Three weeks ago Irena Stratieva and I gave a 45 minute introductory Puppetry workshop to about 35 students at the London Colliseum's Theatre Craft day. Things started off a little sketchy - the teenagers were crammed into a tiny space, a lot of them had been put on the workshop by their schools and 'disinterested' would be a good adjective for the general mood...... however, we set out to show them the serious side of Puppetry and it wasn't long before people really started throwing themselves into our exercises, which included working on developing a strong centre (vital for puppeteers, who often contort themselves whilst holding heavy objects) and tai chi-inspired work for improving hand-eye co-ordination, focus and 'inner stillness'. When we got out our puppets we were amazed by what a talented bunch of improvisers we had in the room...!...and things risked getting a little out of hand, until we challenged everyone to do one thing, and one thing only with their puppet - make it breathe. Pretty soon everyone was sitting in a circle watching each puppet come to life, one at a time, stirring to life via the simple illusion of inhaling and exhaling. That seemed to be the point when our students realised that there is more to puppetry than Punch and Judy and Avenue Q...there was an heightened atmosphere in the room as the chatting stopped and eyes became fixed on the breathing puppets. Afterwards we asked for peoples' thoughts - before the workshop I didn't think it was worth allowing time for this, not expecting anyone to volunteer anything - but we were inundated. People told us they had no idea there were so many dimensions to puppetry, and that they felt inspired. A very rewarding first experience of teaching.
Thanks to Stuart Allen for the beautiful photos.
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