Catalogue
Catalogue
Object Type
Name/Title
New Zealand Puppet Theatre - Records
Primary Maker
Physical Description
Level of Current Record
Parent
Related Object Notes
Photographs and negatives (1 box containing 15 folders) transferred to Pictorial Department.
Public Access Text
See also MS-1993-15 for conservation reports regarding the Puppet Theatre’s collection of puppets.
Subject Notes
The Goodwin Marionette Theatre was founded in 1937 by Arnold Goodwin, then a teacher at the Elam School of Fine Arts. It became a well-known and loved theatre throughout New Zealand until the puppets were finally packed away in the 1960s. The theatre’s most widely seen early work was ‘The Tempest’ by William Shakespeare, which was performed throughout the country, including army camps during the Second World War.
In 1983 Barbara Thompson and Joan Chalmers, both daughters of Arnold Goodwin’s, and company members themselves, gifted the Goodwin Marionettes to the people of Auckland. The puppets were also restored by third-generation puppeteer Anne Forbes that same year.
The New Zealand Puppet Theatre performed from 1985 to 1994 at open venues and theatres, to pre-school children, schools and to special audiences such as patients at Lake Alice Hospital. The theatre organised workshops for puppeteers and held workshop sessions for children.
Last Update
09 Nov 2022
The development of the Auckland War Memorial Museum online collection is an ongoing process; updates, new images and records are added weekly. In some cases, records have yet to be confirmed by Museum staff, and there could be mistakes or omissions in the information provided.