Claudia Orenstein is Professor of Theatre at Hunter College and the Graduate Center, CUNY. She has spent over a decade writing on contemporary and traditional puppetry in the US and Asia.

Tim Cusack is Adjunct Lecturer in Theatre at Hunter College. He was the co-founder and artistic director of Theatre Askew, an independent theatre company dedicated to the exploration of representations of queerness onstage. Puppetry has always been an aspect of his creative process.

List of Figures

List of editors and contributors

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Introduction

Claudia Orenstein and Tim Cusack

SECTION I: Shamanic Lineages

1. Puppets and Souls: Some Encounters in Korean Shaman Ritual

Laurel Kendall

2. Mamulengo and Spirituality: Are There Still Some Connections?

Izabela Brochado

3. Sogo bò: The Puppet Remains the Soul of the People, an Interview with Yaya Coulibaly

Heather Jeanne Denyer

4. The Hula Ki`i, The Dance of the Sacred Image, Hawaiian Puppetry: N¿pali Souza Interview with Auli'i Mitchell

N¿pali Souza and Auli'i Mitchell

SECTION II: Communal Celebrations

5. Japanese Karakuri Ningy¿ and the Performance of Shinto

Yasuko Senda and William Condee

6. Superhuman Superpowers: Puppets and Masks of Bhaona from the Assam Region of India

Deepsikha Chatterjee

7. Wayang Ritual Drama of Cirebon: Continuance of a Kratophanic Tradition

Matthew Isaac Cohen

8. "I Have Come to Do a Purification": Interview with Masako Nakauchi and Kimiyo Minami

Tomoe Kobayashi and Simon Moers

SECTION III: Powerful Players

9. Passing Down Through Shadows: Chinese Shadow Puppetry's Ghostly Transmission

Annie Katsura Rollins

10. The Matter That Matters: An Exploration of Power and Materiality in Thai Nang Yai

Claudia Orenstein

11. Consecrated Puppets: The Puppet Deities of Southern China and Taiwan

Robin Ruizendaal

12. Exploring Spirituality in Tholpavakoothu Shadow Puppetry of Kerala: A Conversation with Puppeteer Ramachandra Pulavar

Sangeeth Sankar A. and Rahul Koonathara

SECTION IV: Doctrinal Dialogues

13. Islam, Animism and Animation of Objects: Growth and Restrictions of Puppetry Under the Shadow of Religion

Salma Mohseni Ardehali and Mir Mohammadreza Heydari

14. Saintly Puppet Masters and Sacred Clowning: Antinomian Religion and Patterns in Islamic Puppetry of Java

Kathy Foley

15. Performing Death: A Medieval Puppet of Christ

Michelle K. Oing

SECTION V: Holding Heritage

16. The Enchanted Kaavad: Hierophany in Motion

Nina Sabnani

17. Forging a Material Connection to the Divine: The Life Cycle Rituals of the Sefer Torah

Joseph Maybloom

Index