PUPPET NOW! AS ALWAYS! FINALLY! FOREVER!
PUPPET NOW! AS ALWAYS! FINALLY! FOREVER!
Whereas:
We were all once children who turned sticks into wands, built sandcastles, made dioramas, played with dolls, built forts or anything else that was not truly the thing we built, we understand that we were once all artists without knowledge of the term and once made art without knowledge of its distinction from life.
We have seen many children become adults, and, in becoming adults, we have seen many humans accept the bonds of specialization and accept the false choice between artist and non-artist.
We understand that the purpose of art is not to entertain or edify ands that those phenomena are incidental to the true purpose of art, which is communication.
We understand that the commodification of art requires compartmentalization of art types in order to more easily manufacture the appropriate sensationalism around what is increasingly becoming referred to as content.
We understand large segments of the population to have trouble hearing and seeing, having become immune to the charms of digitization in addition to being interrogative of other humans, including human performers.
We hold these truths to be self evident:
That not all stories are created equal and
That each story must be given life through the liberty to pursue its happiest state by whatever means necessary
WE, THE 2012 PUPPETISM INTERNATIONALe, IN ORDER TO
FORM a more awesome SOCIETY,
ESTABLISH performance JUSTICE
PROMOTE the general WELFARE and
SECURE lots of BLESSINGS
DO VOW TO:
SHELTER THE PUPPET
so that the puppet not be trapped in any part of town in which it travels, whether that be the school-room or the late night club and we
OFFER THE PUPPET
a place in the mainstream as we are able to understand it.
TRAVEL AS A FELLOW WITH THE PUPPET
From
class to club,
child to adult,
reality to fantasy
and back again
STAND BY THE PUPPET whenever and where ever it may pause during its travels.
LEND A HAND TO PUPPET
and
SPEAK FOR THE PUPPET,
because a puppet is not a robot, and it needs our help with this type of thing.
THANK THE PUPPET
For giving both the vanguard and ancient practitioners of non-narrative, non-naturalistic performative art an alternative to dance and “performance art”.
For giving storytellers the elements that suit their words,
And… for allowing us:
To be gods or children as we deem appropriate
To make art that is not separate from craft
To sneak under watchful eyes, deadly serious in a children’s medium, or fearlessly silly in front of adults
To tell the truth as if a jester without being as creepy as a clown
To make theater in a state that music as enjoyed before teenagers
and finally,
RAISE THE PUPPETEER, born in a spirit of both renaissance and eternity,
as s/he dreams, writes, plans, builds and performs
high enough
that s/he may transcend and/or deny false barriers
and become a
greater,
wiser and
more articulate
realization of our younger selves.
Higgins, 2012