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This article presents information on the performance of the Manteo Sicilian marionettes at the Loreto Playhouse on Bleecker Street in New York City. Certainly, the Sicilian marionettes are special. First, they are rod puppets--not terribly common, although this kind of puppet existed in Roman times. A rod control is pushed through a hole in the head and hooked into an iron eye loop in the torso; another rod controls the right arm, which is the sword arm. Normally, the puppeteer uses the left hand to control the head and the right hand to control the arm. There is no leg control and the leg, therefore, swing free, moving by their own weight. This gives a realistic look to the walk, a kind of a stiff-legged stride which Bill Baird describes in The Art of Puppet as being famous over Sicily, Italy: "Students stiffen up and fall into the "Orlando" walk just for fun..." The torso is made from one piece of wood: a mixture of excelsior and cloth is used as padding. The marionettes are referred to as Orlando puppets because the scripts in use are those based on the chivalric tales surrounding the hero Orlando. According to Baird, the first evidence of the Orlando saga being played by marionettes is in Italy during the 16th century. |
