JPEWP · The Judy Project: A Critical and Historical Investigation of Women and Puppetry from the Eighteenth to the Twenty-First Century
Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2022-09-01 → 2025-09-04
- EU contribution
- €337,401
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- MSCA-IF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
The Judy Project: A Critical and Historical Investigation of Women and Puppetry from the Eighteenth to the Twenty-First Century
The Judy Project shattered long-standing conceptions of British and European puppetry by placing women center stage—as creative practitioners shaping the tradition and as the character Judy herself in the iconic Punch and Judy show. At a moment when questions of gender and power are more urgent than ever, this project delivered the first comprehensive history that not only re-centers women but also re-animates the tradition through fresh archival analysis and research, original performances, and new interviews. Far exceeding original expectations, this work sparked public debate and informed cultural policy with new perspectives and evidence. While puppet theatre scholarship has grown, historians have largely overlooked the roles of women practitioners—their labour, creativity, and influence remain startlingly absent from dominant narratives. This is especially true in heritage forms like Punch and Judy, long framed as a male preserve. Through rigorous archival digging, critical practice and building on important groundwork by Naomi Paxton and Amber West, The Judy Project revealed how generations of women practitioners have been present, active, and innovative, even when they have been forgotten, marginalized, or misrepresented. The project sought to make visible these women—and the complex realities of their work—correcting historical silences and challenging simplistic tales of male dominance. It asked not only who has been centred in cultural histories, but how and why, shedding light on broader issues of representation and power. The findings have generated new shows, scholarly work, and collaborations that offer a far more inclusive and nuanced understanding of women’s roles in puppetry—a corrective that matters for reshaping heritage, academic inquiry, and the stories we share in society.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
The Judy Project: A Critical and Historical Investigation of Women and Puppetry from the Eighteenth to the Twenty-First Century (JPEWP) is the first transhistorical examination of the (re)presentation of gender and identity in Punch and Judy one of the most iconic English puppet traditions. Despite a growing interest in puppet theatre, scholarship does not typically delve into gender issues. The inclusion of women as practitioners and theoreticians, and critical analyses of female figures are scarce. My research, however, shows that women have been inserting themselves throughout its history in significant and under-examined ways. JPEWP will focus on women practitioners as invisible or concealed labour and innovators, and ways the female puppet figure reveals and conceals dominate ideology and anxiety about the female. This project investigates inscriptions and subversions of gender, tracing both its history and alternative, and feminist interpretations focusing on the female character Joan/Judy beginning with early Modern representations of the female figure to contemporary radical feminist re-imaginings. To manage the expansive time frame, I will use case studies from specific culturally volatile moments situated within a trans-historical framework that will be connected through the theoretical approach and common questions. The project will be an interdisciplinary investigation that goes beyond standard understandings of ‘text’ to offer innovative analyses of what is usually seen as archival ‘ephemera’ in order to detect the traces that remain of puppet theatre. As violence against women and female bodies increases and in light of renewed interest in institutionalized sexism, this research investigates: how the female body is presented in a popular performance form, by whom and why. Further, by questioning the narrative of a traditional form and its history, this work destabilizes orthodox notions of a singular male dominated history.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- THE UNIVERSITY OF EXETER · ExeterCoordinatorUnited Kingdom
Links
Data: CORDIS, © European Union