Stories That Matter

Twenty years ago, we released issue #16: Women. Although there has been increased visibility of women and female identifying artists since this issue, there is still much work to do. We are at a seminal moment in our field when a significant number of leading practitioners are women and yet they still face numerous challenges.

In this issue, Women of Puppetry: Past, Present, Future, we are again bringing focus to this pressing theme. Throughout the following pages we bring attention to histories and voices that have been obscured or omitted over time, some important innovators who have not received due credit because they are women, and the stories and issues that these artists bring to the stage, their work and the challenges they face.

As Eve Poole wrote in her book Robot Souls: Programming in Humanity “Stories teach us about who we are, so the more storytelling there is, the more we feel as though we have a place in the world.” And stories matter— not just the content but also who is doing the telling, why and how.

This issue features important contributions of women from Japan, South and North America and Europe; though far from being comprehensive it highlights some of the many women who have been marginalized, erased or ignored. Their stories and the issues that they address in their work bring new perspectives to private and public challenges faced by many around the world.

Felice Amato starts us off with an investigation of women performers working with traditional Italian hand puppets. We then travel to South America where Cecilia Cackley explores the history and development of Teatro Lambe-Lambe. These are followed by two artist reflections (Karly Gesine Bergmann, US; Deborah Villanova, Brazil), an artist interview (Mari Boyd with director Saji Erina) and a feature about Ellen Van Volkenburg by Will Bixby.

We continue to foster scholarship in puppetry with our outstanding peer review editor, Dassia N. Posner, and offer two peer reviewed essays – one by Francesca Di Fazio and a second by Yanna Kor (a longer version is available online via the QR code). In a sense, much of this issue is a who’s who of women artists; our Who’s Who section features artist, educator and lifelong advocate, Carol Sterling. In reviews, we cover two books—Muppets in Moscow: The Unexpected Crazy True Story of Making Sesame Street in Russia and Reading the Puppet Stage: Reflections on the Dramaturgy of Performing Objects—and an online only review of the Beverley Puppet Festival.

We also continue to grow our online Spanish publication with the profile of Pura Belpre that was originally published in English in our Spring/Summer 2022 issue 51: Offstage.

Our next issue will be a spotlight on Korea in honor of the rich history and upcoming UNIMA Congress that will take place in Chuncheon, South Korea from May 26 to 30, 2025 in association with the Chuncheon Puppet Festival that will run from May 23 to June 1, 2025. We hope you enjoy learning about these female artists, the stories and issues that are important to them, and how their work is contributing to a vibrant global puppetry scene.

— Alissa Mello