The Lion King, as seen both on Broadway and in the West End features some spectacular masks, puppets and costumes. These were largely designed by Julie Taymor, an American Artist and theatre/film director. When designing the costumes and puppets for The Lion King, she didn't want to be limited to a single style and instead suggested a range of masks, puppets and costumes to create the scene. One type of puppetry used throughout the performances of The Lion King is shadow puppetry. Influenced by Indonesian Wyang Kulit puppetry, the dark, often 2D shapes are lit from behind which makes it appear as a 'shadow' which can then be moved via the puppets joints. Whilst they appear to be very simple, watching them can be quite mesmerising and extremely interesting to watch as you don't necessarily have the detail of a 'normal' puppet and yet they can tell the story just as well. Some of the puppets used in The Lion King are as big as the performers who manipulate them. For example, the Timon puppet weighs 15 pounds and has to be strapped to the person using it to get the best possible effect as they perform on the stage. There are more than 232 different puppets in the show, ranging from full sized puppets (Such as Timon) to rod puppets and of course shadow puppets.
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January 2017
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