Applied Puppetry, as defined by WPTS Artistic Director Wendy Passmore-Godfrey when she curates the Puppet Power conference program,  is ‘puppetry beyond performance’. It is puppetry that is used as a communication and expressive tool in settings such as education, therapeutic interventions, social action, institutions and other social settings.
Other people have coined terms such as “Puppets with a Purpose” or “Objects with Objectives“.

Dr. Matt Smith from University of Portsmouth has done a lot of thought on the term and practice of Applied Puppetry. Here is short essay  together with references that he prepared for the Puppet Power 2020 conference. Thanks Matt!

And here is a fun 3 minute video from Matt, encouraging us to carry on the conversation:

Matt  (matt.smith@port.ac.uk) writes…”One space for this evidence of new thinking is a publication of the journal Applied Theatre Research (intellect publishers) which will be published this year and will include lots of examples of practice and debates about applied puppetry.
This edition of the journal is co-edited with Laura Purcell-Gates (l.purcell-gates@bathspa.ac.uk) and we both would love to hear from you about applied puppetry and where this exciting field will develop in the future.”