Critical Stages (Jun 2019)
A Fin de Siècle Life in Puppet Theatre: Roman Paska
Abstract
This paper briefly sketches the career of New York based Roman Paska, which began at the school of mime master Jacques Lecoq in Paris and gradually developed into a distinct personal art summed up in his manifesto Theatre for the Birds. Paska’s productions have been seen in many UNIMA festivals. Between 1999 and 2003, he was the director of the Institut International de la Marionette in Charleville-Mézières, in France. While his own work is decidedly “avant-garde” or “experimental,” with a technique notably influenced by the puppetry of China, Japan and, especially, Indonesia, Roman has always felt an equal affinity for European puppet traditions, especially those in Italy, the cradle of puppet theatre in Europe, as he says, and the country in which he first regularly toured. Roman Paska has also focused from the outset of his career on puppet theory and remains especially interested in the relationship between performer and audience psychology.
