Liam Jarvis is a theatre-maker, director and practitioner–researcher. He is currently Co-Director of the Centre for Theatre Research (CTR) and a Senior Lecturer in Theatre in the Department of Literature, Film and Theatre Studies (LiFTS) at the University of Essex. Sue Buckmaster is the artistic director of Theatre-Rites and the fifth generation of theatre practitioners in her family. She has many years of experience as a director, puppetry specialist and teacher, and has worked with a wide variety of companies including the National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Young Vic, Sadler’s Wells, Three Sixty Entertainment, Akram Khan Company and Complicité.

'This book promises to be a seminal work on the subversive art of puppetry and the essential work of theatre-making for children and families. The book explores the sophisticated thinking underpinning Sue Buckmaster’s approach and illuminates the mysteries of animating puppets and objects. Multiple insights and examples connect the theoretical with the practical processes of creativity, which are always guided by care and curiosity. It is indeed a "ceremonial object" as Theatre-Rites celebrates its 25th anniversary.'—Elizabeth Lynch MBE, chair of Theatre-Rites'A gift of a book. A celebration of 25 years of Theatre-Rites, one of the world’s most joyous and ingenious theatre companies, and a thought-provoking meditation on children, creativity and object-led theatre.'—Lyn Gardner, theatre critic and associate editor of The Stage

• 1 Introduction 2 The Birth of Theatre-Rites 3 Puppet Whispering and Object-led Play 4 Puppetry and Actors: The Extension of the Ego 5 Puppetry and Child Development: Making Child-friendly Performances 6 Dance and Puppetry: The Place for Abstraction 7 Site-specific Theatre for Families 8 Objects, Power and Personal Political Narratives 9 Puppetry and Death 10 Cross-artform Collaborations: Playing Across Artforms 11 Interdisciplinarity in Object-theatre: Playing Across Different Fields 12 Sue Buckmaster’s Theatrical Ancestry