WORKSHOPS : Imagine, design, make, perform
Our workshops invite people to explore the best of contemporary shadow theatre techniques
The light, the screen and the puppet are all variable elements within shadow theatre, with huge expressive power.
Shadow theatre workshops permit each participant to animate their own puppet characters, and find their own voices.
We explore lights, screens and objects/puppets, creating performances or 'wall-prints' - shadow projections onto pale walls.
A live musical accompaniment can be provided by the participants and/or the company.
Workshops can be planned according to the themes or topics that suit each group.
For example - An introductory two -hour workshop for Year 2 students :
Aims of workshop : Re-telling traditional tales supported by multi-disciplinary skills including D&T (cutting, shaping, joining), science (materials), literacy (spoken word), art (traditions of shadow puppet theatre, uses of shape, form and space)
Materials : cereal boxes, shoe boxes, white cotton, scrap card packaging, doyleys, coloured cellophane, lace, netting, wire. Screens either lent by the company or made in advance by students with cardboard boxes and white cotton sheeting.
Equipment provided : scissors, pencils, split pins, hole punchers, staplers, sellotape, masking tape, sticks
Structure :
- 15 minutes Introduction - demonstration, short discussion of ideas, and instructions
- 1 hour designing and making with technical support from adults where required in cutting, hole punching, assembling
- Each student to successfully complete at least one puppet. Early finishers make more puppets, or work on decoration and scenery, begin rehearsing.
- 10 minutes tidy up space
- 20 minutes Rehearsal and perfomance - taking role of director, performer, giving contructive comments, strengthening and adjusting the puppets.
- 15 minutes whole group watch each others' work
Seasonal projects :
'Pathways to the North Pole' is an immersive winter project, inviting participants on an outdoor trail of arctic footprints, to a 'polar research station', where they hear the sound of a bearded seal singing under the ice. They share out a snack, hear a story, and return to their classes, where together we make a 3-D winter landscape for classroom play.
'How Night Came' is a summer project, based on the Brazilian folktale.
The sunshine is wonderful - but where is the calming darkness of night time?
A Victorian explorer, Miss Cecilia Cree, leads this exploration of light and dark, leading performances by the children with puppets inspired by the rainforest.
Designed for 4 - 7 year -olds