ANIMATING THE ANIMATORS WORKSHOPS

Core Skills Workshops for the Puppeteer
WORKSHOPPING for WORKSHOPPERS
Delivered by Liz Fost
Workshops conducted between May 23rd and June 6th 2005



Why offer Workshops?

There is a potentially huge market for puppetry workshops:

• Workshops can augment the work of a company when offered alongside a show thus making the work more attractive to potential bookers.
• In community settings, the making of puppets and subsequent presentation of a ‘show’, makes a very attractive project as it can cut across all manner of cultural and other boundaries.
• ‘Puppets’ is a National Curriculum topic in Key Stages one and two (primary schools), yet many teachers lack the confidence/ experience to know how to produce them.
• Puppet based projects are increasingly being seen as a valuable learning experience in both primary and secondary schools, particularly for the less academically inclined students.

1. Planning Schools Workshops

The experience of the Animating the Animators participants was that the majority of demand for workshops was from primary schools – either as a follow-up to a show or a one-off. This can be difficult as it involves making a large amount of puppets in a very short time as schools are often working on very limited budgets. I felt it was important that the puppets made should be simple enough for everyone to have a chance to finish one in the time (Normally no more than an hour or and hour and a half.) It was also seen as important that the students got a chance to use their puppet in some way (a short showing), and that they learnt a little about puppetry generally.

Puppets can fit in to many aspects of the primary school curriculum, and flagging this up to schools can help in marketing workshops. Suggested areas:

• Art and Design
• Literacy (Exploring classic tales / Story construction etc)
• PSHE (Recognizing different emotions, social interaction etc)
• Geography (Cultural traditions from other lands)
• History (E.g. Victorians – Punch and Judy shows etc)
• Science (Shadows)

It is always a good idea to involve the class teacher as much as possible in the planning of a workshop. Often there is a topic that the class are studying – for example: rainforests, or a particular book they are reading, which a puppet workshop can be tailored around. Also, with thirty or more puppets to be made any extra hands are needed!

Skeleton Plan for a Workshop

• A short introduction to different types of puppets examining the differences in how they are made and how they are manipulated. (This appears in the National Curriculum)
• A short demonstration of the puppeteer’s art, i.e.: that to make the audience believe that the puppet is alive it must move, and if it speaks, have a different voice to that of the puppeteer. – The students can try this for themselves by imagining their hand is a puppet and moving it as if it is sad/ happy etc.
• For shadow puppet workshops, a short discussion about what a shadow is.
• A quick demonstration of the techniques that will be used in making the puppets.
• A ‘Making’ session– which encourages students to think about whom their character is and what sort of voice it might have.
• A short ‘showing’ in groups of four or five, where each puppet is interviewed by the workshop leader.
• In an ‘after show’ workshop, a short presentation of the different characters and discussion of their roles.

Quick, simple puppet ideas:

Paper plate faces on sticks with crepe paper clothes - Shredded tissue paper makes excellent hair that can be stuck on using pritt stick. Knotting a length of thick string around the stick so the ends dangle can make arms. Paper cut out hands can be stuck to the ends.

Paper plate fish – stick two plates together leaving a gap at the bottom for the hand, then cut out the shape. Add a further plate to make the tail.

Envelope monsters – an A5 envelope can make an instant hand puppet if you put your fingers and thumb in the corners to make the mouth.

For older students – crumpled newspaper wound round with masking tape on a stick makes a quick alternative to paper mache. Smaller pieces can then be used to mould noses/ ears etc. Using masking tape means that felt tip pens can be used to add colour thus avoiding having to wait for paint to dry.

Simple shadow puppets - can be made by drawing the image onto white card, colouring it and cutting it out, then soaking it in vegetable oil to make it translucent.

2. Community Groups

This is usually a much less structured environment than a school and therefore participants thought it was a good idea to work with smaller numbers, particularly if working as a sole practitioner.
Very often the workshop leader has to provide all materials and thus charges are higher.
An advantage of this kind of group is that usually the participants have elected to be there and thus discipline is usually found to be less of a problem.
Age groups may vary considerably, so it was thought to be a good idea to use a variety of construction techniques.

Longer Projects

There is sometimes the opportunity to run longer-term projects in schools and with other groups. This can be a more satisfying experience for student and puppeteer alike.
Projects usually take place over several days culminating in a show or an informal sharing session at the end.
This was felt to be important as it emphasises puppetry as a performance medium.
If a project is a follow on from a show, it was felt to be more fulfilling to take appropriate themes as a starting point for exploration, rather than attempting to reproduce the story.

Finding the Story:

When starting from scratch, one of the biggest problems can be finding the story.
Useful starting points could be:

• Classic fairy tales
• Aesops fables – either the fables themselves or as a starting point for devising a story to illustrate the same moral.
• Proverbs or sayings
• Classic Greek/ Roman/ Egyptian myths and legends

It is often helpful to explore these through drama first to create the story and thus decide what puppets are needed.
A standard technique is for students to assume characters and improvise particular scenes in small groups.
Making storyboards can also be helpful to pin down the most important events.

