It was a delight to signify UNIMA-USA as a Councilor on the UNIMA Worldwide Congress in Chuncheon, South Korea. This was my second time collaborating in an UNIMA Congress and each experiences have confirmed that the very best a part of any Congress is gathering with individuals from around the globe concerned in puppetry as performers, lecturers, students, and producers—assembly outdated pals and making new ones—and chatting over meals or whereas attending reveals to make amends for everybody’s tasks and picture new potentialities for the longer term. At a historic second framed by worldwide conflicts, it was heartening to know that puppetry continues to be an inventive discipline of generosity through which individuals work with goodwill in direction of mutual understanding and collaboration.
The primary day of the Congress was dedicated to honoring the awardees of this years’ Heritage Awards, celebrated for his or her efforts in preserving puppetry traditions and historical past. Among the many awardees who attended in individual have been the Japanese hakomawashi performers, Nakauchi Masako and Minami Kumiyo, hakomawashi scholar, collector, and museum curator, Tsujimoto Kazuhide, and Japanese kuruma ningyō (cart puppetry) performer, Nishikawa Koryū V, all of whose work I’ve written about and whom I nominated for these awards. It was an honor, within the couple of minutes allotted, for me to introduce the Congress to the necessary points of those Japanese traditions and the work the winners have put in to reviving and sustaining them. (To see the total listing of UNIMA Heritage Award winners, go to https://www.unima.org/en/unima-heritage-awards/) Heritage Fee Chair, Idoya Otegui, and Fee members Nancy Staub, Kathy Foley, and others did a fantastic job in reviving the awards and bringing the occasion to fruition.
Additional shout-outs are as a consequence of UNIMA-USA representatives— Nancy Staub, Kristin Haverty, Chad Williams, Jeanne Marie Kevins, and Manuel Moran—who, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, attended Congress classes on-line regardless of the ungodly hours of the occasions in US time zones. Chad offered the UNIMA-USA report, cataloging UNIMA-USA’s full vary of tasks and actions over the previous few years, whereas Kristin gave the report for UNIMA’s Communications Fee, which she headed up. Kurt Hunter, Kathy Foley, Dimitri Carter, Karen Smith, and I made up UNIMA-USA’s on-site illustration, with Karen ending her time period as UNIMA President and Dimitri serving as Consultant-At-Giant. Each Kathy Foley and Karen Smith grew to become UNIMA Members of Honor, Karen publicly receiving the honour bestowed on her in 2021, alongside different honorees. (For the total listing of UNIMA Members of Honor, go to www https://www.unima.org/en/members-of-honor/). Kathy Foley’s name, in her speech, to keep in mind that the great thing about puppetry ought to at all times lead our work, was quoted repeatedly by admiring colleagues all through the remainder of the week.
Crucial motion the Congress took was to elect a brand new Govt Committee with Louise Lapointe, from Canada, as President and Fabrizio Montecchi, from Italy, as Basic Secretary. These two put forth a proposal that outlines utilizing the subsequent 4 years to rework UNIMA, reimagining the group on the event of its one centesimal anniversary for the twenty first century. Importantly, they purpose to institute reforms for tedious organizational issues to be addressed in on-line conferences in order that in individual gatherings can take higher benefit of bringing puppetry lovers collectively. The least interesting a part of Congresses has undoubtedly been the extreme time spent clarifying and voting on motions to alter the group’s statutes. With an inspiring incoming Govt Committee boasting members from throughout the globe, the Congress led to a spirit of optimism, particularly for the upcoming one centesimal anniversary Congress be held in 2029 in Prague, the town the place UNIMA was based. (For the total Govt Committee members listing, see https://www.unima.org/en/announcement-results-of-the-executive-committee-election-2025-2029/),
UNIMA Korea went all out to offer a heat welcome and wealthy expertise for Congress members. Highlights of the Congress, exterior of the assembly classes, included an tour to Nami Island, the place delegates walked in nature, watched a sequence of one-person lambe-lambe performances, or woo-joo applications as they’re identified in Korea, and loved a lavish Korean BBQ. We additionally dined one evening at a restaurant specializing in an area dish the place spicy rooster, greens, and rice are cooked in a skillet at your desk and eaten wrapped in lettuce leaves. In an occasion hosted by UNIMA Canada, UNIMA launched the primary UNIMAGAZINE, a publication with articles drawn from the numerous puppetry magazines printed by UNIMA chapters around the globe. UNIMA-USA contributed Deniz Khateri’s profile of puppeteer Pura Belpré and Ana Lorite’s article “From Fingers to Hearts: The Cross-Cultural Affect of Puppetry.” The journal is obtainable in laborious copy or pdf at https://www.unima.org/en/unimagazine/. The Congress was preceded by a one-day symposium of papers and panels on the theme of Crossing Borders with fascinating shows from a spread of artists and students.
