IInstructions for Beheading a Puppet is an academic research and stage creation project that explores the perception of the puppetry sector within the contemporary context of Catalan theatre through a comparative study with the United Kingdom. Through this approach, it seeks to define a methodology and place it within a comparative historical framework between the two territories in order to understand existing prejudices and generate proposals aimed at reducing the sector’s precariousness. This process resulted in a master’s thesis, which later continued its development and became the article Puppetry, Contemporaneity and Dramaturgy: Seeking Consolidation Strategies in Catalonia through the British Experience, published in the journal Estudios sobre arte actual and presented at the V IDEA Conference at the University of Cuenca. Subsequently, the stage creation process began.

Manipulated Conference is a performance lecture that places the perception of puppetry within contemporary theatre at its centre — or perhaps that is not what it does at all.

A lecturer presents her thesis on the potential of contemporary puppetry to an audience, aiming to challenge the prejudices embedded within the popular imagination. She knows how to manipulate puppets and also how to persuade the audience, but what is the force driving her? An unforeseen situation will force her to confront her own contradictions.

What would be the most loving way to honour a genre? By reclaiming the importance of its roots? Or by reinventing it so it can adapt to new times? And what if, deep down, what truly matters to us in all of this is not puppetry at all? Through its staging, the piece exposes some of the power relations that have shaped the ways both the sector and audiences have imagined and conceived puppetry throughout history.