Race, Gender, and Disability in Puppetry and Material Performance

Race, Gender, and Disability in Puppetry and Material Performance investigates and expands the multifaceted how and what of puppetry and material performance.

This engaging collection explores how puppetry and material performance challenge and transform representations of race, gender, and disability through the powerful medium of object and effigy forms. The book also examines gender roles within puppetry and how puppetry addresses societal anxieties about the other and bodies traditionally excluded from normative spaces. Part 1: Reframing Puppetry Through Race, Gender, and Disability establishes a theoretical foundation for understanding puppetry as a site of intervention―whether in political protests, theatrical productions, or educational contexts. Part 2: Negotiating Identities builds on this foundation by examining how puppetry operates as a tool for reshaping identities and expanding representation. Part 3: Performances of the Other emphasizes how puppetry challenges established norms of embodiment and inclusion, offering possibilities for cultural reclamation and the redefinition of marginalized identities. Featuring nineteen chapters by leading experts, this collection illustrates how puppetry can challenge conventions, articulate nuanced identities, and illuminate complexities of race, gender, and disability.

Race, Gender, and Disability in Puppetry and Material Performance is ideal for students of theatre and performance studies, theatre artists, scholars, and anyone seeking a deeper understanding of puppetry and material performance.

Paulette Richards is an independent researcher and co-curator of the Living Objects: African American Puppetry exhibit at the University of Connecticut’s Ballard Institute and Museum with Dr. John Bell.

Hazel Briar is an independent scholar with a PhD in theatre historiography from the University of Minnesota, USA. Her research examines performances of the dead, considering practices involving spiritualism and matter.

Alissa Mello is an award-winning editor, scholar, theatre artist, and Marie Sklodowska-Curie individual fellow (2022–2025) at the University of Exeter, UK. Their interests include women and performance, gender, identity, and practice.

Laura Purcell-Gates is a reader in theatre and performance at Bath Spa University in the UK and co-artistic director of Wattle and Daub, through which she conducts practice-based research on puppetry and non-normative bodies.