Puppetry in Singapore

Our next SE Asia Creativity and Innovation Workshop tour will launch in early March in Malaysia and Singapore. Gary Friedman and Sharon Gelber travel internationally facilitating workshops, incorporating storytelling, puppetry, movement and improvisation. The objectives are to encourage and enhance team building, innovative thinking, creative problem solving and risk taking.

This short film provides a taste of their recent work at the Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore, working with students, faculty, administration staff and business entrepreneurs.  The predominant purpose of the workshops are to use puppetry to challenge inhibition, and establish a 'safe' environment for opening communication and unleashing untapped innovative potential.

Puppetry performance using the medium of brown paper and every-day objects provides the opportunity to explore all modes of communication, demanding teamwork of a very profound and intense nature. Story telling enhances group empathy and opens up a level of frank open connection, which is unique and liberating in academic and business circles.

Humour is used throughout to put participants at ease and open the doors of communication for the sharing of opinions, as well as ‘safe’ and constructive self-analysis and group critique.  Participants are provided with the forum to uncover their own talents, see the strength of team members, work with members of their own faculty as well as other faculties to discuss and explore issues that are significant to them in their work and personal lives.

If you are interested to read the latest NTU evaluation report on this international work, just drop me an email here!

Our Asian Puppetry Advenure begins here

Our Asian adventure is about to begin. On Wednesday we fly off to Malaysia, where we'll be conducting workshops for primary, high school students, as well as teachers in Penang. We'll be giving them a taste of creative thought and expression through our 'World of Paper'.  Exploring creativity is moving beyond the expected and into a space of novelty and uncharted territory.

After Malaysia, we'll be working ion Singapore at the Nanyang University for a few weeks. The purpose is to inspire creativity amongst students, faculty and small business start-ups. (You can read my previous post here when this work was first commissioned). After Singapore we are scheduled to explore Bali for a few weeks.

But let's discuss the creative process and reflect on the archaic educational system that still exists in most countries today. Universities and educational institutions that are worth their weight are starting to realise that a new approach is desperately needed. According to research (Watch Sir Ken Robinson's take on this here!) about 70% of jobs in the next twenty years, don't exist yet. So what does this mean in real terms? It means that we need to stimulate a new way of thinking and problem solving in our youth. Often our natural-born talents are ignored and the creativity that we may develop when we are young, gets forgotten as we are molded by our educational institutions. These skills will be most important, if we are going to be able to cope with an unknown future that faces us. So we have to encourage our youth to find their talent and passion and really nurture these soft skills to enable themselves to think creatively. What we are trying to do is harness these often-lost talents and assist our students in re-discovering their own natural creativity. Stay tuned to my Asian reports from next week!

One-day Puppetry Workshop in Melbourne

I am very excited to announce that  Learning-Movement consultant & OT, Sharon Gelber and I will be conducting a one day 'World of Paper' Raw Creativity Workshop in Melbourne on Saturday 16 October from 9am to 5pm.

The workshop will take movement and story telling to the most elaborate ends. Our work using paper puppetry is designed to activate the brain, tantalize the senses to enable creative thought and performance at your peak ability.  This workshop is ideal for teachers, university students, professionals, therapists, creatives and lion tamers.  Places are $150 (all inclusive) and limited so if you are keen to join us, call The Book Affair now to reserve your place: 03-9347.3542   Look forward to having you join us for a wild day!