IV. Fieldwork Report on Spiral Q Puppet Theater

7/31/2019 IV. Fieldwork Report on Spiral Q Puppet Theater

1/13

Introduction IV: Fieldwork Report on Spiral Q Puppet Theater

This report is developed from a fieldwork project. It illustrates my capability of conducting

communication researchto participate and observe - and my skills on academic reports. My fieldwork

report mainly emphasizes giant puppetry and its connection to political ideology and community-building.

I include an introduction (that presents my research questions and how to address them), fieldsite and

methods (that describe the fieldsite, participants, context of research, and the methods used to conduct the

research), findings, conclusion, and bibliography.

Fieldsite and Research Questions

I chose Philadelphia-based Spiral Q Puppet Theater (http://www.spiralq.org/) as the ethnographic field

site. Spiral Q is one of these puppet theaters and non-profit organizations that use giant puppetry and

pageantry to promote social and political change. While performing fieldwork at the Spiral Q, I addressed

several research questions such as: Why do people want to work in spiral Q? How do they think of their

jobs? Do they have any political ideology? Is Spiral Q a radically political puppet theater? Do their

projects always have to be involved with political protest and dissent? What is the power they believe in

that puppets and pageant could have in a community?

Methods

I conducted this research through participation, observation, field notes, and open-ended interviews over

five-week. I spent about three hours a week volunteering at the studio for four weeks, where I helped to

do paper mache, cut cardboard, paint, and braid puppets hair; I also spent a day outside to be one of the

marshals protecting the kids from traffic in the Feltonville parade. Data were collected primarily through

the field notes of my observation and participation in the everyday work and through open-ended

interviews with all the staff in Spiral Q. Finally I built my analysis of the social phenomena within the

field site and identified broad themes of what I found during the ethnographic research.


2/13

Fieldwork Report on Spiral Q Puppet Theater

Introduction

Puppetry is a very ancient art form. In human history, the forms of puppet and puppetry

varied within and between cultures, such as finger puppets, hand puppets, carnival puppets,

stick puppets and shadow puppets (Wikipedia, 2010). Though no matter how diverse it is, in

almost all human societies, puppetry is used both as an entertainment in performance and

ceremonially in celebrations such as carnivals (Bell, 2000). As Oscar Wilde (1892) wrote, There

are many advantages in puppets. They never argue. They have no crude views about art. They

have no private lives. These characteristics make puppetry a flexible and inventive medium,

which has been used since the earliest times to animate and communicate the ideas and needs

of human societies (Dugan, 1990).

Some evidences showed that puppetry can be traced to 30000 years B.C. in India, where

stick puppets were used to perform epics stories; while sacred texts were used as the dialogue

for the shows, entertainment is the main purpose (Ghosh, Massey, and Banerjee, 2006).

Centuries later, large puppets were so popular in Japan that Japanese puppets were slowly

replacing human actors on the stage (Bell, 2000). Chinese puppetry is more commonly known

as Chinese shadow theater (Bell, 2000). In Europe, puppets were also very popular. From 600

A.D. to 16th century, puppets shows were used to act out Bible stories in service to the church

(Blumenthal, 2005). A turning point came in the 15th century, when puppets were used in the

morality plays featured with vulgar humor; thus, the puppets were banned from the church and

delivered into the hands of the people (Blumenthal, 2005).

In 20th century puppetry have gained advances in the United States. Marionette

puppetry started to be combined with television program. In 1960s the puppeteer Jim Henson

created the famous children's TV show Sesame Street, which inspired many imitators and are

highly recognizable today (Bell, 2000). Around roughly the same time, the movement of

political puppetry began when German artist Peter Schumann came to the U.S. and founded

the Bread and Puppet Theater to work in protest of the Vietnam War (Brecht, 1988). As the first


3/13

politically radical puppet theater, the Bread and Puppet Theater developed the political and

artistic possibilities of a puppet theater in a distinctive and powerful way, and thus it greatly

influenced the world of political puppetry today (Brecht, 1988). Since then people started to

associate giant puppets and political or radical puppetry with political protest and social

movement.

