Peck and his team traveled to the village of Bao Ha with a series of archival, government-made films about the village’s famous water puppet shows. A community screening was organized, and villagers were encouraged to express their opinions about them. Five villagers were then selected, including puppeteers, village officials, academics, and students, and trained to make films of their own about water puppetry. In addition, Peck’s team recorded short vignettes of the five villagers’ daily routines and the craft of the puppeteers. A second screening was organized, which included the new short films made by the members of the community themselves. Many of the skits, especially those involving the tales of day-to-day living, often have a humorous twist.The team’s goal was to have “the process of digital repatriation traveling full circle.” Screen capture from the film showing villagers critiquing the film. Legends and national history are also told through short skits. Stories of the harvest, of fishing and of festivals are highlighted. It tells of day-to-day living in rural Vietnam and Vietnamese folk tales that are told by grandparents to their grandchildren. The theme of the skits is rural and has a strong reference to Vietnamese folklore. Spotlights and colorful flags adorn the stage and create a festive atmosphere. The puppets enter from either side of the stage, or emerge from the murky depths of the water. The musicians and the puppets interact during performance the musicians may yell a word of warning to a puppet in danger or a word of encouragement to a puppet in need. Singers of chèo (a form of opera originating in north Vietnam) sing songs which tell the story being acted out by the puppets. The bamboo flute's clear, simple notes may accompany royalty while the drums and cymbals may loudly announce a fire-breathing dragon's entrance. The instrumentation includes vocals, drums, wooden bells, cymbals, horns, đàn bầu (monochord), gongs, and bamboo flutes. Ī traditional Vietnamese orchestra provides background music accompaniment. ![]() It also hides the puppet strings and puppeteer movements, improves the musical and vocal acoustics, and provides a shimmering lighting effect. The water acts as the stage for the puppets, and as a symbolic link to the rice harvest. The original water puppet festivals were literally held inside a rice paddy, with a pagoda built on top to hide the puppeteers who stand in the waist-deep water. Rice, the main staple of the Vietnamese diet, is usually grown in paddy fields. The puppets are carved out of wood and often weigh up to 15 kg. ![]() Up to 8 puppeteers stand behind a split-bamboo screen, decorated to resemble a temple facade, and control the puppets using long bamboo rods and string mechanism hidden beneath the water surface. Performance today occurs on one of three venues-on traditional ponds in villages where a staging area has been set up, on portable tanks built for traveling performers, or in a specialized building where a pool stage has been constructed. Modern water puppetry is performed in a pool of water 4 meters square with the water surface being the stage. The players were presenting themselves at the end of the show. ![]() A water puppet theater show in Hanoi, Vietnam.
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