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the puppet as a figure of the other final P PIRIS 2013 - Central ...

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CHAPTER IMANIPULACTING AND ALTERITYA <strong>the</strong>atre stage. On that stage a man and a woman dance. They stop, look at each o<strong>the</strong>rand exchange a kiss. This appears to be a cl<strong>as</strong>sical love scene, with a romantic touch.Yet <strong>the</strong>re is an uncanny feeling about it. The man is actually not a man. He is a <strong>puppet</strong>.The woman he is dancing with is a real woman but she is also <strong>the</strong> manipulator <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong><strong>puppet</strong>. Everything becomes more complex. I can see a couple and I can see a lonelywoman. I can see a human being and I can see an object. I can see an actress and I cansee a <strong>puppet</strong>eer. The scene described is from Ur<strong>as</strong>hima Taro, a solo piece performed byAya Nakamura under my direction and produced by Rouge28 Theatre. Thisperformance explores <strong>the</strong> interactions <strong>of</strong> a <strong>puppet</strong>eer with life-sized <strong>puppet</strong>s. Themultitudes <strong>of</strong> doubles describe a new alterity which becomes <strong>the</strong> starting point <strong>of</strong> aquestioning about <strong>the</strong> representation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> O<strong>the</strong>r through <strong>the</strong> <strong>puppet</strong> in contemporary<strong>the</strong>atre.In March 2011, I participated in a workshop led by American m<strong>as</strong>ter <strong>puppet</strong>eer, directorand scholar Roman P<strong>as</strong>ka, organised by <strong>the</strong> Puppet Working Group and <strong>the</strong> Centre <strong>of</strong>International Theatre and Performance Research <strong>of</strong> Royal Holloway in London. P<strong>as</strong>kaargued that <strong>the</strong> use <strong>of</strong> <strong>puppet</strong>ry in contemporary performances could no longer be solelyjustified by tradition, <strong>the</strong> personal t<strong>as</strong>te <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>the</strong>atre-makers or <strong>the</strong> necessity <strong>of</strong> solving14

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