I have a vivid memory of the day I stopped being just afraid of puppets.

The Puppet Theatre on ChampsElysees. I work with him.

Yes, back to Guignol.

Big bands became cost prohibitive, rock and roll was becoming a popular music, and American musical theater moved towards a format incorporating ballet with narrative rather than the extension of variety shows that it had been in the past.

It's called Hutchinson Gilford progeria, and it is the most dramatic form of premature aging.

So in 1981, I persuaded Basil and some friends of mine to form a puppet company.

We went there to learn more about different Japanese theatre forms, especially the masked drama called Noh , and traditional puppetry form called Bunraku .

Oh, that accounts for the little Indians!

And, in fact, it took about 10 years to discover the Bambara Bamana puppets of Mali in West Africa, where there's a fabulous tradition of puppetry, to learn a renewed, or a new, respect for this art form.

It's not real.

I wanted to become an avant garde artist and Punch and Judy was certainly not where I wanted to go.

You'll be happy to know that I'll be talking not about my own tragedy, but other people's tragedy.

Being human is an art form.

These little figures.

The play concludes with the hero's death.

A stream of people came out of the theater.

The play was so popular that the theater was almost full.

The bodies can't be properly buried.

A puppet!

You weren't so real.

Look at him with a dummy!

This is my Malaysian dream doll.

A Nutcracker!

This theater has a seating capacity of 500.

We met Mrs. Brown at the theater.

But over the next 40 years, it's going to change dramatically, even in China.

Shakespeare wrote both tragedy and comedy.

I've bought tickets for Beppu Spa.

Tom saw a play in the new theater.

Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come. Victor Hugo

How did this happen? When did this happen?

Gnome's KiSSeake dolls viewer

That doll is scary.

Whitley Strieber was played by Christopher Walken.

Look, an authentic voodoo doll.

It's him!

SClENCE

There's one picture missing from this collection.

I'll hold your hand if it's scary.

It's the theatre.

And this is for the owner of this theater!

Something happened along the way.

This is a Japanese doll.

That's a doll.

Puppets is the way we communicate.