Through international expeditions, donations and downloads from digital portals, the research team collected and expertised textual traces of thousands of theatrical works, ranging from a few lines of synopsis to cycles of 80 or 100 episodes. Significant disparities in the preservation of works from popular traditions urged to develop tailored strategies. While France and Italy possess rich manuscript collections, and Germany has published many works, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Spain, and Portugal have limited traces, largely due to oral transmission. The project's strategy was therefore to be exhaustive in its coverage of repertoires prior to 1800 and to provide representative samples from later periods in the PuppetPlays digital platform.
PuppetPlays has achieved significant milestones. In terms of scientific publications, all of which are in Gold, Diamond, or Green Open Access, PI Didier Plassard's monograph, Puppetry and Dramaturgy. Western European Plays for Puppet Theatre, 1582–2020, was published by Palgrave Macmillan & Cham / Springer Nature (2025). Francesca Di Fazio's doctoral thesis, La Marionnette et son drame, defended in 2022, was published by Presses Universitaires de la Méditerranée (2025). Sophie Courtade's doctoral thesis, Le Théâtre d’ombres en Europe de l’Ouest, 1770-1920, was defended in 2025. Additionally, a special journal issue titled ‘Shakespeare and Puppets,’ edited by Carole Guidicelli and Cécile Decaix, was published in Cahiers élisabéthains (SAGE) in July 2025. The research team also published 24 peer-reviewed articles or book chapters. The team organized two international conferences (Literary writing for puppets and marionettes in Western Europe, 2021, and Portrait of the Puppeteer as Author, 2023) and a national conference (Guignol dans le texte, Lyon, 2024). Video recordings of these conferences are available on the PuppetPlays digital platform and on Nakala repository (Huma-Num), and proceedings are being published.
Furthermore, the team paid close attention to promoting the project and disseminating its results through a variety of means: organising public events (project presentations, round tables, workshops, ‘facebook-live events’) in academic and non-academic venues (theatres, museum); participating in national and international symposiums or public meetings at festivals; giving lectures and presentations at professional seminars. During the global health crisis, a seminar, lectures and round table discussions were organised on line. 18 articles have been published in magazines for puppetry (in French, English, German, Spanish, and Portuguese), or in publications for the general public (exhibition catalogue, commemorative books). A monthly newsletter (with over 600 subscribers) and social media posts enabled an international audience to be regularly updated on the project's progress.