My research mainly emphasized on the giant puppetry and its connection to political

ideology and community-building. Thats the reason I chose Spiral Q Puppet Theater as the

ethnographic field site for my study. Spiral Q is one of these puppet theaters that use giant

puppetry and pageantry to promote social and political change. At the beginning of this

research I hypothesized that people working for Spiral Q will have a certain political ideology.

During my experience of volunteering in the Spiral Q I addressed several research questions

such as:

Why do they want to work in spiral Q? How do they think of their jobs? How is theworking atmosphere?

Do they have any political ideology? Is Spiral Q a radically political puppet theater? If it is,how radical are they? Do their projects always have to be involved with political protest

and dissent? Whats the uniqueness and advantage about puppetry? How do they think of using

puppetry as a tool of creating social event? What is the power they believe in that

puppets and pageant could have in a community?

Fieldsite and Methods

The Spiral Q puppet theater was founded in 1995 by Matthew Hart in Philadelphia

(About Spiral q, 2010). At the age of 22, when Hart was traveling around the country, he was

inspired by the street pageants produced by the Bread and Puppet Theater in Vermont (About

Spiral q, 2010). He was deeply impressed by the potent images created around progressive

social themes in a way that engaged people and the environment, thus he went back to


4/13

Philadelphia and founded Spiral Q as a shadow puppet theater, performing at local events and

benefits (About Spiral q, 2010). Social change groups started to approach Spiral Q to make

puppets and banners for demonstrations and education campaigns (About Spiral q, 2010).

After some successful outdoor performances, they felt the power that giant puppets and

pageantry could have in a community setting; then they began to focus on neighborhood

projects and community activism (About Spiral q, 2010). Over these years, Spiral Q had a

dramatic growth in the number and scale of projects and a great development of its

organizational structure (About Spiral q, 2010).

In 2000, Spiral Q moved to a new space in East Mantua at 3114 Spring Garden Street.

Today the core staff in the administration include (About the staff, 2010):

Executive director Tracy - she is in charge of creating and managing arts programs. Shehas a lot of experience of creating after-school and arts program for disadvantaged and

adjudicated youth; she is also a visual and performing artist.

Program director Ted - he is an organizer, educator, community facilitator and artist.Before Spiral Q he worked to facilitate support groups for children with parents in prison

at many Philadelphia public schools.

Productions manager Liza - She has a lot of experience in parade building, such ascreating costumes, masks, and giant puppets.

Communications coordinator Alice as a Philly Fellow/AmeriCorps VISTA member, sheworks on communicating with members, community partners, collaborators, interns,

and volunteers.

Apart from these four full-time employees, there are 7 board members and about 20

part-time interns. Most of them are students from the local colleges around

the Philadelphia neighborhood. I have met a couple of interns who are from

the Art Institute of Philadelphia, Drexel University, and University of

Pennsylvania. Their jobs are ranging from art making in the studio to paper

work in the office.


5/13

The place Spiral Q is located used to be an old two-stored warehouse. From the small yellow

front door its hard to tell that the interior space is actually very sizable. Through the doorway

there is a narrow stair directly going up to the second floor, where

an office, a puppet museum, a studio, and facilities have occupied

the space. The office is at least

capable of having 10 people

working there. The museum is

called the Living Loft Museum that

opens to the visitors by

appointment. It features many of

the giant puppets, six-foot human heads, birds, fish, costumes

and other giant creations used by the theater in the past pageantries. With all kinds of parade

artworks decorating the wall, the studio is the place where Spiral Qs people get their hands

dirty. They used some pallet racks to categorize tools and materials of making puppets and

others parade arts into several groups, such as fabric, paint, wood, flag, cardboard, costume,

and clay. There is a single small studio for hardware tools and

chain saw. These materials mainly came from individual and

organizational donations

I used participant observation and other ethnographic

methods to conduct this research over five-week period. I

spent about three hours a week at the studio over four weeks,

where I helped to do paper mache, cut cardboard, paint, braid

puppets hair; I also spent a day outside to volunteer in a

community parade with 50 5th graders from Feltonville Intermediate school and became one of

the marshalls to protect the kids from traffic. When I was working, I had a lot open-ended

conversations with the Spiral Q employees to get their opinions on this organization, their jobs,

puppetries, parades and political expression. I also had the chance to get to know the whole

process of parade preparing, producing and performing. All the Spiral Q employees I met were


6/13

very friendly and happy to my attendance, and they were open

to all the questions I had asked them.

