Playing with stuff: the material world in performance -- The Sioux war panorama and American mythic history -- Shalako puppets and nineteenth-century ritual -- The little theatre movement and the birth of the American puppeteer: Midwest puppet modernism -- New York puppet modernism: Remo Bufano and Jane Heap -- Puppets and propaganda: 1930s: Gertrude Stein's "Identity"--Sorcery to science: Remo Bufano and World's Fair Puppet theatre -- Performing objects, special effects, and mass media -- Automobile performance and kustom kulture -- Beyond the Cold War: Bread and puppet theater at the end of the century -- Old and new materials: wood, paper, metal, plastic, bone.