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A recap of the workshop and discussions.

Sandhya Rao introduced Evelien Pullens to the teachers attending the workshop. Evelien briefly described her work as puppeteer, story writer, dancer and actress in Holland. Typically at Holland, she does a show for the children and then works with them on making puppets and movement. She showed video clippings from various shows done for children at Holland by her and her group. One of the clippings was on whole body puppets, where the puppeteer uses her whole body to move and manipulate the puppets. The puppets were dancing to a song. Another clipping was about making puppets spontaneously on stage with newspapers as the story progresses. Yet another clipping was on the story of tea-cups, where the puppets were themselves made of different types of tea-cups.

She has been working at the Kattaikuttu school in Kancheepuram for the last two months with the children. She was invited there to do workshops with the children, to familiarize them to other art forms than what they already know. Her work there was mainly based on making and manipulating paper mache puppets.

Evelien makes puppets using paper mache, socks, foam and other materials. At the Kattaikuttu school Evelien concentrated on paper mache because the children were already familiar with paper mache and had been using it in other art forms that they learn. Also, children enjoy working with paper, glueing it together and painting the puppets.

Through the workshop Evelien mainly wanted to a) teach them the process of making puppets using paper mache. b) encourage the children to make individual, unique puppets. She did not want them to copy. She had different moulds from which children could make puppets. This pushed their imagination, as they did not have the same mould to start with as others. c)work with materials already available and transform them into puppets. All the puppets she got to show the teachers were done by children. The puppets had been made using empty plastic bottles, funnels, cups, glasses, boxes, balloons, bucket, toilet brush etc as moulds and no two puppets looked the same!

Evelien then explained the process of making a paper mache puppet. It took her 4 sessions of 2 hours each with the children to finish making these puppets at Kattaikuttu school.

Making paper mache puppets

1. The first step is to stick a layer of paper strips on the mould (say funnel) using water. This is so that in the end, the paper mache puppet, does not get stuck to the mould and can be take out easily. Chalk and water can also be used.

2. After this, strips of paper are pasted one layer on top of another, using maida glue. After a few layers, this is let to become dry. Once it is dry, stick more layers of paper strips so the puppet can become stiff and thick. One needs at least 20-25 layers of paper strips on the funnel to get a stiff puppet.

3. The last layer of paper strips should be stuck using fevicol.

4. Once it has completely dried, pull the funnel out. In case of using a bottle, the bottle stays in and cannot be pulled out.

5. Once the funnel is out, cut the cone shaped paper mache puppet into half, so you have two identical half cone shapes. Place the two half cone shapes, on a cardboard, their wider sides facing each other. Cut out the cardboard for this shape. Cut out some cloth for the shape and size, leaving a bit extra leeway for folding the cloth. Stick the cardboard and then the cloth on the two half cone shapes, so that they connect to each other using the cardboard and cloth. Use paper strips to firmly join the cloth and cardboard to the half cones.

6. If you put you hand at the opening, then this becomes like a mouth of the puppet. For ears, nose etc, make a soft paste by cutting small pieces of paper and putting in glue or grinding paper with water and adding some glue. Create the shape of nose and ears you may want and paste it to the puppet using paper strips and fevicol. Eyes can also be made with the bottle cap. Add hair as you may like. Decorate and paint with water color the puppet as you would like. You can then varnish it to give it some shine.

7. If one uses the box or balloon as a base and wants to make a mouth that can move then use the mouth made above or using a cup and attach it to the main base.

  Making puppets using socks

1. The toe becomes the lower part of mouth and the rest of the sock becomes the upper part of the mouth.

2. Use red cardboard or red cloth and stick to the lower and upper mouth. One can even add a tongue.

3. On the top, add eyes, ears, hair etc

  Some tips

1. Puppets using plastic bottles, toilet brush (the brush becomes the hair) are easy to make with younger children.

2. Puppets using socks are also easy to make with younger children.

3. Younger children (below 10 yrs old) may find it difficult to manipulate the puppet.

4. Younger children think that the puppets are alive and are sometimes afraid to touch it. One should allow them to touch, feel and play with the puppets more.

  Using puppets in the classroom

After the puppets are made, one needs to learn how to manipulate the puppets to make them come alive. So she does a few exercises with the children. The children are asked to assume that the puppet is alive and do all the things that we normally do – sleep, eat, wake up, look in the mirror and preen onself, clean teeth, pick up food etc. Practicing emotions is the next. This is done with as fewer words and as many sounds as possible. Eg. crying, feeling shy, happy, indifferent etc. While doing this, she covers her hand with a cloth, so this also looks like a dress for the puppet.

Two teachers from headstart school volunteered to sing a song with the puppets. After this Evelien also sang a dutch folk song with the puppet. She also showed different ways of manipulating the puppet, dialogues between herself and a puppet.

Questions

Ques - How does one teach moral values using puppets?

Ans -  Mainly through stories. Children take whatever the puppet says very seriously. So if the puppet is saying something, the children will listen more intently.

Ques – Have you used puppets to teach in the classroom?

Ans – I have not used puppets to teach maths or science. But I have sometimes used them in English teaching. I feel that children can learn to do the right talking if they use their hands to manipulate the puppet’s mouth while they talk. For doing this well, they need to be aware of the sounds and this can help them learn the sounds better. As for maths or science, I think that puppets can definitely be used, because children concentrate a lot on what the puppet is saying, doing etc. So perhaps, the puppets can be used to increase the concentration of the children in these classroom situations.

Ques – How can you use the puppets for emotional issues?

Ans – If the puppet says something, it gets across stronger. Also while taking up delicate issues, one can use a puppet. Children sometimes feel threatened when an adult approaches them, but with puppets it a different level and so they may open up much easily. So one can use a puppet to approach shy or difficult children. In one of the schools, one puppet takes turns to spend time at every child’s house for a week. The child takes care of the puppet and the puppet has to come back and tell about what happened last week. This is also one way of getting to know what the child is thinking, what is happening at the child’s home etc.

 Ques – Would puppetry be more effective if one does ventriloquism?

Ans – I do not think so, because most young children concentrate on the puppet rather than the puppeteers lip movements. Also, one can always hide themselves under a cloth while manipulating the puppet. If the puppeteer also looks at the puppet and all her energy is there then the children will invariably concentrate on the puppet. If one is good with manipulating the puppet, then everyone will look at it. One does not need ventriloquism.

Ques – How many different types of puppets are there? What are the different types of puppets ?

Ans – there are many different types of puppets – shadow, sock, paper mache, foam, cloth, fur, paper, etc. There will be more than 100 types of puppets. In India, there is a lady who has a website dedicated to puppetry and different types of puppets.

Ques –  Do you conduct workshops to teach puppetry?

Ans – I can if there is an interest. There is also a lady here from Kothari Academy (Mrs. Prema) and Headstart School at kottivakkam, who can help with learning puppetry. Perhaps you can contact them as well, as they are based in Chennai 

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