The Chunchon puppetry competition, going down alongside the Congress, provided its personal wonderful highlights. UNIMA delegates, together with competition performers and group teams, walked within the opening evening parade down Chuncheon’s primary streets. It was one of the vital sturdy puppet parades I’ve been a part of and led to a plaza surrounded by bleachers stuffed with enthusiastic locals. After we made our spherical of the plaza—large-scale figures earlier than and after us crammed each the bodily area and the large projection display screen behind it— we have been stunned by the overwhelming finale. It included a marching band, a refrain of singing youngsters, one other group of kids on stilts, a troupe of dancers transferring with massive white feathers, a number of monumental white chook puppets, and, lastly, an eruption of confetti because the picture of Cocobau, the competition mascot, spun in mild projections throughout the close by buildings. A shocking spectacle! With thirty-two years of expertise producing puppet festivals, Chunchon proved it is aware of the way to rejoice opening evening! Chuncheon’s mayor gave a speech right here and at a number of different occasions, together with different municipal cultural and humanities officers. The closing ceremonies for the Congress have been equally extravagant, with a buffet dinner at a restaurant referred to as Santorini on the highest of a mountain providing a spectacular view of Chunchon, and performances by a up to date dance troupe, marionette artists, and a musical duo drawing from shamanic music.
The competition occurred at a number of places round city, however was primarily concentrated at Chuncheon’s puppet theatre complicated, with “off” or fringe performances at outside phases all through the grounds. The majority of the choices have been geared toward youngsters and household audiences, with many very polished Korean troupes performing. Worldwide troupes, like Papermoon theatre from Indonesia, have been additionally included within the competition. One spotlight, not for youngsters, was a present from Haddangse Theatre Firm that the total Congress attended collectively, with a talkback afterwards. Gulliver’s Travels: Zoom In Out, a couple of Korean girl’s expertise of displacement throughout her time in Australia, provided intelligent experimentation with easy applied sciences. At a celebration the place the protagonist feels so out-of-place that she appears to have shrunk in stature, she is represented by a pre-recorded video of her in movement performed on a cellular phone. Within the recording, she runs ahead because the friends on the occasion drag the cellphone throughout the desk, giving the looks that she is operating away from them throughout the tabletop. They’d friends seem to dung the cellphone in a glass of water (inserting it behind the glass) because the pre-recorded actor on the cellphone makes an attempt to swim up and out of the glass. In one other sequence, a projection makes the protagonist seem as an enormous in opposition to the opposite performers, achieved from the digital camera’s perspective on the association of actors on stage. The straightforward use of cell telephones and projected imagery, completed in entrance of the viewers, to create these stage illusions provided an modern tackle the thought of puppetry and character manipulation.
After the Congress and competition ended, I used to be lucky to take part within the week-long Eumma Conventional Korean Puppetry Workshop sponsored by UNIMA-USA and UC Santa Cruz, organized by Kathy Foley, Mina Kyounghye Kwon, and Jungmin Track. It kicked off with a day symposium throughout which every of the contributors gave a proper presentation on their work or analysis space, which included utilizing puppets in instructing youngsters with particular wants, crafting cardboard in puppet building, subjects in conventional Korean puppetry scholarship, and the usage of nature as objects in modern performances, amongst others. The workshop was led by Daejin Eum and his gifted workforce at their studio area exterior Seoul. Participatns realized to carve and construct wood puppets based mostly on figures from a Korean folks puppetry. There have been additionally classes in drumming and masked dancing which might be all a part of the shape. Whereas some contributors, like Dimitri Carter, Bradford Clark, and Kay Yasugi (from UNIMA Australia), are skilled carvers, this was my first time carving wooden, and the artists have been extraordinarily supportive at each step. By the top of the workshop I had (with plenty of assist) accomplished a puppet modeled on a standard determine, an outdated man named Pak Cheomji, with a mouth that opens and closes and arms that go up and down. He sports activities a wild mane of white hair created from sheepskin and conventional Korean gown. On the ultimate day we carried out our puppets within the studio, from behind a display screen the troupe arrange, accompanied by their skilled drumming. It was an exhilarating fruits to a full week of occasions. Eum’s and his colleagues have been affected person and beneficiant all through and offered us every with official certificates of completion on the finish. Mina and Min (Jungmin) helped with translation all week lengthy. Following the top of the workshop correct, Mina organized a one-day workshop for us with a standard Songpa masked dance troupe. We realized about their masked characters and tried out their strikes. The next day, she led us on an tour to Hahoe Village, a UNESCO Tangible Tradition Heritage village, a two-hour prepare trip from Seoul, that can also be house to a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage masked-dance type. We spoke briefly with the performers who nonetheless follow this custom earlier than catching their masterful efficiency at a packed outside stage. Hahoe can also be house to a formidable masks museum, with masks from Korea’s quite a few masks efficiency traditions in addition to different types from around the globe.
The 2 weeks I spent in Korea have been wealthy and full and helped me higher perceive and admire each Korea’s modern puppetry scene and its performing arts heritage. I’m grateful for the assist of UNIMA-USA, Hunter School, and UC Santa Cruz (courtesy of Kathy Foley) that allowed me to participate in all these life reworking occasions.
