Shadow Theater and Puppetry Resources
We’ve gathered a curated collection of shadow theater and puppetry resources for artists, educators, and anyone curious about the form. Explore the lists below to learn more about shadow theater’s history, practices, and contemporary expressions.
General
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This 15 page manual was written by ShadowLight artist, Ramon Abad, and created as a practical beginners guide to creating a shadow theatre performance. The manual lays out modern and traditional techniques of casting shadows. There are directions and illustrations on how to create light sources, construct moving puppets, build a screen, and paint scenery.
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In this Spark! episode "Telling Stories," follows puppet master Larry Reed as he and the Gamelan Sekar Jaya orchestra prepare for a performance of "Wayang Bali: Dangerous Flowers" at the Julia Morgan Theatre, in Berkeley, California.
Education
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ShadowLight Productions is excited to offer this resource to educators, which can be used in a myriad of ways from exploring immigration today, addressing stereotypes and bullying to inspiring students to tell their own stories, and more! The curriculum and activities for the Ghosts of the River DVD can be followed directly or can be used as a springboard to launch in-depth classroom projects.
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Introduces students to shadow puppetry in the Indonesian tradition, including the role of the puppeteer and the gamelan musicians that accompany him, as well as the history and traditions of the art form. This manual is written to accompany the Spark! video "Telling Stories" which you can view at the KQED webpage.
Online Resources
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Indonesian Shadow Theatre and Rod Puppets
Art in Greece - Karaghiozi Shadow Theater
Perhaps the world's largest bibliography on shadow theatre including hundreds of listings of books, periodicals, audio, slides, and museums
Bibliography on puppetry
FKA Canadian Museum of Civilization
The Great Shadow Play of Nang Yai
Mahidol University
Henson International Festival of Puppet Theatre
Information on past festivals and tours and a resources page
International Shadow Theatre and Festival
Promotes and carries out research into the art of the contemporary shadow theatre
Karaghiozis
Greek shadow theater. Karaghiozis (Karagiozis) includes history, masters, plays, discussions, links, shops, and more
Manual Cinema is an Emmy Award-winning performance collective, design studio, and film/video production company founded in 2010 by Drew Dir, Sarah Fornace, Ben Kauffman, Julia Miller, and Kyle Vegter. Manual Cinema combines handmade shadow puppetry, cinematic techniques, and innovative sound and music to create immersive stories for stage and screen.
The first theater troupe that is focused on the development of the contemporary puppet arts in Taiwan
UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette)
The oldest international theater association in the world, with chapters in 43 countries
If you have a suggestion for a business/organization that should be on this list or if you would like your business/org on this list, please send us a message via our Contact Us Form.
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A nonprofit organization whose purpose is to foster awareness and understanding of the world's performing arts traditions through programs of performance, teaching, and cultural travel
Balungan is an international journal that presents both scholarly and artistic perspectives on Indonesian and international gamelan music and related performing arts
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MetroActive Arts | Top of the Art Honoring 50 who nurture
San Francisco's creative scene
ORIAS | UC Berkeley Office of Resources for International and Area Studies
Teaching Professional Development & Curriculum Resources
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United States chapter of UNIMA (Union Internationale de la Marionnette)
Listings of puppet production companies, conferences and scholarships; paid membership
Guide to adult and children's theatre links and events in the United States, free online newsletter and grants information
Provides information, encourages performances, and builds a community of people who love puppet theatre
Lists theatre companies, workshops, internships, and performances nationally and internationally
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Contains theatre, audition and job listings, offers grant programs for emerging theatre companies and local theatre artists, buy tickets online
San Francisco Bay Area Puppetry Guild
Members share their skills, ideas, performances and know-how to advance the art of puppetry, lists events, free newsletter
Young Audiences of Northern California
Offers comprehensive arts education, professional development and planning services
Serves the world, traditional, and folk dance communities of Northern California by presenting and advancing multicultural performing arts
GSJ is a nonprofit volunteer organization dedicated to the study and presentation of traditional and contemporary Balinese performing arts.
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Acclaimed Balinese performing artist, I Nyoman Sumandhi was born into a long line of Balinese dalangs (shadow puppet masters)
A Lumia arts collective that uses shadow casting and hybridized art forms to create magical acts of rebellion as experimental art in the gold rush climate of the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. Expanding into film/animation, theater/opera, puppetry, and sculptural installation, Facing West Shadows creates surprising experiences for the audience by seamlessly combining old and new technologies and art forms.
Odd Savvy
A movement company that uses experimental, abstract theater and puppetry concepts to create sonic-visual poems.
Graduated with a BS in Entomology from UC Davis and currently off exploring the intersections between a career in the natural sciences, education, and movement arts in the Bay Area. Evidence of some endeavors can now be found published in Fae’s Anatomy by Hebanon Games and in an odd children’s book here and there. In the winter months, you may still catch me shadowmancing with Shadowlight Productions.
