By Michael Nelson M
Challenges Made, Solutions Met SCENEWEST
any puppeteers have traditionally found work in the schools, either performing assembly programs or teaching puppetry. As we all know, COVID-19 has severely impacted schools. Many puppeteers find that their work has been canceled or put on hold. Puppeteers are navigating Zoom or other ways to reach
classes online. While these challenges are hardly unique to the western United States, a few of our Scene West puppeteers have shared what they are doing as the new school year begins. For our own work in the schools, Magical Moonshine
Theatre is beginning the year with online classes and working to come up with drama projects the students can do by themselves and at home. In the case that school reopens for in-person teaching soon, students will still have to stay six feet apart, meaning that solo student performances will still be the safest choice. Fortunately for us puppeteers, puppetry is great for solo performer drama. We are starting our teaching with toy theaters and other paper puppetry projects, creating kits to be picked up by parents and delivered to the students. One major challenge is that we have to supply all the materials that low-income and disadvantaged students might need, such as scissors, glue, paper, and art supplies. We plan to see our students weekly on Zoom and lead them through the creation of their original performances from start to finish, but the whole school year seems unsettled and everything could change rapidly, and we have to be prepared for that. The San Diego Guild of Puppetry is an independent, nonprofit puppet center whose primary focus is bringing free puppetry programming to underserved communities. They provide an impressive array of community arts projects and educational programs, many of them bilingual (Spanish/English). Currently in San Diego, most public schools are still focusing on distance learning, but some are allowing optional 2 day per week, in-person, properly social-distanced classes; some are holding all classes outside; and some have adopted a wait- and-see attitude. The situation seems to be changing on an almost-daily basis, for school scheduling as well as just about everything else. For puppetry in-school programs, flexible, short-term planning is essential. Luckily, San Diego Guild of Puppetry teaching and performing artists rapidly proved adept at navigating online platforms, and although all their outside
Chase Woolner and friends. Photo courtesy of Chase Woolner
paid gigs were canceled with the sheltering-at-home orders, the California Arts Council (CAC) continued to provide much- appreciated funding to continue some of their programming and pay artists as they adapted to the new situation. Over the summer, the guild ran two bilingual, online summer camp programs that were highly successful. Most of the participants were from the local barrio districts, but being online, and being bilingual, they also drew participants from across the border in Mexico. They held two 45- to 60-minute live, interactive sessions each day—one in English and one in Spanish—accompanied by a series of short videos that illustrated how to do the day’s project. Chase Woolner (Los Angeles) is on staff at a K–6 independent school in LA, teaching puppetry and scenic design. As with other puppeteers working in the schools, he is finding that situations are morphing as the school year begins. At the time of this writing, his school has elected to do three-week intensives for each grade. He will start with fourth grade and will teach several small units in 45-minute sessions, every day for three weeks. After that, he rotates to second grade for the following three weeks. He says that planning is difficult because the administration has asked the teachers to plan for both remote and in-person learning. An example of this is that the fourth grade is planned to be remote, but the administration hopes second grade (three weeks later) will be back to full in-
person instruction. Chase acknowledges the uncertainty facing the teachers and students. He says, “Thankfully my classes have some flexibility of content. This past spring I fell back on my theater degree and communicated with students that theater—performance—could be found and created anywhere. My goal of teaching theater is to provide students an additional story communication method— much like drawing, performing objects light up the imagination and can clearly communicate a range and depth of experiences.” This fall, Chase and his students won’t be together putting on a show but will share concepts and ideas, and will be telling stories with puppets within the borders of Zoom. Over the summer, Chase decided to dedicate time to creating puppets for others to use in their classrooms and therapy sessions—or just to zest up Zoom in general. He and his partner have an Etsy site where you can check out (and purchase) his puppets.
www.Etsy.com/shop/BusyHandsStudioGoods
33
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44
