Puppet Workshop – (4) Post Discussion
Of course, the main purpose of this activity is to discuss diversity. Depending on the age of the students, and where you are teaching this workshop, you may want to ask some follow-up questions to get discussion going.
- How do you think your puppets felt being told they weren’t welcome to play because of their color or shape?
- Why was the group at the end more appealing than the two puppets playing together alone?
- Have you ever been in a situation where you weren’t welcomed because of who you were?
- How did you feel?
- What did you learn from this workshop?
The best part about doing a simple workshop like this is that, when you are done, each student gets a marionette to take home as a reminder. The puppets are simple enough to make that you can create them and perform in a reasonably short amount of time.
It is helpful to have a few backup puppets pre-made in case a puppet pops during the performance. This allows everyone to participate.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this simple puppet workshop on making and performing balloon marionettes. If you use it, please share your results! We’d love to hear about it!
Posts in the Series
- Puppet Workshop – (1) Balloon Marionettes
- Puppet Workshop – (2) Building Balloon Marionettes
- Puppet Workshop – (3) Diversity Performance
- Puppet Workshop – (4) Post Discussion
Diane began performing as a puppeteer when she was only six years old. Her first marionette, Clippo the Clown, a gift from her Grandmother, accompanied Diane to school every year through college. As an adult, Diane began making and performing hand puppets. She writes the shows, fabricates the puppets and props, performs all of the puppetry, and even serves as her own lighting and sound engineer!
