Playback Paper Theatre - a first in Austria

A world's first in using paper for Playback Theatre was achieved yesterday when the students of Vienna International School in Austria began using Paper Theatre in Playback. Our high school workshop began with a Paper Meditation and after some warm-up games, began to tell their own personal stories to the group. These stories were then performed on the stage to their peers and the story teller had the opportunity of interacting directly with the performers, who were all characters, quickly put together using brown paper, representing the actors in the each story. The head of drama of VIS, Mhairi MacInnes commented after the workshop: "I realised how my students opened up on a completely personal level through these stories, which would never normally occur in a classroom environment. The puppet often reflects incidents in our own lives, which have happened and have had a great psychological impact, which can often be resolved or examined through this exciting new medium." See our previos Playback post here!

Indigenous AIDS Puppets in West Africa

After having worked myself in HIV-Aids education throughout the African continent in the nineteen eighties and nineties, I recently discovered an American group, who are promoting the use of puppetry and mask theatre in AIDS prevention in the indigenous traditional Bozo culture of West Africa. Project Guggenheim is working in Mali with the local Aids educators along the banks of the Niger River using traditional Bozo Marionette Theatre on the river to educate youth, about the dangers of the disease. A video on the program, which you can view here, seemed to me quite prescriptive, but you can make your own decision and ultimately the success of such project depend directly upon the decrease in HIV statistics reported in the region.

UNESCO International Puppetry Magazine

"UNESCO today", the renowned half- yearly booklet of the German UNESCO commission dedicates a photo homage to the special exhibition "United Nations Puppetry" as well as to the permanent exhibition of the Augsburg Puppet Theatre Museum with over 40 pictures. Last year I was invited to exhibit some of our puppets used in development and education work in the museum, along with some of our films. The exhibition is still running in Augsburg, Germany, but will soon close. There are English and German language articles on the puppetry exhibition: A photo of our 'Puppets for Democracy' and an e.velop article, published on the Germany Government website - see here.

There is a possibility to download this special German publication.
Please use the URL at the bottom of the webpage, which is provided by the German UNESCO Commission, for a free download PDF file - here!

Slovenian Beauty

It is a rare treat where you can travel anywhere in a country and still see the most extraordinary nature throughout. Slovenia is such a country. A very well kept secret! Slovenia is a coastal Alpine country in southern Central Europe bordering Italy on the west, the Adriatic Sea on the southwest, Croatia on the south and east, Hungary on the northeast, and Austria on the north.

Yesterday late afternoon our workshop coordinator, Stanko Blatnik (in the pic with me below) took us for a walk to the lake, just a few minutes outside Velenje. The town was developed from an old coal mine, during former Yugoslavian times. Stanko has an institute for creativity in Velenje, Humanopolis and we are discussing the possibility to extend our work throughout Slovenia in the future. From here we travel up to Vienna to start workshops at the Vienna International School on Thursday. Stay tuned for more!

Workshop in Velenje

Our first Slovenian workshop on Monday morning was an extremely creative experience at a local secondary school, where the students created wonderful scenarios with paper, performing for their peers. In the afternoon, Sharon Gelber ran a workshop for pre-school teachers, where she trained them in Brain Gym and sensory motor techniques to enhance learning both in the classroom and at home. Today we ran more workshops at a local high school and the standard of creativity here is extremely impressive!

Arrival in Slovenia

Last night we travelled by train from Vienna to Celje, the third largest town in Slovenia. We were met by our Slovenian workshop organiser, Stanko Blatnik and taken to Velenje where we are staying and starting our puppetry workshops tomorrow. Today we explored the Alpine beauty of Slovenia and visited Solcava, which reminded me so much of Switzerland with its snow peaked mountain ranges, quaint villages and luscious forests and pastures everywhere.

Ethiopian Playback Workshop in Israel

I almost forgot to mention an exciting new initiative starting in Northern Israel by a drama therapist in Kiryat Shmona. Nira Kaplanski and colleagues have started a series of workshops with emigrant Ethiopian communities using puppetry in Playback Theatre. I was most taken by the group, who had never previously been exposed to theatre or performance of any type. Although they were a really introvert bunch, which is completely understandable in a new country amongst strangers - the moment they put the puppets on, they seemed to forget their inhibitions and creatively express their inner most thoughts to their peers.

I first encountered Playback Theatre, while in Cape Town and conducting workshops for the Bonfire Theatre, who use Playback to enable communities to tell their stories. I taught them how to incorporate puppetry and objects into their special work.

Jonathan Fox, the founder of Playback Theatre, describes Playback as creativity, integrity and a willingness to truly work together. "We do it to use our bodies. We do it to tell our stories. And there's something more - we do it to make it possible for others to tell their story and to make the world a more peaceful place."

In an article by Hannah Fox, published in the Interplay Journal in May 2005, she talks about the objectives of her Playback Theatre group in New York:
"We identified four objectives for the project: to make space for recent, struggling immigrants to tell stories and receive support; to use the series of performances as a way to honor the bustling multi-culturalism of our city; to use the venue as a means to expose our work to the general public; and to honor the journeys of our own parents, grandparents and great-grandparents."

If you are interested in more information about the Israeli Project, you can contact Nira here!

From Russia with Love...

