week-long puppet workshop.
yes, this week i am participating in a truly delightful workshop where i’m learning how to work with puppets in the library. we’re also making puppets and puppety props. there are 10 people in the class and they’re from all over–indiana, south dakota, kansas–i feel incredibly lucky that i live close enough to bike to the class each day.
today we worked on how to move hand puppets to communicate more effectively with our audience. we were given blank puppets (just a head and arms, no facial features) and then given a card with a scenario on it that we had to silently act out–sort of like charades with puppets. one of my scenarios was to run onstage, trip and fall, and exit the stage crying and limping. the second scenario was to enter the stage riding on an imaginary horse, rein the horse in, stop, think a minute (as though deciding my route), then point off stage and gallop away. i thought these were both a bit tricky to convey, but apparently, i was successful-ish as people could guess what i was doing both times. the hardest motion? sitting down. my hand doesn’t really bend the right way and i still haven’t quite figured it out.
tomorrow, we’re working on voices. i’m very excited about that. i’ve been trying to find a good puppet voice for years and have had trouble with consistency. maybe i’ll find a good voice tomorrow.
