In autumn 2022, the Theaterpädagogisches Zentrum in Braunschweig booked a series of workshops for theatre pedagogues, theatre professionals, educators and kindergarten teachers. This task has brought me the first important experiences in teaching, which I would like to develop further. The aim of the workshop series was to immerse ourselves in various techniques of contemporary puppetry in order to be able to reintegrate them later into the drama groups and theatre works. The participants worked for 5 weekends with the following techniques:
- Basics of animation
- mask play
- big puppet (bunraku)
- object and material theater
- marionette and hand puppet
Inclusive project
Inklusion in die Stadt
People with disabilities are among the big losers of the current situation. (i.e. lockdown in the first and second wave of Covid-19 infections)
They did not appear on the question of systemic relevance. The regulations did not differentiate whether it was a nursing station of a retirement home, a hospital or a facility for the disabled; Visits and contact options have been completely restricted for independent persons. Of course, with the intention to do good, however, in repetition of the mistakes of the last centuries: lack of differentiation between impairments repeatedly led to unjustified restriction and isolation.
The purpose of the project was to draw attention to the fact that there are people here who are productive and creative, but whose rights are unduly restricted. My task was to design the puppets and figures and to lead the group with my puppet maker colleague, Lukas Schneider, during the workshop week. The goal was for each participant to have their own and self-designed bird puppet and to familiarize themselves with the basics of puppetry. Halfway through the workshop week, we came up with and implemented small etudes together, all of which were based on the motifs of „flying in a swarm“, „flying alone“, „being locked up“, „feelings of freedom“.
Our large puppet, a 5 meter wide, blue bird (built by Lukas Schneider) accompanied us, which we also learned together to lead and move. We leaned roughly on the symbolism of the „blue caravan„, that moved through Europe in the 70s with its landmark, the huge blue camel puppet.