictions of black characters.
Sarg’s techniques show an interaction between the strains of exaggeration and
imagined authenticity, governed by McPharlin’s categorical distinction. His efforts to
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