Why Puppets?
My childhood was filled with puppetry, puppet making, puppetry students, puppet festivals, puppeteers, puppets in schools, in churches, in the living-room... Both my parents are puppeteers. My own interest in becoming a puppeteer however, only began when I started work in a school as a Teaching Assistant in south London. Suddenly exciting, entertaining and fun ways of helping the children learn were in constant demand.
I began by running a puppet club on friday afternoons. I kicked off the club with a special visit from Ronnie Le Drew (Dad) who brought his bag show. After that, it was mainly puppet-making and puppet-playing then we gradually worked towards our own story for the school talent show.
Having worked through the show with puppet club, seen how the kids responded in very different ways to the puppets, I decided to continue using puppets in the next schools I worked in. I tried to move my experiences on. With as much freedom as the teacher in the class offered, I was able to do mini puppet workshops with the class and in fact we performed the school Christmas show with shadow puppets.
Photos
Top: Dad
Bottom: Mum
I began by running a puppet club on friday afternoons. I kicked off the club with a special visit from Ronnie Le Drew (Dad) who brought his bag show. After that, it was mainly puppet-making and puppet-playing then we gradually worked towards our own story for the school talent show.
Having worked through the show with puppet club, seen how the kids responded in very different ways to the puppets, I decided to continue using puppets in the next schools I worked in. I tried to move my experiences on. With as much freedom as the teacher in the class offered, I was able to do mini puppet workshops with the class and in fact we performed the school Christmas show with shadow puppets.
Photos
Top: Dad
Bottom: Mum