Use of puppets in developmental theatre

ALâ mainly use Forum Theatre as a personal, social and developmental tool. Doing the Maria Schejbal’s Bielsko Artistic Association Grodzki Theatre, puppet course in Goreme Turkey I am wondering how puppets could be used to deal with subjects like bullying where the audience becomes actively involved as in Forum Theatre
Has anyone any experience in this or comments to make?
Jim

Hi Jim, and welcome to our ARTES platform!

I am not that familiar with Forum Theatre, just being aware of its main principles. But as you know, I am totally crazy about puppets. Answering your question about using puppetry art in dealing with painful social phenomena, I would like to refer to my own experience. With puppets we can do things which would not work in actors theatre. Once, when I wanted to show on stage the desintegration of a person addicted to drugs, we constructed a human size puppet made out of plastic foil. The image of this character falling apart in front of the audience was a powerful effect according to the spectators` testimonies. You can see the performance here on the platform under Theatre category: https://artescommunity.eu/performance-magic-mountain-or-a-few-facts-from-ms-life/

I can imagine similar theatrical situation while touching bullying subject. It can be shown literally how every aggressive action impacts on the puppet character. Every single part of its body can react and get damaged. And then we can invite the audience to animate such crippled personage. This could work, I believe. Let`s wait for other ideas and suggestions.

Maria

I would like to thank Maria Schejbal & Krzysztof Tusiewicz for comming to Galway and running two day workshops in Puppetry in both Galway and Ennis, Co Clare. I learnt a lot and think it is a great way to create awareness of issues of concern. They also attended the ALa showcase last Friday where there was performances by our Adult inclusive Community Workshop and the Outreach & Training Group. We had the pleasure of a tour of Connemara today.
I look forward to the opportunity to visit them in the Spring. While there we will run an introduction to Forum Theatre if anyone is interested in learning about this form of theatre.
Thank you Maria & Krzysztof
Jim Aherne
ALa Project Coordinator

[admin]

Many thanks to Ala for inviting us and organizing both workshops! It was an exciting and fruitful experience. Soon, we will publish a new learning path on ARTES platform based on the two Irish sessions. We do count on the participants feedback! And we are looking forward to welcoming you in Poland in spring to further explore synergies between Forum Theatre and puppetry art. Maria

• This reply was modified 7 years, 5 months ago by admin.