Many classic stories only involve a few characters, which can present problems when working with a large group. Suggested solutions might be:

• Work in groups with each group taking a different section of the story.
• Ask students to think about who else might be present in a particular scene – E.g. shopkeepers, passers-by etc
• With mythical tales, Gods and Deities can have many different personas.

It may be preferable to construct an original story and therefore create as many characters as participants.

There are many drama- orientated games aimed at creating stories, and whether or not the resulting story is used, they can often help to generate creativity and channel thoughts:

• One word story – students go round the circle saying only one word each, trying to build up a story. This can be helpful in getting a group to work together and listen to one another, as they must all be telling the same story.
• One line story – as above only they can say an entire sentence each.
• Questions – With the group sitting in a circle, build up the beginnings of a story by asking them question to spark their imaginations:
  WHERE is the story set?
  WHO is there?
  WHAT is their problem?
  HOW do they try and resolve it?
  This can also be a helpful exercise when trying to expand an existing story e.g.:
  Once upon a time there was a boy called Jack – how old was he? – What were his favourite clothes? – What was the nicest thing about him? – What was the nastiest? Etc

What next?

With a big group, once a story has been constructed, it is often a good idea to divide them up into smaller, more manageable groups based on characters (E.g. Wolves, sheep, villagers for the story of The Boy Who Cried Wolf). Each group can then work on storyboarding their separate scenes either through drawing or making frozen pictures with their bodies. This can make it easier when it comes to linking the scenes together.

Sparking creativity without a text

Warm up games and exercises can also be useful as starting points for sparking creativity.
For puppetry projects, games that link physical expression and emotion can be helpful for when it comes to designing a character’s expression, e.g.

• Statues showing different emotions
• Walking with feeling – students are given a different emotion each and must cross the circle walking in that way. The others must guess which emotion is being portrayed.
• Speaking with feeling – as above except students are given a line to say and must do so with appropriate vocal expression.

Other general warm-up games:

Liars
Everyone sits in a circle. There is one person, A, in the middle who mimes a simple action – e.g. brushing their hair. The first player B, walks into the middle and demands ‘what are you doing?’ it is obvious what A is doing but they lie and say they are doing something completely different e.g. ‘I’m flying an aeroplane’. B must then do this new action while A sits down. C then enters the circle and asks ‘what are you doing?’ whereupon B lies etc etc.
This is particularly good for getting shyer students to participate. There is a certain security in the knowledge that no matter how silly the action is; it was somebody else’s idea!

What’s in the box?
Pass an empty box around the circle. Each player must mime taking something out of it. This can be of any size (a horse is quite acceptable!); they must also show how they feel about the particular object. Other players must guess what it is. The object is then returned and the box passed to the next player.

Practical Extras
A few points worth considering:

• With younger students, sticks for rod and shadow puppets can be potentially problematic. There will always be one or two students who will use them as weapons. With shadow puppets it can be a good idea to attach the stick using Velcro so it can be removed when the puppet isn’t being used.
  A tip I picked up from a teacher is to get the class to chant:
  ‘Puppets never hit other puppets’
  ‘Puppets never hit humans’
  It doesn’t always work,( particularly if you are looking at Punch and Judy!), but it can help to emphasise that the puppets are not toys and should be treated with respect.
• Anyone working with children needs to obtain a CRB (Criminal Records Bureau) disclosure certificate. Companies will usually apply for this on behalf of the practitioner, but people working independently should contact:
  Criminal Records Bureau, POBox 165, Liverpool, L69 3JD Helpline: 0870 90 90 844
• Toilet rolls – the use of toilet roll insides is frowned upon in schools on hygiene grounds.
• Wallpaper paste- best avoided as most contains fungicide, which can trigger allergies.
• Clearing – up time. This is always important no matter where a workshop is being run. School keepers / Hall caretakers opinions can have a lot of influence when it comes to future bookings!
• Charging. There was much debate about how much practitioners should charge for workshops. The Arts Council recommends around £175 per day. Charges for shorter workshops seemed to vary between £40 - £100 per hour, depending on the situation and how many practitioners would be involved. Artists need to set their own rate, always factoring in travel expenses and the cost of materials. It may be easiest to calculate this, and base your fee on a per capita basis, then using this as a guide figure for the price.
• Books
  There are many books of puppet making ideas available, covering just about all ages/ abilities/ situations. The most useful I have found are:
  ‘Puppets Around the World’ by Meryl Doney published by Franklin Watts
  ‘Puppets for Dreaming and Scheming’ by Judy Sims published by The Learning Works.( It’s an American book but I found it on Amazon!)
  For drama ideas:
  ‘100 + Ideas for Drama’ by Anna Scher and Charles Verrall. Published by Heinemann
  ‘Impro’ by Keith Johnstone. Published by Methuen.
  ‘Anyone Can Tell a Story’ by Bob Hartman. Published by Lion Children’s Books

Delivered by Liz Fost