While still in Jerusalem, we recently conducted a short creativity workshop for a group of Russian Immigrants. Our friends, Elena and Sergei Makarova are working with these students to nurture their creativity, poetry and theatre skills. We also accompanied another of her groups to visit Beit Terezin, the museum on Kibbutz Givat Chayim, dedicated to the Ghetto of Terezin. These students are currently producing the puppet play, 'Looking for a Monster', as their project - the same play I discovered and have been working on since 1999. You can view some of the photos here and here, published on a Russian website from these events!

Puppet Power Conference next month

Puppet Power 2007 conference 'Puppets as Agents of Social Change' is happening next month in Calgary, Alberta in Canada. It is expecting to be an exciting event covering subjects such as the uses of puppets in political and social activism and the puppet's role in promoting peace and creating change. Some of the speakers lined up are Argentine human rights activist and community artist, Graciela Monteagudo; Theatre of the Oppressed practitioner and community activist, Mariette Sluyter; founders and Artistic Director of Precipice Theatre based in Banff, Colin and Connie Brill and yours truly.
There will also be a Workshop of the Butterflies by Puppentheater der Stadt Halle - Germany, featuring surprising visual effects and life-size puppets. Hope to see you all there... For more information and bookings, contact Wendy Passmore-Godfrey.

London for the day

Yesterday we arrived in London after a five hour flight from Tel Aviv, with delays both on the runway on arrival at Heathrow and once again retrieving our baggage. Then the taxi driver tried to intimidate us into paying double for the long hold-up by BA!

But things do get better. Today we did two great workshops at Depford Green School. Working with a group of year 9 to 11 students with Brain Gym and Paper Meditation workshops, we discovered some passionate paper performances from the students. Tomorrow we are off to Slovenia, via Vienna for more workshops.

Things go better with ... or do they?

Farewell Jerusalem! On leaving the old city today, I discovered an interested spelling on the Coke machine. Take a look - it's quite a hoot! We'll see you in London tomorrow...

Workshop Tour begins this week!

This week we move from Jerusalem to London, to Slovenia, Vienna, Prague and Berlin to start our 2007 workshop tour. Together with therapist and creativity specialist, Sharon Gelber, we are promoting a creative brain experience throughout Europe, Canada and the United States in the next few months as we travel. For detailed information, drop me a note here!

Still Looking for a Monster

This morning we experienced a loud siron throughout Jerusalem marking 'Yom HaShoah' or Holocaust Memorial Day. It was really a strange feeling, cause at the time I didn't know what on earth it was and thought the city was under seige. But after a few minutes we realised it was a Holocaust tribute. This was also on the day in which we again interviewed Terezin survivor, Yehuda Bacon in Jerusalem for our documentary film 'Looking for a Monster'.

Yehuda was one of the boys who was transported, together with our protanganist Hanus Hachenburg, from the concentration camp of Terezin to the death camp of Auschwitz-Birkenau in December 1943. Yehuda was selected as one of 89 boys to be transfered to the work camp, just days before the rest of the 'family camp' were sent to the gas chambers on the night of 12 July 1944. Today Yehuda tells his story to the world and the fact that Hanus perished on that fateful day. The documentary film and Hanus' live puppet play, (written by thirteen-year old Hanus in 1943), will be released internationally next year. See our previous post. Keep tuned for details!

New Puppetry Centre for Israel

We were invited this week to visit the new Holon Puppetry Centre which is opening soon in the south of Tel Aviv. The centre will be run by the crazy talented Israeli puppeteer, Ilan Savir, under the auspices of the local municipality of Holon. The new centre has a 200 seater puppet theatre, an international puppetry museum, a school and library facility and will be the first centre of its kind in the Middle East. The centre is the dream of the local puppeteers, which has been to develop a central venue of puppetry and visual theatre in Israel, as well as a venue to host their International Puppetry and Film Festival. In the photo are Ilan Savir (right), Miri Peery, director of the museum and myself.

New Visual Theatre Production from Israel

Three Desires and Silence - I was invited by a friend to check out a new visual theatre production performing in a theatre in Tel Aviv this week. Three different episodes were woven together to create a mad, sensitive show. In each episode, the actress-puppet relationship is used to powerfully reveal an inner conflicted reality, that is concealed. From amongst objects and furniture emerges an internal force that can no longer be restrained. In the depth of a wardrobe, a shy, suppressed woman, unexpectedly meets a rude, inhibited character who drives her beyond herself. Seated in front of a letter desk, are a puppeteer and her "shoulder puppet". Two woman at a deadlock . For all their physical proximity and attempts to connect, they are doomed to fail.
A childhood memory unravels through personal objects and a human – doll. An autobiographical nightmare, a circle not broken, a music lesson, all come to life as beneath the sweet tale another story emerges and a secret is whispered. The production was created and performed by Yaara Goldring, Maayan Resnick and Yael Rasooly in English. I would strongly recommend this to any festival producer. For further information, you can contact the company here!

Elmo interviewed on Rove Live in Australia

While on tour here in Jerusalem, I discovered an online video from an interview I caught while in Australia last year, but still it's certainly worth checking out, if you haven't seen it. Rove Live is a popular talk TV show down under and here Sesame Street's Elmo and his manipulator, Kevin Clash are being interviewed in Melbourne. Take a look at the Elmo interview here and the Kevin Clash interview here!