The tradition implies more than just technique the cultural milieu, the style of presentation, the specific story and the characters themselves. Shadow, hand and rod puppets are techniques that belong to everybody. Archie Bunker is an absolute present-day Truffaldino. It's a play with music. We have these apples that sing and waters that dance.
People always make a mistake in assuming that masks limit an actor's expression.
It's quite the opposite. In fact, it liberates an actor to use his entire body to express himself, to find inner places that his outer body, his own exterior, would not allow him to go. All of the expression and all of the character traits become more fleshed out and heightened. The performance style with masks is not tied to naturalism. The mirror on the familiar is suddenly skewed and we get a whole new perspective of human character.