Ritual, Mask, and Puppet Traditions Across Cultures

Alongside the scripted and codified forms already surveyed, cultures around the world sustain powerful traditions of ritual performance, masked ceremony, and puppetry. These forms remind us that theatre is a global, plural practice with many centers, and they offer the theatre-maker striking resources of transformation, storytelling, and communal meaning. This lesson samples several traditions and draws out shared principles, while stressing respectful engagement.

Masking and transformation

The mask is one of theatre's most ancient and universal tools. Across West and Central Africa, masked performance is often woven into communal ceremony, festival, and storytelling, where a masquerader, through mask, costume, drumming, and dance, may embody an ancestor, spirit, or moral force for the com