Workshops

PCT organised two workshops as integral parts of Moving Words: Writing and Puppetry led by Ramon Abad and Louise Woods on September 12th 2005 and Directing for Puppetry led by Steve Tiplady on January 12th 2006.

Here you will find notes, ideas and images from these sessions (Extracts from workshop reports by Ramon Abad and Beccy Smith)

An exercise with Newspapers

Each participant places his or her hands flat on a sheet of newspaper on the floor. After focusing on one’s own breathing, everyone moves one’s fingers and hands to match breathing. Slowly the paper also comes to life and starts to breath.

Then slowly feet emerge by shaping the paper in one’s own way. Gradually these small entities start walking and meet each other. They slowly form little relationships and a few group together and form the legs or the torso of one character.

Steve gave creative examples of intervening in scenes as they unfolded - adding in new incentives or obstacles to show how improvisation rules applied straightforwardly to puppet characters with their own desires and anxieties.

Taking notes

An important part of the process of writing for puppet theatre, Louise stresses, is taking notes in the midst of creating and devising. Each participant releases their newspaper creations and takes the time to write down their own thoughts of what they felt or experienced in the exercise. Are there any small stories that came out of these little relationships?

Objects

Each participant takes out one object from a bag filled with an assortment of ordinary household objects like wooden spoons, springs, bottle-openers, etc. After regarding its potentials to create a sound (a brush’s bristles on a wooden floor) everyone makes their object walk and also find another object in the room with the same properties. So, brushes discover brushes, a whisk discovers another kitchen utensil. From these groups emerge one character or a start of small story.

After taking the time to discover and play, each grouping shares their little stories with the rest of the group not only as a way of observing and learning from each other but as a way of remembering from improvisation for each performer.

What did the physical form of the puppet tell us about its characters even before
it moved? What were the dramatic rules implied by the form?

Taking notes again

At this point it was important to briefly let go of play and creating in order to focus on documenting what occurred. Some wrote down impressions of their work. Others wrote down outlines of a brief story that could develop from their objects. I caught a brief glimpse of a several sketches of a scene or a storyboard that someone thought could continue later on.

Louise divided everyone in 5 smaller groups and assigned each group with either a short dramatic text or folk story, a poem, or an extract from a play. One group received a postcard of image from a painting. Each group then was given the time to devise a short piece as group using any puppet medium available.

Several groups created their own puppets from materials on hand. One group used pre-made puppets from the collection. I noticed that each group had their own distinct approach to interpret their text or image. One group took the time to really talk and break the text into smaller parts before even touching a puppet. A couple of groups immediately took objects in their hands and played with some movements in some way to interpret their text or image.

Steve encouraged the participants to experiment with the logical limits of their puppet: if it was a walking puppeteer, where could it walk? why should it stop?