Last Thursday we watched a puppet show. I was seated in the very far back. It made me a little dizzy to be there because it made it hard to see the faces of the puppets very clearly. It was in Filipino and the puppeteers were all from Manila. It was interesting and amusing, the puppets and also the grade schoolers who were also there with us. It was interesting because I 've never been to a puppet show before, I've seen T.V. shows like Elmo that have puppets but never a live puppet show. It was amusing and nostalgic because of the little kids who laughed and leaned forward every time the curtains opened. I remember being as enthusiastic as they were when I was little, when every thing seemed fascinating and magical. I suppose that's how you'd describe puppet shows when you're a child, and maybe, even when you're an adult. Things are moving, even bodies, you don't know how or why but they are. Dancing, singing and talking as if they're really alive. What you don't know however is that they're controlled by strings, small and transparent, hard to see if you were in my seat but definitely there. It scares some people, these puppet shows I don't know why exactly but maybe it's because it reflects what we might be if we aren't careful, if we don't live. Controlled by strings we can't see, moving in the commands that are not our own. It's a sad reality to say that they're a lot of people who live exactly in this way. But then again if you look closely at these inanimate objects these puppeteers use you'd be impressed on how they're able to make them so lifelike. It must have been their passion that had made them live. So puppet shows are magical because it takes a certain person to give life to something that doesn't live. It takes more than just a voice to make it seem as if it were not your own but of somebody else's.
So cheers to these Fellows who put on a great show,
for the young and the old...
so the magic can unfold.
