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Hospital C Day 3 | Puppet Portal Project Hospital C
2009-05-16
Hospital C Day 3
On Day 3 we created puppets with rattle heads made of plaster bandage. Each participant selected a `rattle` sound for their puppet from assorted packs of beans prepared by the artist. This rattle would be the puppets language and the task of the day was to create a puppet show where the puppets would communicate using their only rattle language and their spoken language. This approach was specifically to accomodate the children in attendance of varied verbal, cognitive and aural abilities and seemed to be accessible to all needs and interests. Making bodies and faces for the puppets was lots of fun and each one was very individual with lots of crazy hairstyles.
The participants practiced gestures and movement of the puppets to show different emotions eg sad, happy, angry, excited. Then they suggested the puppets meet on a foreign spanish beach and perform a drama based on these four emotions so we worked on a beach backdrop for a show.
In pairs, the puppeteers rehearsed the drama and then performed for camera, the others took turns to record.
At 11.30 we had an audio (video not yet working) call from Mr. Bobo (courtesy of Helene Hugel) who, on questioning from the children, revealed himself to be an alien trapped in a tree overlooking Dublin in a broken down spaceship filled with bannana juice instead of petrol. This was really entertaining and we chatted with Mr. Bobo for over 30 mins. The rattle puppets spoke in their language and Mr. Bobo learned some rattle words, then Mr Bobo taught the children some Martian words from his planet and finally the children taught him some irish words. A great effort in intercultural dialogue, not to mention intergalactic!
After lunch, the remaining children put together a quick edit of one of the morning`s recordings on Windows Moviemaker including titles and a musical soundtrack.
The feedback for the day was very positive. After the previous two days, I feel I`m finally getting in to the swing of the varied day routine and there was even time for the last child to make diary entry.
I stayed after school hours to prep for the next day including creating a display of our work on the schoolroom window with speech bubbles for comments from our `audience`. This work took me until evening and I met and chatted to several parents who had come to stay overnight with their children. This was a lovely opportunity to make a connection with them and invite them to watch some of the recordings their children had made that day. Their pride and positivity in watching these was obvious and I was able to broach the subject of filling consent forms in a natural, non-invasive way. Their interest in the project was encouraging and the evening`s entertainment in the ward became centred on tips and comments around the developing display on the schoolroom window.
Although it made for a long day, I really enjoyed this as another way to engage with the project participants and their carers and parents. I hope to make the window display an intrinsic part of the Puppet Day with the children to further boost the impact of the process. I`m also wondering about making rough edit dvds that can be played on the ward televisions in the evenings for visitors.
No progress yet on parts for our proposed mobile puppet theatre but plan to make friends with the maintenance section so still hopeful....
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