Findings

Organizational Culture

The working atmosphere in Spiral Q is very casual and lively. Its a busy place, full of

different initiatives and projects, and always bustling with energy and creativity. The Spiral Q

crews are very proud of their jobs, and they genuinely love the way how Spiral Q combine arts

and social justice. Usually the interns stay in the studio, being busy making artworks for parades

and pageants. While they were sitting or standing around a puppet and using paper mache to

build it up, they were joking around and chatting about their life, colleges, friends, and Spiral

Qs new clients. Sometimes there will be volunteer sessions in the studio with students from

local high school to help them do craft work. When the schedule is really intense, the full-time

employees will also get into the studio and participant in the art-making. Liza is in charge of the

production process so that she stays in the studio a lot. The interns are very close to her.

Although some interns are working with Liza for a long time, they still do not know the technical

title of her position because she is one of them. The four full-time employees are leaders,

organizers, and the core workforce, and they are also very down-to-earth and easy to work with.

There is an evenness of status between the full-time employees and the interns in the

organization structure. They are all friends and co-workers to each other.

Though people in are all happy about what they are doing, there is a difference between

the full-time employees and the interns in terms of how they perceive their jobs. Most interns

applied for the jobs here at the very beginning because they thought making puppets must be

fun, and it is. Some interns also thought it would be a

challenging and meaningful experience to work in a non-


7/13

profit organization. For the four key people, however, working in Spiral Q is a more committed

experience out of values and dreams. They believe in the power of giant puppet parade and

neighborhood pageantry could have in creating a more perfect society. They are devoted to the

community activism. For example, Alice is one of the full-time employees and a Philly Fellow

member. Before she came to work with Spiral Q, she dropped off from the University of

Pennsylvania after a half and a year, and then she transferred to another college in Ohio, simply

because she didnt like the elite atmosphere in the University of Pennsylvania where most of

her classmates went to fancy clubs every week and they only cared about how much money

they would make. Alice realized it was not what she wanted. After graduation she went back to

Philadelphia mainly because there are full of non-profit organizations like Spiral Q, and it has a

lot of things going on that she can join in.

Puppetry and Political Ideology

Its not true that people working for Spiral Q have a certain political ideology, though

they do appreciate the origins of political puppetry that uses giant puppets as a medium of

political expression. They also do believe in freedom of

speech and they define it as an inalienable individual

right and a collective responsibility to speak and listen

(Welcome, 2010). In the Living Loft Museum, they try

to show the visitors a history of political puppetry by

presenting a lot of parade items and pictures that send

messages about politics, liberty and freedom of speech;

by doing this they want the visitors to remember that puppetry is a significant usage of giant

puppets. All in all, the museum is to encourage people to identify, explore, and make visible

issues important in their lives through the medium of giant puppetry (Living Loft Puppet

Museum, 2010).


8/13

The Spiral Q has a Justice Works program to

supports social change. They assist organizations in

creating materials such as puppets and banners to send

particular messages in public demonstrations (Justice

Works, 2010). According to program director Ted Enoch,

they tried to select participants very carefully based on

compatibility. Spiral Qs core values and financial need; and

they will not assist any organization that employs hate speech or engages in the destruction of

property (Justice Works, 2010). They are too cautious to even mention the word political in

their value statement; they also do not always involve with political projects. It could be

creating parade arts for an anti-nuclear weapon group; it could be making puppets for a

community-based pageant; it also could be teaching kids how to make artworks together and

express themselves for an educational program in a local school. It depends on their recent

collaborators and programs. Their current project is to remember and celebrate the legacy of

Medu Art Ensemble, a collective of artists and cultural workers who dedicated their lives to

fight against apartheid in South Africa (Welcome, 2010).

