But with the advent of the new regimen in Meiji days there arose a desire for social plays depicting the life of the modern generation, and as these croppy dramas (zampatsumono)so called in allusion to the European method of cutting the hair closewere not included in the repertoire of the orthodox theatre, amateur troupes (known as sOshi-yakusha) were organized to fill the void.
Skandaalso called Kumara (the youth), Karttikeya, or Subrahmanya (in the south) - the six-headed war-lord of the gods; and Ganese, the lord (or leader) of Siva's troupes of attendants, being at the same time the elephant-headed, paunch-bellied god of wisdom; whilst a third, Kama (Kamadeva) or Kandarpa, the god of love, gets his popular epithet of Ananga," the bodiless,"from his having once, in frolicsome play, tried the power of his arrows upon Siva, whilst engaged in austere practices, when a single glance from the third (forehead) eye of the angry god reduced the mischievous urchin to ashes.
Meanwhile, televised glove puppetry remains an oligopoly, with only a few troupes in business and the monopolies usually run by family members.
There were certainly female Autors - owners and producers of acting troupes - in 17th C Spain.
They look like huge human pyramids formed by acrobatic troupes dressed in carnival costumes.