Puppet Making Workshops and Puppetry Residencies
Whether participating in an hour-long workshop or a multi-week residency culminating in a grand performance, students work with abundant, professional quality materials to make the puppet creation of their dreams.
Residency Goals
Professional puppeteers accompany students on a journey to connect with their own creative self while considering how their creation will engage with the wider world. A process of discovery that strengthens each artists’ skills at becoming intrinsically motivated, self-activated, self-assessing thinkers and creators. At the onset of a project the seed for our long-term goal is planted: you are going to design and create a puppet that you will bring to life for an audience. Always considering the audience fosters a connection to their puppet being that will embody consciousness. How it looks and moves is a reflection of the puppeteer, and that notion seeps in to raise each puppeteer’s personal standard of excellence. Form versus function in puppet making is a way to explore and control creative decision making. The maker’s creativity can be unleashed, but the puppet needs to be able to function, to move like the creature of your intent. There is a chance to try out new ideas, and reject them if they don’t suit the overall goal. Students gain the valuable experience of trying out ideas until they work, engendering a habit of persistence. Be brave, problem solve, put yourself out there. Get over the notion of perfection. Puppetry residencies takes a lot of grit to navigate, and there is nothing more rewarding than the sense of pride new puppeteers feel when their audience responds to them, whether in surprise, suspense, laughter or applause. Barbara has been told her enthusiasm for puppetry and the joy of sharing her art form engages and excites the student puppeteers. Students’ post residency reflective notes show they learn to to trust in their own creative instincts, have the persistence to see their vision through, and most of all, have fun during the process.
