Abstract:
Contemporary actor training increasingly requires interdisciplinary approaches to
presence, embodiment, and ensemble practice. This paper examines puppetry’s
pedagogical potential through a practice-based case study of OTT – On the Table,
a tabletop Bunraku-inspired performance created by Theatre Arts students at the
University of Hyderabad, exploring bodily awareness, object animation, ensemble
sensitivity, and hybrid performance strategies. The work resulted from a series of 15-day
intensive workshops led by yours truly consecutively for the batches since 2022 to till
date, which emphasised breath awareness and ensemble coordination and object/figure
manipulation. Students engaged in the complete process of designing, constructing, and
animating puppets – integrating materiality with performativity. Observations, training
and rehearsal analysis, and participants’ reflections traced the study’s insights into how
puppetry reshaped their engagement with performance. And how can hybrid pedagogy
be developed by integrating puppetry towards the contemporary actor training, achieving
fundamentals of performativity? Puppetry enriched actor training by developing spatial
awareness, physical precision, and sensitivity to movement. Bunraku-inspired ensemble
work strengthened coordination, rhythm, and responsiveness. Puppet construction and
animation encouraged alternative approaches to storytelling and embodiment, expanding
students’ understanding of presence, agency, materiality, and non-human performativity
while connecting traditional puppetry with contemporary performance practices.The
research affirms puppetry as a transformative pedagogical tool, capable of reframing
the actor’s process through externalised expression, ensemble collaboration, and
interdisciplinary exploration. By bridging traditional and emerging techniques, puppetry
cultivates adaptability and creative agency, preparing actors for the contemporary
performance context. Far from a peripheral practice, puppetry emerges as a vital medium
for rethinking narrative structures and actor-body relationships within modern training
environments.
