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Puppet Portal Day 12 - Hospital C | Puppet Portal Project Hospital C
2009-09-30

Puppet Portal Day 12 - Hospital C

Today the participants were 4 teenagers and at least 2 staff members called in out of curiousity to find out how puppets managed to keep them interested! All complained about having to leave their beds, all said their favourite place was home but bythe end of the day, I was asked if they could be kept back for `detention` because they felt the workshop ended too early. Its official - puppets are cool! Score!

The group started rather self consciously and at a loss of what to make. So we played that game where you divide a paper in 3; first person does head, next person does body and last person does legs etc. Then we debated what the resulting creatures liked to do for fun, where they came from and what age they were. This gave some inspiration for their own puppets so a very imaginative range of jointed puppets incorporating the bizarrest featurs of the originals were created;

Michella the Donegal Footballer

Johnny the Dumpster Cat

Phil the People Eatign Puppy

Danny the Hell Spider.

The theme of the day was Travel so both our puppets and background were made to move. The life histories of the mutant cast were threaded into a narrative. However, no-one felt like talking or being in front of the camera so we opted for a silent movie format. I narrated the story they created and they moved the puppets while one person filmed. Then we scripted some voiceover, recorded me saying the lines and they added sound effects to get it the way they wanted. Finally, one girl played piano to accompany the action of the movie, just like a silent movie theatre show. Then we layered these in Windows Movie-maker, added `Charlie-Chaplin-esque` captions in between scenes and hey presto, a lovely movie they were all very proud of.

In between we did a rehearsal showing for another hospital via the Aite Eile link-up. We also watched their show about a fishing trip. Performing for each other was fun but I feel we might have to create some tiem for conversation eforehand to engage each other first with the people behind the puppets - otherwise interest is lost easily.

Unfortunately, no bedside visits today - children away or too sick.

Good day in all.