|
I discovered puppetry shortly after graduating from St. Olaf College with a BA in Art as Community Activism. Puppetry combines sculpture, painting, movement, music and story-writing.
In residencies, students are given freedom to explore their own artistic process and make their own decisions. In a one-week residency, there are two general phases: puppet making and puppet movement, culminating in a short presentation or mini-parade. Two-week residencies enable students to explore more complex puppet-making techniques, develop their story-writing skills, create musical accompaniment, work on set design, and present a fabulous puppet show!
Examples of puppetry residencies include: Giant Puppets ~ teams make larger-than-life characters, Rod Puppets or Hand Puppets ~ either fit over the hand like a glove, or are operated by sticks held from below, Cranky Shows ~ A “cranky-show” means a scrolling painting that is turned by two cranks—kind of like a low-tech TV, Masks ~ Students create a papier-mâché mask using found objects or by sculpting a clay base and Shadow Puppets ~ Puppets are cut from thick paper with thin rods to control their dance across a back-lit screen.
|
