School of Education
Curriculum & Teaching
Prof. John Toth, Ph.D. jtoth@hunter.cuny.edu
PUPPETS #1
for the post modern educator
- Consider a puppet or marionette performance as a process and product of the cultures within the artistÕs experience. Use cultural symbols, designs and patterns that you created from the Work of Art activity and from the interviews to make a puppet or marionette . Understand and explore different ways of sequencing image and text: paintings, storybooks, portfolios, comic strips & timelines.
- Define some of the differences and similarities in the way we assess art and writing.
Objective: Create a puppet and present a performance as a means of expressing the complexity of cultural identity. Create sounds, rhythms and environments for a puppet performance.
Inquiry: How can puppets, marionettes and sculptures say something about personal identity? How can puppets say something about the culture of a community? How can puppets be used to create an intermedia performance where cultures or communities interact?
ART STANDARDS:
The Arts Standards for NY
The Arts Standard 3
Visual Arts - Reflect on, interpret, and evaluate works of art, using the language of art criticism. Students will analyze the visual characteristics of the natural and built environment and explain the social, cultural, psychological, and environmental dimensions of the visual arts. Students will compare the ways in which a variety of ideas, themes, and concepts are expressed through the visual arts with the ways they are expressed in other disciplines.
1:45
15
ART / PAINTING:
Marc Chagall, I and the Village.
Marisol Escobar, The Last Supper
Anna Devere Smith, Twilight LA
SKILL ACTIVITY:
In
Class: Part 1
OBJECTIVE: Create a self-portrait with cultural identity.
Take a head-to-toe photograph
of yourself with a digital camera.
SAMPLE ACTIVITY:
2:15
2:45
3:00
30
15
15
CREATIVE ACTIVITY:
At Home: Part 2
OBJECTIVE: Create cultural identity with color shapes, symbols, photo image, sound, context, etc.
- Create clothing, costumes, decorations, jewelry, embellishments using lines, shapes, symbols and objects that represent your cultural identity. Culture may be interpreted as your genetic background or simply the environment or medium that you grew up in.
- You may color your puppet with designs and symbols using paint, color pencils, markers, collage paper or fabric.
- PUPPETS: ATTACHED WITH THREAD. Cut out the parts of your drawing at the points in the body where you move. (Elbows, wrists, torso, neck, hips, knees and foot). Use a needle and thread to reattach the individual body parts so they move freely when you wiggle the puppet.
- PUPPETS: ATTACHED WITH STUDS OR PAGE FASTENERS . If your puppet is made from a photograph using thin paper, laminate the individual parts to a more rigid material such as cardboard, oak tag, foam core or plastic laminate. Because the body parts are cut out of a complete image of a person it would be impossible to reattach the individual parts at the joints without having the cardboard laminate extend beyond the limits of the original paper. Use pins to reattach the body parts so the puppet arms, legs and head easily rotate and bend at the puppet joints .
- DESIGN REQUIREMENTS. Your puppet should have at least one symbol, one shape, one natural element, one pattern, one color and one song.
In Class: Part 3
- All students will individually introduce their puppet to the class and their puppet group. Introduce a song your puppet likes to dance to. Create a simple Òword phraseÓ that communicates the beat or rhythm of your song. A simple phrase like Ògo to the topÓ has long and short beats with an accent on the word ÒtopÓ. When repeated this phrase becomes a musical rhythm. Combine each persons phrase into a group rhythm. Use percussion instruments to make a song.
- Work in a small group to make a puppet show and create an outline of a script that tells a story (beginning, middle and end) (Conflict / resolution). Within your group, collaborate and create a short story that includes all the characters in your group. Be sure to incorporate each personÕs cultural identity. Consider using rhythms, background music or dance as a part of the performance.
1. Characters: Identify kinds of characters: dynamic vs. static; stereotype vs. original. How does body language, facial expression and clothing communication specific characters.
2. Plot: Separate the puppet show into "parts" such as introduction, rising and falling action, conflict, resolution, middle, ending.
3. Point of View: Point of view tells the story through the eyes of one of the characters. How does the voice of the story teller shape our interpretations?
4. Setting: Types of Imagery: Are there colors or textures that develop and create mood as the story progresses? Are there symbols that help lead us through the story? How are elements of space and time used as we move through the story?
National Standards for Arts Education
-
Have an informed acquaintance with exemplary works of art from a variety of cultures and historical periods.
- Be able to relate various types of arts knowledge and skills within and across the arts disciplines.
CONTEXT:
Bali, marionettes
ART EDUCATION THEORY:
READ
ART & LITERACY
VOCABULARY:
Puppets: marionette, plot, conflict / resolution, characters, story telling, theater,
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