Theatre , Interaction, Puppetry and more ...

Shruti Sridharan, a trainer in theater with the company Theatre Professionals, Mumbai, spent a day, with the children sensitizing them to some of the nuances of theater.

The morning session consisting of game and exercises, with the objectives to get the children comfortable with themselves and their bodies, learn how to use their hands, legs and themselves to express themselves without words.

She also conducted exercises, which taught them the importance of co-ordination and team work.

After this, she conducted an exercise to help the children build and create stories themselves.

Post lunch, once again, she conducted a very interesting exercise, with the simple principal of throwing the ball, which involved concentration, alertness and co-ordination skills of the children.

 

The children then shared the story of Sadako Sasaki and The 1000 Paper Cranes with Shruti, which she then helped them to elaborate and create their own stories using similar characters like Sadako and the cranes. The story had to be created in frames, like a comic strip. 

We then were introduced to her hand puppet – Miss Purple. Thru Miss Purple, we all learnt how to make our own hand puppets.

We were split into 5 teams, and all of us used the surplus fabrics that we had received from Mandhana Industries to make these puppets.

Some really interesting and lovely looking puppets were made. It was a learning day for me as well, since Shruti, and her dynamic self, did not need anyone else to help or assist in conducting the workshop, so I took this opportunity to also learn a little about theater with the kids.

After we were done making our puppets, she also taught us the method of handling a puppet, the need for change of voice to give the puppet its own life, and not sound like us. The technique of effective puppetry is when you give it life by giving your entire concentration to the puppet in your hand.

Sagar Bhalekar, a very dear friend and professional photographer, came to visit me, and photographed the entire afternoon session, and also captured it on video for us.

The day ended with the kids really excited about their new friends, and have promised Shruti to practice working with them, so she shall come in on Sunday morning and create a short play.

From basic paper cranes, today the cranes took shape of a puppet, this is encouraging as we are acquiring more tools each day to share our story with new groups, thanks to the experts who are supporting us.