Behind the White Screen (Greek Fiction and Memoirs)

The memoirs of the great Greek shadow puppeteer and his history of the art of Karagiosis. His father was blinded by a stone falling on him while he was working as a laborer on the Acropolis. His mother took in washing. After the accident he led his father out begging during the days. At night he sneaked off to the shadow theater which was thought unrespectable. Karagiosis became his great passion. He worked first as a puppeteer's assistant and was able to start on his own when a neighbor gave him a sheet. This he made into a screen which he slept beside outdoors at night so that it would not be stolen. He made his own puppets, scenery, signs, wrote his own plays and performed them with the help of a singer. Memoirs describes his beginnings, the 1914-18 war, the coffee houses all over Greece where he performed and became famous, World War II and the German Occupation. History and Art of Karagiosis tells the main schools of shadow puppetry, the best known puppeteers! -- 'Antonis Poriotis. A good player but he died of too much wine in 1938. It gives the main karagiosis characters and lists the best-known plays. The book is illustrated with Spatharis' own shadow figures.