Puppetry

This is an introductory workshop for young people, tailored to the group’s age and ability, conducted through design, fabrication and performance. The workshop builds general group-dynamic building games, with a focus on fun. We will present some of Collapsing Horse’s puppets, videos of our performances and of other puppeteers that have influenced us, and the participants will learn about the many different forms of puppetry; marionette, glove puppet, stick puppet, shadow puppet etc. The aim of this is to start a discussion about what puppetry is and, in spite of their differences, what all the different forms have in common.

The participants, over the course of the workshop, will get a chance to use our puppets, learn the basics of puppetry performance, will be challenged by being given the most basic household materials to create and animate a believable puppet, and then gradually allowed more materials to add to their character. They will find their puppet’s voice and physicality and discover a personality to their puppet, through solo work and through scenes with the other participants’ puppets.

Aims of the workshop

-to give the participants an opportunity to see quality puppetry in the form of a video presentation of the work of puppeteers we admire and clips from our own work, as well as a live demonstration from the facilitator

-to introduce the basic concepts behind our philosophy of puppetry: the suspension of disbelief that takes place when objects are animated, as a microcosm of theatre in general

-to introduce the advanced concepts of puppet design, construction and animation

-to introduce improvisational performance using puppetry as a medium for expression

-to build confidence and a creative, fun group dynamic