This site was created as a very brief introduction to a rich and varied cultural tradition. If you are interested in learning more, check out some of these other great resources!
Web Links
Visit Sicily http://www.visitsicily.info/en/puppet-opera/
This tourist site for potential travelers to Sicily gives a brief overview of the practice and history of Sicilian puppet theatre. There are some wonderful, high-quality photographs of Palermo puppets up close! This page also includes a list of all of the existing puppet theaters in Sicily with links to their separate websites, many of which are also great resources to check out. Some are in Italian, but your web browser may be able to translate the pages into English.
Museo Internazionale delle Marionette https://www.museodellemarionette.it/index.php?lang=en
This site is a great resource to accompany any study of international puppet traditions, and would be an excellent secondary source to use alongside the World Puppetry Conference Program document on this site. It is the online face of Palermo’s International Marionette Museum, which holds not only a large collection of Sicilian marionettes, but puppets from various Chinese, Indian, Southeast Asian, Greek, Turkish, and African traditions.
Best of Sicily Magazine Article http://www.bestofsicily.com/mag/art29.htm
A short article explaining the history of the Sicilian puppet theatre tradition.
Books
Sicilian Epic and the Marionette Theater, Michael Buonanno https://www.amazon.com/Sicilian-Marionette-Theater-Michael-Buonanno/dp/0786477679/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525435667&sr=8-1&keywords=sicilian+epic+and+the+marionette+theater&dpID=51G0AbNU4CL&preST=_SY291_BO1,204,203,200_QL40_&dpSrc=srch
“This study analyzes the folkloric genres that comprise the repertoire of the marionette theater in Sicily. Here, epic, farce, saints’ lives, bandits’ lives, fairytales, Christian myth, and city legend offer the vehicles by which puppeteers comment upon, critique–perhaps even negotiate–the relationships among the major classes of Sicilian society: the aristocracy, the people, the clergy and the Mafia. This text illuminates how folk puppet heroes provide the marionette theater its rhetorical function: the articulation and dissemination of the tools of Sicilian identity.” -From the publisher
Films
Texas Tavola: A Taste of Sicily in the Lone Star State http://www.folkstreams.net/film-detail.php?id=206
While not specifically about puppetry, this ethnographic documentary is an excellent resource for exploring how another Sicilian cultural tradition migrated to the United States. The 34-minute film details through scenes and interviews one Sicilian-American community’s celebration of the Tavola di San Giuseppe, or St. Joseph’s altar. Ethnically Italian residents of Bryan, Texas, and surrounding areas reflect on how their upbringing fused Sicilian cultural values, traditions, and language with a Texan way of life.
It's All in My Hands http://www.folkstreams.net/film-detail.php?id=233
This 8-minute short film is a day-in-the-life look at John Prince, an Italian immigrant shoemaker. Documentary filmmaker Tony DeNonno’s first film, done as a student project in New York City in 1976, “shows the dignity and skill of working with one’s hands.” DeNonno did make a documentary film specifically about the Manteo family in 1993 titled It’s One Family: Knock on Wood, but it is not available for online viewing. Either of these DeNonno films would be an excellent companion to the U.S. History lesson plan, showing students another facet of the Italian immigrant experience.
Animating Italian Immigration 