Social change through beauty and fun: Paperhand Puppet Project

The first time I saw the huge puppets was in a demonstration march sometime in the 1980s. I was a child, so I don’t remember if I saw it on television or in person. My parents went to marches and demonstrations sometimes, so it might have been there. The puppets may have been from Bread & Puppet Theater itself, or by any number of puppeteers or companies inspired by their work.

Puppets really seared themselves in my mind as an art form and powerful communication tool in the early 1990s when I was a teenager, just at the time when my interest in theater was solidifying into being my primary personal and professional interest. I don’t know the company that was performing, but it was at an outdoor arts festival in Pittsburgh. They caught my eye because I had seen large puppets like them before, in the context of the demonstrations, but here they were in performance.

I recall that I was watching at some distance. I didn’t see the performance from the beginning, but time stopped as I watched through to the end. I saw a mother and child, build in with large heads and hands and bodies of fabric. As I watched I slowly realized that the performance was about torture and rape happening in the Balkan Wars at the time. The mother puppet would get taken away. The child would be distressed and wondering where she went. When the mother puppet returned, she was distraught and crying, and the child felt helpless to comfort her. The show concluded with the mother puppet turning into an angel or a spirit and flying away, representing her death. The child was left behind and other women came along to care for him.

I’m moved just remembering it 30 years later. It was poignant and sad, beautiful and simple. I felt unsettled and in tune with the unending sadness and helplessness of that child. The piece didn’t say exactly what was happening when the mother was taken away, but it didn’t need to. The horror was communicated just as clearly as a television news story with real film footage. In fact, the impact on the audience was probably much deeper than most news coverage of the war because the human experience was conveyed in such an effective way.

If you’ve ready my other posts in this series on arts and political action, you know I’m partial to indirect, simple, beautiful, satirical and funny means of inspiring political action through the arts (“No Gatekeepers” Part 1: Make your own guerrilla National Parks Guides, “No Gatekeepers” Part 2: Yarnbombers, How much can we expect from artists that get involved in politics?). That experience of the puppet show about the Balkan Wars was a seminal moment in my aesthetic development and in my developing point of view about the power and role of arts in society.

Paperhand Puppet Project is a company based near me in Saxapahaw, NC. They are a company in the lineage of Bread & Puppet Theater, with a focus on climate change. I’ve seen their work many times since I moved to North Carolina in 2008, mostly through their annual summer performances at the Forest Theater which is right across from PlayMakers Repertory Company, where worked for several years. The performances are about 2 hours long, and always about themes of climate change. The plot line is loose, with divergences, and songs. The dozens of puppeteers and musicians travel all around the stage and into the audience. They play on long time theatrical traditions like having a villain that eggs the audience on to boo. There are animals, people, spiritual beings, flora and fauna. It’s family friendly, but doesn’t pull back from clear messages about the harm happening to our planet. It’s a loose atmosphere, with the audience getting up and down, eating and drinking.

The experience is entirely joyful. Paperhand was my son’s first theater experience when he was about 2 years old. At a time when he had the typical toddler’s attention, he was entirely focused and tuned in the whole time (though supported by plenty of snacks). My favorite way to experience that performance is to go to an evening performance. By the time the show has ended, the sun has set. Paperhand ends the show in a way that uses the darkening sky to its greatest effect. I recall one show that ended with a puppet lit from the inside that glowed. Puppeteers paraded it up and down through the audience to the delight of everyone of all ages. The shows often offer a coda or recap through shadow puppets.

Paperhand moves their activism forward along several lines in addition to the content of their performances and parades. They model mutual support by inviting the public into their process to help build the puppets and volunteer puppeteers. Paperhand passes on their knowledge to other puppeteers. Their performances are low cost and welcoming and easy to attend. Sustainability is built into their work, using recyclable materials and reusing materials as much as possible.

Puppets from their history recently had an exhibition here in Greensboro at GreenHill Center for NC Art, and I got the chance to see the puppets up close. The skill and craft involved were amazing to see up close – I encourage you to click on this link so you can see some photos of their work for yourself.

Seeing the puppets up close brought it all full circle—the awe I felt as a child, the emotional awakening as a teenager, and now the deep appreciation as an adult who works in the arts. Puppet theater like Paperhand’s doesn’t just entertain; it teaches, provokes, and connects us to each other and to urgent issues in ways few other art forms can. It’s joyful, yes—but also radical, generous, and profoundly human.