Puppets Help Children to Reveal their Deepest
Feelings
by Luz Cudjoe
Puppets really engage and delight children.
Watching them is in itself a form of art therapy for the audience.
In some parts of the world performances contain a moral message
and are watched with deep reverence. A wonderful illustration
of this is Indonesia. There puppets continue to be used to re-enact
scenes from sacred Hindu scriptures. Prayers always precede the
start of the performance.
The Wayang Museum in Jakarta, Indonesia perhaps
surprisingly has a complete set of British Punch and Judy puppets.
They were apparently donated to the museum by a British Ambassador
who used to personally give performances to invited guests in
the embassy.
The Cadiz area in Andalusia, Spain also still
has a lively marionette tradition. In Munich, Germany puppets
perform classical opera.
Puppets are always moved by human and not mechanical
means. These movable figures come in many shapes and sizes. There
are marionettes, glove puppets, rod puppets, finger puppets and
shadow puppets to mention a few. They are all operated differently.
If you have not already done so, how about
exploring using puppets at home with the kids. The aim of my suggestion
is not first and foremost educational, but therapeutic. The aim
is to work at achieving greater harmony between Mind-Body-and-Spirit.
Of course, the activity also has an educational aspect.
Children are often fascinated by puppets and
interact strongly with them, which can lead to an overcoming of
shyness and fear and greater use of speech. The interaction also
encourages concentration and use of the imagination. Psychologists
use puppets to help traumatized and abused children to express
their feelings.
Parents, I hope, will try to use this activity
to reach deeper, unspoken levels in their relationships with their
offspring. Sessions can become a form of deeply loving and healing
communication. Parents need to let their child play a dominant
role if they want to. Both have to deepen their understanding
of leading and following, giving and taking.
The making and operating of puppets can be
a form of serious, carefully thought-out or joyfully spontaneous
activity. Spontaneity can be very important as it avoids the planned
lesson-like feeling that is often associated with school.
It is possible to buy beautiful puppets in
every form imaginable. If your child really enjoys this activity
it might be worth buying a few of the sort that you cannot make
yourself. A lot of fun can be had just using things that are to
hand. Paper bags, paper cups and plates, plastic bottles, a sock,
a pillow case with a ball tied into one end as a head, ice lolly
sticks with small pictures portraying whatever you like attached
at one end, a block of foam, a scrubbing brush, a scarf with threads
tied to the corners to produce an ethereal, ghost-like figure
can all be put to practical use. Even attaching a piece of cloth
to a can makes an effective puppet. Transform a computer mouse
into a snake.
The figures do not necessarily need hands,
feet or a body. If you attach weights for example button, beads
to a piece of cloth it creates the impression of a body. Take
the stuffing out of a toy, add a rod and hey presto it becomes
a puppet!
Much fun can be had through the imaginative
use of decorative materials such as ribbons, cloth, sequins and
other sparkling bits and pieces. Shadow puppets can be created
just by using your two hands in front of a plain wall. They can
also easily be made by cutting shapes out of plastic, acetate
or cellophane and decorating them with such things as sweet wrappers,
sequins etc. Drawings can easily and cheaply be photocopied onto
acetate. Attach these cut out shapes to rods. Keep everything
bold and simple.
When animating a puppet concentrated focus
is called for. When operating a glove puppet the first finger
goes into the puppet's head, the second and third fingers are
held down as arms. You need to work with your arms stretched out.
Make the figure come alive by moving your shoulders and elbows
not by turning your wrists.
Operating marionettes requires long practice
and great skill and may be beyond most of us.
Thinking up your own stories, perhaps incorporating
the child's own ideas or using favorite stories or happenings
in their own life is a great way to create a play for the puppet
performance. Fairy stories work well. The underlying mood of the
story can be dramatic, comic or sad and must be very visual and
tactile. The play could even be based around a song. You do not
always need a story. Your child may happily ad-lib and you can
make up the text as you go along.
Music and sound will add atmosphere to the
presentation. You can make sound with all kinds of objects. Saucepans,
spoons, cups, dried seeds can all be used and are easy to find.
Effective shakers can be made by filling plastic bottles with
seeds, ridged surfaces on plastic bottles can produce scraped
sounds. Large tins function as drums. The human voice is capable
of humming, whistling, chanting as well as singing actual words.
Random clapping produces a very effective rainstorm.
First using one finger, then two, then three, and then finally
the whole hand. Remember that sound can become louder, quieter,
slower, faster all adding a different atmosphere.
A theatre or stage is not strictly speaking
necessary. There are many ways of creating a theatre. For glove
puppets working above a sheet suspended between two chairs is
probably the simplest.
An overhead projector allows the shadow puppets
to appear larger than they actually are. Anything written on an
overhead projector presents writing in readable form and does
away with the need to write backwards. A white sheet lit from
behind forms a screen for shadow puppets.
Explore and Experiment with Puppets with Your
Child. It will be an adventure for both of you.
Dzagbe Cudjoe is a Dance Movement Therapist
and ethnologist with wide experience of Dance in Africa and Europe.
As an ethnologist her main field of research was into West African
traditional religion. As a Dance Movement Therapist her area of
specialization is working with children who have challenging behavior
or severe physical and intellectual Special Needs. Dzagbe is now
working on helping the parents of such children to appreciate
the healing effects of dance. She is the author of the e-manual
"Dance to Health - Help Your Special Needs Child Through
Inspirational Dance." For more Information visit Dance to
Health.
MORE ON CHILD CREATIVITY
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