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[Batgirl1]

This would require the construction of a stage, likely using a unit or two of wood plus some cloth for curtains, and performers with the appropriate skills (with maybe any other music/speaking skills providing a bonus), and puppets made in the Craftsdwarf shop (anything from wool sock-puppets to gold & silver marionettes).  Unoccupied children will automatically flock to the nearest performance if one is happening, and any dwarfs in the area will get a positive thought based on the skill of the performer, the quality of the dolls, and whether or not they have a fear of puppets. (Edit:  On a related note, manufacturing puppets might be a bad idea in evil biomes...)

Puppets can also be claimed as toys by children, and in turn, unclaimed toys may be used as props by a puppet master.

Well?  What do you think?

[SixOfSpades]

A good addition to traveling performance troupes, and/or individual Bards. And while a designated Theater room/building (which has been suggested before) could be used for many types of performances, puppetry has the advantage of also being able to have a mobile stage, like the one shown at right. If you want more puppets in the scene at once, you could build a 2-dwarf version, or more practically (for coding purposes) just have two dwarves each wear their own theater, and stand right next to each other. The Magic arc might enable some particularly well-made puppets to move on their own, or at least under their master's commands. But only the fairies found in Good biomes (and even then, only the blue-colored ones) can turn them into real boys.

[Batgirl1]

But only the fairies found in Good biomes (and even then, only the blue-colored ones) can turn them into real boys.

Ooh, hadn't even thought of that!  Another way to potentially bump up the fort population aside from migrants, petitioners, and the natural way, although it would probably happen with all the rarity of artifact creation.  There could be a self-imposed "Gepetto" challenge to embark with one lonely dwarf and some crafting supplies! XD

This also brings to mind: what of golems?

[Splint]

Golems I think have been suggested before, and may well appear in some form with proper magic systems, though I don't know if their use in performance was ever considered (for example, a person regaling an audience on the tale of a battle while having several golems fight to give the story a visual component and a sense of impact when they describe a fatal hammerblow for instance - and also generating a repair job for a craftsman skilled in that golem's material, since it needs a new head or torso now.)

Back on puppets, malevolent spirits of the unburied/unmemorialized could also possess them - a murderous ghost might possess a puppet and have it go around trying to shank people with a dinner knife, while mischievous ones have them go around annoying people, such as waking sleepers, leaving rotting food in people's bedrooms, or scaring people in stockpiles, which can possibly cause your residents to start to dislike puppets/golems or what have you and the associated puppetry if it happens often enough, say for example, if it happens more than five times in a season people start to dislike such performances because of paranoia concerning the puppets or what have you.

[therahedwig]

One of the Threetoe stories does mention puppeteering and using puppets as a medium to do magic with.

There's quite a few different types of puppets too. Like, yeah, marionettes and handpuppets are kinda self-evident, but looking at the wikipedia page I was reminded of the fact shadow puppets are a thing. Not to mention the really huge puppets like Bunraku or Festival puppets. I guess then, it might be an idea to have a shared framework between these things.

Maybe, because DF has a differentiation between souls and bodies, have puppets and automatons and other constructed bodies count similar to organic bodies, and they can then be either a vessel for a soul, or animated otherwise. This does mean that Necromancers as they are now might be able to animate constructed bodies like puppets. This also means that we might end up seeing Necromancer invasions consisting out of thousands of animated Gingerbread men.

Perhaps also the opposite of puppet to human, human to puppet? (Or, human to gingerbread man...)

Or puppets representing humans in rituals, like voodoo dolls, but perhaps also as a symbolic element within a ritual to target the ritual?

As for the performance aspect, I guess theatre in general would be cool. But I guess that'd need like, the concept of stories. Stories themselves could have a generated genre structure, like poetry does. Events and made up plotpoints could have some kind of interpretations attached to them(I guess this requires the starting scenarios framework), which can then be used to determine the purpose of the plotpoint in the story. Histfigs ought to be able to actually receive the information of the story so they can tell it on...

Other things that'd be necessary is concepts like costumes, symbols on costumes, traditional ways to depict someone(like, Punch and Judy, as well as other Comedia del'Arte figures). Though, I guess that later part could be abstracted like it is for figurines now. Puppeteering across multiple Z-levels would be necessary for marionettes and the really big puppets.

[Batgirl1]

There's quite a few different types of puppets too. Like, yeah, marionettes and handpuppets are kinda self-evident, but looking at the wikipedia page I was reminded of the fact shadow puppets are a thing. Not to mention the really huge puppets like Bunraku or Festival puppets. I guess then, it might be an idea to have a shared framework between these things.

Hmm, maybe give different cultures access to different types, as with clothing?

As for the performance aspect, I guess theatre in general would be cool. But I guess that'd need like, the concept of stories. Stories themselves could have a generated genre structure, like poetry does. Events and made up plotpoints could have some kind of interpretations attached to them(I guess this requires the starting scenarios framework), which can then be used to determine the purpose of the plotpoint in the story. Histfigs ought to be able to actually receive the information of the story so they can tell it on...

We do have historical events as a starting point; "Tell Story" is already a social activity Dwarfs do, so they could start with reenacting the founding of the fort, etc., until fiction is expanded in the game.  In fact, it kind of makes sense for dorfs to be practical to the point of everything being edutainment anyway.

Other things that'd be necessary is concepts like costumes, symbols on costumes, traditional ways to depict someone(like, Punch and Judy, as well as other Comedia del'Arte figures). Though, I guess that later part could be abstracted like it is for figurines now. Puppeteering across multiple Z-levels would be necessary for marionettes and the really big puppets.

Costumes would likely just be part of the puppet, unless you're talking about muppets or even just broad-strokes theater in general.  I also don't think Z-levels would be entirely necessary for marionettes as some have short strings, though that could be a neat touch.