Artist and Activist

People working for Spiral Q are not necessarily holding certain political attitude, but

they are absolutely great artists and social activists. Its amazing how much effort a non-profit

organization can make. Once they get involved in a new project, their will start to seek for

materials from donation and from the wild. They made puppets and other parade items from

the scratch. If they need more bamboo rod for flags and puppets, they will bring tools with

them and go to the field to cut down what they need. From full-time employees to interns, no

one is ever required to dress up for work because, as craft artists, they always have to be ready

to get their hand and their clothes dirty.


9/13

One day they were preparing parade items, cutting cardboard into the shape of flower

with a hole in the middle so that parade activists can wear them on the neck and hold two

leafs in hands; then cardboard flowers and leafs were painted with different colors.

When people were painting in the studio, they inevitably got paint stains all over their trousers,

and they really did not care. An intern Nina always wears the same jeans that covered with

paint spots. Every time her hands get stained with paint, she will wipe them up on her jeans as

its the nature thing to do. It also happened to the white Spiral Q T-shirt that every employee

has one. Some interns- most of which are young girls- didnt like the looks, so they used scissors

and paint to customize them. No one will blame them for putting the craft ideas into practice in

an art institution.

In the studio all materials and tools are categorized on the racks; apart from that,

everything else in a mess. The original color of wood

floor and sink is not recognizable at all from paint,

stains, and dirt. Even in the office, its all messy on the

floor with a really dirty carpet. I think no one clean it

up for ages or no one ever wants to. No one cares

because its an art organization. Its all about energy,

creativity, activity and passion. Being clean does not

really matters.

However, the Spiral Q is well organized and fully prepared for their projects. In the

education program they have collaborated with a number of schools to teach the students how

to build a puppet as well as encourage students right to

be seen and heard (Education Initiatives, 2010).

Feltonville Intermediate elementary school is one of

their collaborators. This year on the day of the

Feltonville

parade, the

Spiral Q crew


10/13

met up at Feltonville to get ready at 9:30 in the morning. First they discussed the parade line-up

and loaded puppets into the gym for assembly. Then they held the parade assembly in the gym

with 250 fifth graders as well as their teachers and some parents. The Spiral Q people have

remarkable skills at cheering these kids up and getting them all excited about the following

parade. Ted gave a speech saying to the kids that they were always represented by the media

and by their parents, now it was their time to stand up and represent themselves. In the

assembly they showed the kids how to hold puppets and parade in the right way; they also held

the Recognition session to introduce some key people to the crowd and encouraged the

students to stand up and speak out who they want everyone to recognize. After assembly it

was the lunch break, when one of the Spiral Q staff met with the fifth grade teachers and

informed them the parade line-up and safety information. Then there was an orientation for all

the 12 marshalls, including me, whose job was to follow the parade crowd, wave bright yellow

flag, and protect the kids away from the traffic, when they were marching on the street. The

Spiral Q tried their best to assure the security; they got the official parade permit and police

escort. During the parade, a police car will open a way for the team and help to block the traffic.

Tracy told us how to do if any vehicle driver gets impatient about the blocking road. Just keep

the smile and say thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you Dont start any

conversation, she said. After the parent safety meeting, the parade set off at 1:00 in theafternoon. Everything went well because of the well preparation.

Puppetry and Community-Building

The Spiral Q believes in the power that giant puppetry and pageantry could have in the

process of community-building. How does the power work? Before a parade, when they were

soliciting and accepting donations of materials from other community residents, the

connections among community members start to build up and get stronger. The donations

came from various organizations and individuals. For example, some cardboards were donated

by a factory around Philadelphia Airport area; an old lady, who was living in the west

Philadelphia for 40 years and knew about the Spiral Q from a parade, cleaned out her basement

one day and donated some cans of paint.


11/13

Then through the process of puppet building, it brings many neighborhood residents

together, letting them to work together and get to know each other. The Spiral Q created

annual Peoplehood Parade and Pageant program that involves a number of communities for

collaboration (Peoplehood, 2010). Before the

pageant, they hold free puppet building

workshops in the Clark Park, aiming at bringing

people together (Peoplehood, 2010). The event

is to celebrate community, diversity and the

triumphs of life in Philadelphia and its

neighborhoods (Peoplehood, 2010).

