From: HobgoblinH-AT-aol.com
Date: Mon, 6 Jul 1998 13:22:07 EDT
Subject: Re: PUPT: request for guided help


In a message dated 98-07-06 12:53:37 EDT, you write:

<< Michelle, gifted middle school students are capable of making their own
 puppets. What you need to concern yourself with is the budget. If your wish
 list contains sheets and scrap fabrics you can gather materials.  Have the
 students decide on the script they would like to perform .  They may choose
 to write it themselves.  >>

Dear Michelle--
     I teach gifted kids myself, from 7-12. While I take no exception  to the
above advice, I have tried it and a number of approaches myself, and  here are
the results:
 
1. I tried letting the kids script their own; offering a general theme. We
tried making    
     the puppets from my designs. Because  I had an overwhelmingly  diverse
group of 
     kids,  one of whom had an ongoing tragedy of extreme proportions at home,
the 
     results were  not a coherent whole and had to be scrapped. The kids were
unable 
     to complete the puppets, as their skills were not up to the job.
2. Every two or three years, I let the kids make their own puppets.
Inevitably, the 
    results are so diverse that the resultant characters would have nothing to
say to 
    each other.
3. I brought in a finished script, and we worked it up, then taped it  with
sound effects 
   and  music cues. I brought in the puppets and one of my theaters, and we 
    performed before an audience. This was successful.
4. I had some spare lumber and plywood, so I let the kids compete in designing
a 
   simple theater, then the winning design was the one we made and painted.
This    
   was very successful. The difficulty was that over the summer, kids broke in
and 
   broke it up. Another year, another theater, the janitors broke it while
moving it. An-
   other year, another theater, we were moved to a room the size of a closet
and had 
   to let the school store it. We now cannot get at it or use it. 
5. After this, I have simply brought in one of my own theaters for rehearsals
then kept 
   it in my car. The kids have once or twice broken that while returning it to
the car, 
   but it is easily mended.
6. I have had the kids memorize 5-minute skits in German and enter them in 
   competition with good success. I provided script, theater, puppets, and
rehearsal 
   times.
7. Currently, I find it expedient and very successful to train kids the same
way I train 
   puppeteers in my troupe:  I give them a scenario, the puppets, and the
theater; and 
   they improvise the play before an audience after a few rehearsals. The only
draw-
   back to this is that there will always be one kid in the occasional class
who is al-
   lergic to puppets and will drag the group down. I do not always have the
whole 
   class work together, but generally break them into teams. Then the teams
perform
   before an audience one right after the other, and thus give a series of
skits.

When I demonstrated this last method in a workshop, one of the ladies there
made the same comment I had often made-- when she taught kids, she had no real
idea what the puppets could say to each other, but the scenario-improvisation
method allows them to be creative without offering them a bewilderingly broad
field.  Scope with focus. It also offers you a certain amount of control in
what can be a chaotic situation. If nothing else, hand them  a straightforward
suggestion such as Little Red Riding Hood or Goldilocks, and let them
satirize. . My experience has been that satire is often the magic key to
gifted kids.
 
Anyway, good luck,
Alice


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