Ramon Abad (he/his) is a proud Filipino American puppeteer, artist, and teacher based in San Francisco, CA, acknowledged as unceded Ramaytush Ohlone land.
Teatro Gioco Vita was founded in 1971, among the first Italian organizations to play a leading role in the theatrical animation movement.
A Portland Oregon based company specializing in the art of shadow puppetry
Since its founding in 2014, Chipotle Teatro has specialized in shadow theater, being one of the few companies in Mexico specializing in this theatrical discipline. Currently, it has a background that includes both performing and film arts.
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Bima Suarga: a Balinese Shadow Play Performed by I.B. Ngurah
Article by C. L. Reed, in Asian Theater Journal, vol.3 number 1, 1986.
Asian Puppets: Wall to the World
by UCLA Museum of Cultural History. Los Angeles. 1976.
Bhima Swarga: The Balinese Journey of the Soul
by Idanna Pucci. Singapore, Little, Brown & Company, 1992.
Charleville...Au Fil De La Marionnette
by Bernard Chopplet and Pierre Huard. Lyon, La Manufacture, 1985.
Edward Gordon Craig: Designs for the Theatre
by Janet Leeper. England, Penguin Books, 1948.
Hand Shadows: To Be Thrown Upon The Wall
by Henry Bursill. New York, Dover Publications, 1967.
How to be a Puppeteer
by Eleanor Boylan. New York, McCall Publishing Co. 1970.
Images of Asia: Javanese Shadow Puppets
by Ward Keeler. New York, Oxford University Press, 1992.
Java: A Garden Continuum
by: George A Fowler, Jr, Roggie Cale and Joe C. Bartlett, Singapore: Amerasian Ltd, 1974.
Javanese Wayang Kulit: An Introduction
by Edward C. Van Ness and Shita Prawirohardjo. Malaysia, Oxford University Press, 1980.
Lordly Shades: Wayang Purwa Indonesia
by Pandam Guritno. Jakarta: Bapak Probosoetedjo, 1984.
Music in Bali
by Lisa Gold. New York, Oxford University Press, 2005.
Mythology and the Tolerance of the Javanese
by Benedict R. O'G. Anderson. New York, Cornell Modern Indonesia Project, 1996.
On the Thrones of Gold: Three Javanese Shadow Plays
by James R. Brandon. Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1993.
Puppets, Masks, and Performing Objects
by John Bell. London, TDR Books, 2001.
Puppetry: A World History
by Eileen Blumenthal. New York, Harry N Abrams Publishing, 2005.
Schattentheater: Band I: Autoren + Akteure
by Rainer Reusch. Germany, Schwäbisch Gmünd, 1997.
Schattentheater: Band 2: Kunst + Technik
by Rainer Reusch. Germany, Schwäbisch Gmünd, 2001.
Schattentheater: Band 3: Theorie + Praxis
by Rainer Reusch. Germany, Schwäbisch Gmünd, 2005.
Shadows of Life, (Nang Talung), Thai Popular Shadow Theatre
by Sven Broman. Thailand, White Orchid Books, 1995.
Shadow Puppets
by Olive Blackman. London, Barrie and Rochiliff. 1960.
Shadow Puppets In Color
by Louise Cochrane. London, Chatto & Windus Ltd. 1972.
Shadow Puppets, Shadow Theatres and Shadow Films
by: Lotte Reiniger. Boston, Publishers Plays, Inc. 1970.
Shadow Theatre in Java: The Puppets, Performance, and Repertoire
by: Alit Djajasoebrata. Amsterdam, The Pepin Press. 1999.
Strings, Hands, Shadows: A Modern Puppet History
by: John Bell. USA, The Detroit Institute of Arts, 2000.
Sur le Theatre de Marionnettes
by Heinrich von Kleist. Paris, Edition Traversiere, 1981.
The Dramatic Imagination
by Robert Edmond Jones. New York, Theatre Arts Books, 1967.
The Language of Balinese Shadow Theatre
by Mary Zerbruchen. Princeton, Princeton University Press. 1987.
The Mahabharata
by William Buck. Berkeley, University of California Press. 1960.
The Rebirth of the Shadows
by Rainer Reusch. Schwäbisch Gmünd, 1991.
The Story of Jim Henson, Creator of the Muppets
by Stephanie St Pierre. New York, Dell Publishing. 1991.
Towards a New Theatre: The Lectures of Robert Edmond Jones
by Delbert Unruh. New York, Limelight Editions, 1992.
Turn is the Curtain, Shattered is the Screen, the Stage all in Ruins
by Yapi Kredi Karagoz Collection. Istanbul, Kredi Publications, 2004.