Moreover, during the art-making process, people are

able to communicate their thoughts and carry out their ideas

through the construction of puppets. In the last year of

Peoplehood, Beth, a teaching artist from the Spiral Q, created a

giant three-person puppet to tell the story of humanity that

pushes with bravery and persistence against the empire of

money. Then during the parade and pageant, people can sendtheir messages and ideas out by presenting their artworks and

getting feedback from others. For example, the Spiral Q helped

to create the annual Norris Square Parade to make the

community safer (Norris Square Parade, 2010). Through marching and presenting on their

neighborhood streets, Norris Square residents tried to send a message that their streets were

not for drugs and violence, and they wanted to take their streets back for their children and

families (Norris Square Parade, 2010). In the Feltonville parade, the kids were raising their

giant puppets in the air and chanting again and again to introduce themselves to the

neighborhood. They even got more excited when people in the neighborhoods opened their

windows and doors to cheer them up. Through this interaction they celebrated a stronger

neighborhood and the many cultures and family traditions in this diverse school community


12/13

(Welcome, 2010).Ted told me that watching hundreds of kids all happy and excited on the

street was his favorite about the Spiral Q.

Conclusion

In summary, I chose the Spiral Q Puppet Theater as the fieldsite and used ethnographic

methods to conduct my research on puppetry and its connection with political expression and

community-building. I spent about three hours a week volunteering at the studio over four

weeks, where I helped to do paper mache, cut cardboard, paint, and braid puppets hair; I also

spent a day outside to be one of the marshalls protecting the kids from traffic in the Feltonville

parade. Over 15 years the Spiral Q has been making puppets and arts for parades and pageants

and use giant puppetry as a tool of creating social events. From the research my main findingsinclude:

The working atmosphere in Spiral Q was very casual and lively. The Spiral Q crews arevery proud of their jobs, and they genuinely love the way how Spiral Q combine arts and

social justice.

There is an evenness of status between the full-time employees and the interns in theorganization structure. They are all friends and co-workers to each other. But its

different considering how they perceive their jobs. For the four key people working in

Spiral Q is a more committed experience.

People working for Spiral Q do not have a certain political ideology, though they doappreciate the origins of political puppetry and they do believe in freedom of speech.

They also are very cautious about selecting political projects.

People working for the Spiral Q are great artists and social activists. They do not botherkeeping their place and clothes clean, but they do care planning and preparing their

projects seriously.

The impact of giant puppetry and pageantry on community-building is very powerful.Neighborhood residents can find common values and perceptions of their community

through art-making; and a pageant can present a common visual language and thus

celebrate the specific identity of this neighborhood (About Spiral Q, 2010).


13/13

Bibliography

About Spiral Q. Retrieved 2010, July 2, from http://www.spiralq.org/aboutHome.html

About the staff. Retrieved 2010, July 2, from http://www.spiralq.org/aboutStaff.html

Blumenthal, E. (2005). Puppetry and Puppets. UK: Thames & Hudson.

Brecht, S. (1988). The Bread and Puppet Theatre. London: Methuen.

Bell J. (2000). Shadows: A Modern Puppet History. Detroit, USA: Detroit Institute of Art.

Dugan, E.A. (1990). Emotions in Motion. Montreal, Canada: Galerie Amrad.

Education Initiatives. Retrieved 2010, July 5, Fromhttp://www.spiralq.org/edInitiative.html

Ghosh, S.; Massey, R.; and Banerjee, K. (2006). Indian Puppets: Past, Present and Future.

Abhinav Publications

Justice Works. Retrieved 2010, July 5, From http://www.spiralq.org/justiceWorks.html

Norris Square Parade. Retrieved 2010, July 6, Fromhttp://www.spiralq.org/NorrisSq.html

Living Loft Puppet Museum.Retrieved 2010, July 2, fromhttp://www.spiralq.org/livingLoft.html

Puppetry. (2010). Wikipedia. Retrieved (2010, June 1) from

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Puppetry

Wilde , O. (1892, February 20). Puppets and actors. The Daily Telegraph.

Welcome. Retrieved 2010, July 2, from http://www.spiralq.org/index.html

Documents

IV. Fieldwork Report on Spiral Q Puppet Theater