A puppet is a representational object, usually but not always depicting a human character, used in play or a presentation. The puppet undergoes a process of transformation through being animated, and is normally manipulated by one, or sometimes more than one, puppeteer. Some puppets can be moved electronically.
Puppets are made of a wide range of materials, depending on the effect required and the amount of usage intended, and can be extremely complex or very simple in their construction. In contemporary visual or puppet theatre, puppets are often called 'performing objects'. There are many different varieties of puppets. These will be discussed further in this article.
Puppeteer David Currell states, "A puppet is not an actor and a puppet theatre is not human theatre in miniature, because when an actor 'represents', a puppet 'is'." Oscar Wilde wrote about puppetry, "There are many advantages in puppets. They never argue. They have no crude views about art. They have no private lives."
Puppeteer Anita Sinclair states, "Through puppetry we accept the outrageous, the absurd or even the impossible, and will permit puppets to say and do things no human could. We allow a puppet to talk to us when no one else can get us to speak. We allow a puppet to smile at us even when we have not been introduced. We also allow a puppet to touch us when a person would lose an arm for the same offence."