For teachers, play and youth leaders, health and family care workers
A one-day course is designed to provide ideas and build confidence in the construction and manipulation of simple puppets which can also be made and used by children.
The programme aims to help you:
Understand the range of different puppetry techniques
Use simple puppet exercises and games with children
Make a simple puppet
Give character and life to your puppet
Incorporate puppetry into your area of work
Access information on puppetry
PROGRAMME CONTENTS:
What is a puppet and what are puppets made from
Different forms of puppetry - control, manipulation and performance techniques. Puppet theatre staging and suitability for different situations.
Handling performance and workshop puppets
Exercises and games to aid puppetry skills.
Practical session of making, manipulating and performing with puppets.
How are puppets relevant to your circumstances
Questions and answers.
Evaluation
Workshop materials are provided and hand outs on course content, resources and useful contact addresses are included.
Diana has been a trainer for 15 years in education, theatres and for community and health organisations. She has run courses for The West Yorkshire Playhouse, Eureeka Children’s Museum, Family Service Units, health organisations and many school inset days.
Training can be designed to provide for your specific needs, you may want a shorter session comprising of a demonstration with some hands on, a longer residency covering more aspects in depth or focusing on a particular style of puppetry or the needs of a specific group.
Puppetry
1. making a simple puppet and learning how to manipulate using basic performance techniques.
2. Making a junk puppet whilst learning facts about waste and recycling.
Shadow theatre
1. Making a shadow puppet and operating on screen to develop the character.
2. Shadow theatre on a large screen. Participants explore their own shadows and those of objects and materials, through exercises and improvisations.
Training
This is tailored to fit the requirements of the participants but generally, over the course of a day, includes learning about the range of puppetry; how to make simple puppets and employ basic techniques to bring life and character to the puppet; making a puppet; working with others to present a short sketch.
The workshops can be 1 hour, a half or one day session, or a longer residency, depending on your aims.
At community events you may want several sessions on the same day or a drop-in workshop. The number of participants generally to be no more than 20.
In schools I often provide the format of a morning performance for the school or year group followed by an afternoon workshop with one class.